Kumail Nanjiani to Portray Chippendales Founder in Hulu’s Immigrant Series

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Kumail Nanjiani to Portray Chippendales Founder in Hulu’s Immigrant Series

Oscar and Emmy nominee Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick, The Twilight Zone, Little America) is set to portray Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the Indian-American entrepreneur who founded Chippendales, in an eight-episode limited series at Hulu, according to Variety.

The series will be written by Robert Siegel, who is also penning Hulu’s Pam & Tommy starring Lily James as Pamela Anderson and Sebastian Stan as Tommy Lee. Executive producers for Immigrant include Nanjiani, Dylan Sellers, Emily V. Gordon, Rajiv Joseph, and Mehar Sethi, who will also write for the series which is produced by 20th Television.

Immigrant will tell the true story of Banerjee, detailing the insane, darkly comedic, crime-ridden story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon.

Nanjiani’s recent credits also include Bless the Harts, The Lovebirds, Silicon Valley, Men in Black: International, Stuber, and Portlandia. The actor will next be seen in Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated feature Eternals, directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland). Nanjiani is also set to star in Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series which sees the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular character.

It was reported in October 2020 that a feature film starring Oscar nominee Dev Patel (Lion, Slumdog Millionaire, The Green Knight) as Banerjee was also in the works with I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie directing.