Donald Trump has been a recurring character on Saturday Night Live since Phil Hartman started impersonating him in the late 1980s. Since 2015, however, he’s gone from occasionally showing up to being the most consistent character on the show. Between Darrell Hammond, Alec Baldwin, James Austin Johnson, President Trump himself (he hosted) and others, he’s been featured more than a hundred times. That makes sense given he’s the President and most famous person on Earth, but you could also make a case that SNL has relied on him a little too heavily to scratch the political itch. Thankfully, we got a good reminder this past weekend that he’s not needed for every political sketch.

The cold open of the Olivia Rodrigo episode of SNL 51 was all about politics, but it did not include President Trump, at least outside of references. Instead, it featured Colin Jost doing his terrific impression of Secretary Of War Pete Hegseth, which is basically just a combination of him bullying the press with middle school insults and making outrageous claims like getting a tattoo of Jesus choking out Jimmy Kimmel. He was joined by guest star Aziz Ansari who gave us a really fun take on FBI Director Kash Patel, which featured a lot of hilarious denials to really specific allegations.

Together, the two gave a press conference which provided an opportunity to comment on recent events, which is the sort of basic structure we often get from a President Trump sketch. It was refreshing to see that done with different voices. You can watch it below…

To be clear, James Austin Johnson is fantastic as President Trump. I liked Hammond and Baldwin’s versions, but his take is, in my opinion, the best we’ve ever gotten from the show. It really captures the essence of the businessman turned politician, from his comedic timing to his stream of consciousness detours to the relationships with many of his subordinates. It’s fantastic, and I want to see it on a regular basis for as long as President Trump is a main character in our lives.

One impression cannot be the totality of SNL’s political coverage though. To be fair, the show obviously talks about President Trump on Weekend Update on a regular basis and does the occasional political sketch that doesn’t involve him, but an overwhelming majority of the coverage over the last decade has been aggressively focused on President Trump. Even during the four year window when he lost the presidency, the show worked him in more than two dozen times and notably, switched President Biden impressions on multiple occasions to try and find something that clicked.

Colin Jost’s impression of Pete Hegseth, however, is clicking. There’s a reason it’s been included as a key support to Johnson’s President Trump in a bunch of recent sketches and why it’s sometimes now getting time to shine on its own. It’s the sort of thing you’d tune into the show hoping to see, and there’s something there with Aziz Ansari’s impression of Kash Patel too. It’s got a really fun spirit to it, and the audience really seemed to enjoy what he was doing with it. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bring it back.

When SNL is at its best, it’s doing a lot of different things. It’s blending different styles of humor. It’s featuring different cast members, and it’s commenting on a variety of things going on in the world, both high brow and low brow. It’s not enough for politics to be part of that diversity. There should be diversity within the political coverage. It should be more than just Johnson’s President Trump. Thankfully, that seems to be happening, and I hope the show sticks with more of a balance moving forward.

SNL only has two episodes left in Season 51. They'll air on the next two consecutive Saturdays and have some exciting guest hosts. You can watch them on NBC or stream via Peacock.

During its seven seasons on the air, Parks and Recreation became a hit for its offbeat comedy and cast of hilariously oddball characters, both main and recurring. It turns out, though, that appearing on the beloved workplace sitcom (which you can revisit with a Peacock subscription) meant some intense moments for funny cast members like Adam Scott, who had a rather extreme ritual after flubbing lines, which Aziz Ansari had a very funny reaction to.

What Was Adam Scott’s Ritual After Flubbing His Parks And Rec Lines And How Did Aziz Ansari React?

While any Parks and Recreation fan obviously loves the main cast (which also included Amy Poehler, Aubrey Plaza, Retta, Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, and more), the recurring cast and numerous guest stars were also A++ when it came to making audiences laugh on a regular basis. This includes Jay Jackson, who funnily portrayed Pawnee reporter Perd Hapley for Seasons 2 through 7.

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly recently and reflecting on his time with one of the best sitcoms of all time, Jackson opened up about watching Adam Scott (who can now be seen on the critically acclaimed Severance with an Apple TV subscription) flub his lines and what he did after, which seems a bit intense for someone who won’t rewatch Parks for a very sweet and emotional reason. When talking about the difficulty of keeping a straight face while filming the comedy, Jackson said:

Wow. Every actor must have some tactics they use to gather themselves when they mess up their lines, as no one wants to delay the already lengthy filming process or seem unprepared/unprofessional. Physical activity is a great way to clear one’s head, but it never really occurred to me that anyone would just break out the push-ups after flubbing their lines.

