This is fresh air, I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Kamel Nanjiani, grew up in Karachi, Pakistan,

soaking up as much American pop culture as he could get access to. He since become a part of American pop culture.

He started his performing career in the U.S. as a stand-up comic. He became well-known for

co-starring in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley. He was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing the

comedy drama The Big Sick, with his wife Emily V. Gordon based on their experiences when they

started dating. And she came down with such a serious case of pneumonia she had to be put in a

medical coma. He proposed soon after she came out of it, which was a shock to his parents who

were hoping he'd have an arranged marriage with a Muslim woman. In Karachi he managed to find superhero

comics which he loved. Last year he played a superhero in the Marvel movie Eternals. He was the

first South Asian superhero in a Marvel production. Now he stars in the Hulu drama Limited Series

Welcome to Chip and Dales. But the backstory of the famous club that in 1979 became the first

to feature male strippers doing sexy choreograph routines for an audience of women. Nanjiani plays

Steve Bannerjee, an immigrant from India who founded Chip and Dales and was undone by his own

corrupt business practices and by taking out a hit on his own choreographer who had become his

rival. In 1993 Bannerjee was charged with hiring a hitman to kill the choreographer

for attempted murder of three former Chip and Dales dancers as well as for Arsene and Racketeering.

In 1994 he died by suicide in his jail cell. When we first meet Bannerjee in the series he's

managing a gas station in Los Angeles. He appears to be a modest, hardworking man. In this scene from

the first episode he's been invited to dinner at the home of his boss, the owner of several gas

stations. He offers Bannerjee a promotion to the boss's surprise, Bannerjee declines.

I've been made to speak with you about this for some time now sir. I have made the decision to leave.

But what will you do? How much money have you saved? As of Monday $44,000.

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