Aziz Ansari

Portrait of a Rising Star
Aziz Ansari is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian. He is the son of immigrant parents from South India, and grew up in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Ansari credits growing up "different" in a small southern city as the source of his humor. "I was the only minority in my whole school, pretty much the only non-white kid," he said in an interview with Canada's National Post, "and I guess when you're a kid, if you're a funny kid, that makes you a little more accepted..."