Plus, even though Scott has played some characters who are far less gentle and likable than Parks’ Ben Wyatt, I really wouldn’t have imagined him as someone who could be called an “intense actor.” Jackson, who spent over 20 years as a real broadcast journalist before becoming an actor, continued:

Again, everyone must have ways of getting into character and staying on task while acting, so it’s good that Jackson (as someone new to the business) was able to notice that even while Scott’s behavior caught him off guard, that was what he needed to do and he was able to “respect” it.

The same, however, can’t entirely be said for Ansari, who’d previously talked about breaking during another scene with Scott for a very funny reason. The Party Down actor’s co-star didn’t exactly give him grief for the push-ups, but he did have a response that’s very on-brand for the man who portrayed Tom Haverford. As Jackson said:

Knowing that Ansari would use his patented eye roll to display his feelings about Scott needing multiple rounds of push-ups might be the most Parks and Rec thing I’ve ever heard. And that definitely makes me want to go back and rewatch the show.

It turns out that Keanu Reeves is a big fan of This Is the End, the celebrity-packed end of the world movie written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The 2013 movie, which you can check out with a Netflix subscription, has cameos from 20 or so actors and pop stars, but it doesn’t have one from Keanu Reeves. Still, Reeves took a moment during a conversation with Rogen, Aziz Ansari, and Keke Palmer, while promoting their 2025 movie releaese Good Fortune, to talk about how much he loved the movie.

Keanu Reeves Is A Big Fan Of This Is The End

During the conversion on Esquire’s Table Read, which can be watched on Esquire’s YouTube feed, Reeves tells Rogen that he loves the movie (which is not something I had on my bingo card this year). Ansari, who is one of the many stars who appear in This Is the End, immediately chimes in with:

After Keke Palmer confirms that it’s the movie where Rihanna “slaps the shit out of Michael Cera” (it is), it sets Rogen off on a wonderful tangent about getting all those stars to appear in the movie. Ansari mentions that it’s “crazy” that they were able to get all those stars, and Rogen adds:

As Rogen goes through the list of people who went to New Orleans and joined in on the This Is The End fun, Reeves almost seems jealous that he didn’t get to be there. He’s clearly blown away that Rogen and company were able to pull it off. Ansari is, too, and he was there! For his part, Rogen still sounds pretty shocked by it, too:

I get exactly what Rogen said about it being part of the appeal for the likes of Kevin Hart, Paul Rudd, Emma Watson, Rihanna, and all the other stars who agreed to do the picture. An all-expenses-paid trip to The Big Easy to work for a few days on a movie and hang out with a list of stars like those in This is the End? I’m actually surprised there weren’t more people!

A lot of the conversation is Palmer, Rogen, and Ansari asking Reeves about The Matrix, including getting Reeves to recreate the “bullet time” scene. That, of course, is wonderful, but not at all that unexpected. Reeves toasting Rogen and Ansari for This is the End is much more unexpected, and in a lot of ways, more wonderful.

Reeves has a great knack for comedy, as Good Fortune shows, and he would have been perfect for a movie like This Is the End. It’s too bad we’ll never get to see how horrible his death could have been in the movie!

Celebrities aren’t always just like us. They live in million dollar homes; they drive nice cars; they wear French brands on the red carpet that are difficult to pronounce. However, sometimes they are ever-so-relatable, which is what happened when Amy Poehler recently asked a question most fans have had about other A-Lister Keanu Reeves for years: “Is Keanu as nice as he seems?”

It’s a straightforward and honest query, and one I think fans have always wanted to know more about. I feel even more confident guessing that now, as Poehler had the opportunity to speak with Keanu’s recent Good Fortune co-star Aziz Ansari, and she absolutely asked about whether or not the nice guy thing is real or a put-on. Thankfully, Ansari confirmed Reeves is too legit to quit.

Listen, Amy Poehler didn’t seem as enamored with the fact Keanu is still on a motorcycle more than 20 years after his infamous accident. She joked he needs to get off for “insurance” purposes, but I do think Ansari’s point that the actor is able to meld both badassery with being super sweet is exactly what his fans would have hoped to hear about the actor.

Check out the full clip from Poehler's "Good Hang" podcast, below.

This is the guy that did much of his own painful John Wick work over the age of 50. Yet, he’s also the guy who’s quick to give credit to all the stunt guys for making him look so good. He’s the guy on the red carpets with the cool artist girlfriend. But when questions about whether they’ll get married come up, he makes some rare and adorable comments fanboying out about Alexandra Grant. He’s a man with range, and it’s no wonder, the internet has been obsessed with Reeves time and time again.

Celebrities can run the gamut from grumpy to happy-go-lucky, and from genuine to “on” pretty much all the time. The Good Fortune actor has eclectic taste and a an offbeat personality, and it’s nice to hear he’s the real deal. On a personal note, I’m just as obsessed with Amy Poehler being as obsessed with Keanu Reeves as I am. So really, everyone wins here.

The Parks and Recreation cast is full of pros. All of them are comedic geniuses, which means they know how to make people laugh, and they could get each other to break from time to time. To prove that point, Aziz Ansari revealed a story about him and Adam Scott not being able to hold it together during one particular scene of this fantastic sitcom, and I can’t get over why they couldn’t stop laughing.

Aziz Ansari was explaining how he’d try and get his castmates to break with Amy Poehler on her podcast, Good Hang. The Tom actor explained that he would try and get his hilarious Parks and Rec co-stars to laugh, and then he told the story behind the scene he broke the hardest for. Calling it “the hardest scene I’ve ever had to film in my entire acting career,” the Master of None co-creator said:

For context, this all went down during Season 4, Episode 3 – which you can stream with a Peacock subscription – when Tom and Ben took Joan out to lunch to try and woo her into giving Leslie’s book her sticker of approval. After talking about being a woman with “a strong sexual appetite,” Collins’ character excused herself and went to the bathroom after saying she needed to powder her nose, “amongst other things, if you know what I mean.” She got all up in Tom’s space and then crashed into the table as well.

After she’s gone, Ben asked if she meant her vagina in reference to the "other things" before they tried to diffuse this odd situation they’d found themselves in. In the show, they kill the scene and their deadpan reaction is hilarious. However, in real life, they burned a lot of takes because they couldn’t keep it together, as Ansari explained:

He went on to say that every time they came back to it, the second the great Parks and Rec guest star would say “amongst other things,” they’d crack up, and you can see the blooper on YouTube, too. Aziz Ansari and Adam Scott really couldn’t keep it together.

Poehler then explained that Collins was “so funny” during the scene and kept stumbling out of the table...amongst other things. Ansari then said that while they were attempting to film this, she would also “add some other thing” that would make them laugh more. When she’d do that, the Good Fortune star would say:

I truly can’t stop laughing about this. First of all, the scene itself is hilarious. Ben asking if Joan is going to powder her vagina with a straight face is so funny. However, the fact that Mo Collins kept doing something new and the guys couldn’t get through it ever makes it even better.

Now, the next time I watch this great show on Peacock, I know I’ll be laughing even harder because I know the full story behind how hard it was to film for Aziz Ansari and Adam Scott.

I saw Aziz Ansari's Good Fortune in theaters this week, and I was quite surprised by the movie. It’s tonally nothing like I would have expected from a comedy starring Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, and Ansari himself. In fact, it’s more of a downer in moments and more political than I would have anticipated, focusing on issues such as the housing crisis, cronyism in business and wealth inequity. To me, some of this worked, and some of it was kind of preachy; regardless, the movie has been full of surprises on the review front.

In fact, as Keanu Reeves’ popular character Ted would say, its debut was rather “excellent.” When I’d looked at early reviews ahead of the opening weekend, Good Fortune had around 60 reviews and was well over the 80% mark. In the last couple of days before Rotten Tomatoes officially certified it “fresh,” it has nabbed even more reviews and has settled into a comfortable 78% on the critics side.

But the biggest surprise to me? Good Fortune is the rare case where critics and audiences seem to be on exactly the same page!

Critics And Audiences Both Agree On Good Fortune

By the time of the writing of this article, Good Fortune settled into a 78% on the critics side and was matched with a 78% on the audience side. I cannot underscore how rare this is. A lot of movies that are critical darlings for journalists are not beloved by wider audiences. A lot of fun, silly (and sometimes big budget) movies that critics seem to despise really land more traction with people paying for the popcorn and movie tickets.

Sure, there are some clunkers everyone hates, and there are some big releases that hit on levels both critics and fans can appreciate. I’m looking at you, Inside Out 2 review, or Weapons releasing to fanfare on both sides earlier this year. However, to be a movie that’s seen as “pretty good” by folks on all sides of the spectrum just does not feel like it comes up that often.

This is why we often see big discrepancies between critics and the moviegoing audience at large. The Conjuring: Last Rites was a recent example in which many critics splatted the film (at 58% in total, though CinemaBlend's own review of Last Rites was positive). Meanwhile, the audience liked it pretty well — intriguingly at the same 78% Good Fortune has also settled into at the time I wrote this article. People look for different things from their moviegoing experience, and it’s rare for everyone to be on the same page about a movie that's pretty decent.

I’m still surprised Good Fortune hasn’t been a little more polarizing for some audiences, but that might say more about the people watching and reviewing the movie being aligned tonally with the comedians involved than anything else. And that might also be why it’s at a 78% rather than an 88% or 90% overall.

Regardless, Keanu Reeves, Aziz Ansari, and Seth Rogen Good Fortune landed some, well, good fortune with reviews when it came to their movie about a fallen angel, a gig economy worker and a wealthy business owner who swap places. Even though I was only OK on the movie personally, I’m happy to see fans and critics rally around a theatrical comedy. Now, if only that could translate into box office numbers…

Horror flicks may be the primary focus for many movie lovers in October, but there’s always room for a good supernatural comedy, right? Aziz Ansari sure hopes so, as he makes his feature directorial debut with Good Fortune. With a cast that includes Ansari, Seth Rogen, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer and more, this one has been on our radar as one that must be seen in the theater, so are critics in agreement?

Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune — which hits the 2025 movie calendar on October 17 — stars Keanu Reeves as Gabriel, a guardian angel who loses his wings after failing to prove to down-on-his-luck Arj (Ansari) that switching lives with rich socialite Jeff (Seth Rogen) won’t make him happier. Matt Fowler of IGN calls the movie “funny, sharp, and sweet,” as it somehow upends the It’s a Wonderful Life cliché but still manages to embrace it. He rates it a “Great” 8 out of 10, writing:

Brian Truitt of USA TODAY also says Keanu Reeves is “angelic” in this “heaven-sent” comedy, giving it 3 out of 4 stars. Aziz Ansari toes the line between hilarity and gravity, Truitt says, by using comedy to approach deep themes. The critic says:

Joe Schmidt of Collider rates Good Fortune 7 out of 10, writing that it’s a fine first effort from Aziz Ansari at the helm, as he weaves a simple yet satisfying tale of people realizing they can both cherish what they have and fight to make the world better. Keke Palmer steals the show, in Schmidt’s opinion, and Keanu Reeves is a “godsend.” In the critic’s words:

Tim Grierson of AV Club grades the movie a C+, noting that Good Fortune acknowledges the anger that economic inequality causes but doesn’t dig too deep. Grierson wonders if Aziz Ansari’s message lacks heft because the actor can’t fully recognize the plight of those struggling to make ends meet. The critic says:

Lindsey Bahr of the AP also says the life-affirming message that comes from Good Fortune feels hollow, despite the director’s good intentions. She gives it 2 out of 4 stars and writes:

While there are some questions regarding Aziz Ansari’s feel-good message, it appears that critics are mostly on board with his directorial debut. Good Fortune holds a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so if you want to see the hilarity that ensues amongst this cast — including Keanu Reeves, who is apparently worthy of all the angel puns — the movie is in theaters as of Friday, October 17.

You may know Aziz Ansari best as the man who taught you to “treat yo’ self” over the course of seven seasons on Parks And Recreation, but he also won multiple Emmys for Master Of None, the brilliant show that spent three seasons on the Netflix schedule between 2015 and 2021. Master Of None was both a critical and commercial success, marking a turning point in Ansari’s career as the industry began to take him more seriously as a writer. Now he’s moving into the world of features with his upcoming film Good Fortune.

Unsurprisingly, there are some major ways in which the new movie was inspired by the stories he was telling on Netflix all those years ago. I recently spoke with Ansari to celebrate the upcoming release of Good Fortune, and when I mentioned Master Of None, he said this:

Master Of None Season 2 largely centers around the lead character, Aziz Ansari’s Dev, falling in love in Italy. Packed with homages to classic Italian romance flicks, it is one of my favorite seasons of television ever made, and that’s in no small part due to the elements of the story that depart from our characters in the main continuity.

With the anthology episode Ansari mentioned, “New York, I Love You,” they took such creative risks as extended sequences in complete silence to put you right in the shoes of a deaf woman. Good Fortune isn’t taking any swings that big, but by focusing on the character Arj, an everyman in the gig economy that you may look right past in a big city like Los Angeles where the film takes place, they are clearly taking a page out of the Master Of None playbook.

Good Fortune is also produced in partnership with Alan Yang, Ansari’s Master Of None collaborator, so this is all very fitting. That same episode even includes a brief reference to Keanu Reeves, accidentally foreshadowing the fact that Reeves stars in Good Fortune as the angel Gabriel. Ansari has been gushing about working with the John Wick star, who managed to injure himself on set despite avoiding just that through five films in the action franchise.

Are you intrigued? Good! Because you can see Good Fortune in theaters on October 17 as a part of 2025’s movie release schedule. As for Master Of None, you can still catch it on Netflix.

Aziz Ansari is making his directorial debut with the new film, Good Fortune, and he assembled a strong cast for this 2025 movie release. Joining Ansari in the movie are Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh and Keanu Reeves. Before collaborating with his castmates, Ansari admired the work each of them did. However, previous comments made by the comedian suggest he was particularly starstruck by Reeves. It seems their collaboration was actually foreshadowed as well, as Ansari explained to CinemaBlend.

There have certainly been instances in which TV shows have unintentionally predicted real-life events. (The Simpsons, anyone?) When it comes to Ansari and Reeves working together, it seems that was accidentally predicted in some way by the former’s show, Master of None. Ansari caught up with CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb to discuss Good Fortune, and MoN came up as well. After discussing a specific Season 2 episode from the show, Ansari shared the story behind a very interesting detail:

The episode in question is “New York, I Love You,” which mostly shifts the focus away from the series’ protagonist, Dev, and his friends and moves it to other New Yorkers. Among them is Samuel, a Burundian who works as a cab driver and has several roommates. It’s actually Samuel who refutes his buddy’s claim that he once drove the Bill & Ted icon to a club. Considering the existence of Good Fortune, this is now an interesting piece of Master of None lore, and Ansari even admitted it took him a while to make the connection:

This is a sweet coincidence if there ever was one, and I find it funny that everything worked out in the way that it did. Honestly, there couldn’t be a quirkier project for Aziz Ansari and Keanu Reeves to collaborate on than Good Fortune. Both directed and written by Ansari, this supernatural comedy sees Reeves play a “budget guardian angel” who ultimately loses his wings after attempting to help a down-on-his-luck guy (Ansari) via a body swap. The angel is then forced to live as a human and ultimately begins to see the work caused by his prior divine acts of intervention become undone.

Ansari seemed to relish the opportunity to work with Reeves, who he believes is someone with “real movie star aura.” Through his involvement, Reeves apparently “turned the movie into something else,” which “excited” Ansari. It’s long been said that “the Lord moves in mysterious ways” and, whether you’re religious or simply believe in the power of fate, it’s downright delightful that Reeves and Ansari ended up starring alongside each other in this film years after that MoN reference.

Check out Good Fortune when it hits theaters on October 17. In the meantime, grab a Netflix subscription and stream Master of None.

It’s a big deal when actors do their own stunts and film their own action scenes. It adds a level of realism when you can tell the character is really the one doing the incredible thing. We love to see Tom Cruise do wild stunts and Keanu Reeves perform amazing action sequences. That said, movie productions and insurance companies don’t always love it because actors can get hurt doing that stuff.

Keanu Reeves recently proved that actors can get hurt anytime doing almost anything. The guy who has made four John Wick movies and thrown himself down a set of stairs without major injury recently spoke to Extra about the time he broke his knee making his new movie, Good Fortune just because he slipped. Reeves explained…

Good Fortune is a comedy that sees Keanu Reeves play an angel who attempts to show a down-on-his-luck guy, played by Aziz Ansari, that wealth won’t solve his problems by swapping his life with that of a successful man played by Seth Rogen. Things don’t go entirely to the angel’s plan.

Falling on your knee so hard that it cracks sounds like an incredibly unpleasant thing to have to experience. It also sounds worse than anything that we know happened on the set of the John Wick movies. The good news is that while the injury did send the crew into panic mode, it apparently didn’t delay the movie, as Reeves was shooting the next scene on schedule. Aziz Ansari said…

While the knee injury may not have been that big a deal at the time, it’s possible that it could have an impact on Keanu’s future in action movies. While we know John Wick 5 is in development, the actor has specifically stated that his knees may not be in a state to handle another movie. At 61 years old, Reeves is certainly getting older. It's been reported that one thing Reeves wants from any potential John Wick 5 is for the action to better reflect his age. Maybe add to that, no scenes near water. If you slip and fall, you can really hurt yourself!

It’s been 10 years since we said goodbye to Pawnee, Indiana, and the municipal workers from Parks and Recreation (one of the best sitcoms of all time) and we’re still reliving those iconic Ron Swanson quotes and pouring one out for Li’l Sebastian. When a series maintains its popularity the way Amy Poehler’s comedy has, there’s always hope from the fandom that the future might hold a reboot, and Aziz Ansari shared a pretty funny take on that idea.

Aziz Ansari played Tom Haverford for all seven seasons of Parks and Rec, contributing to some of the show’s brilliant inside jokes — “Treat Yo Self!” — with his unwavering confidence and entrepreneurial spirit. So would Ansari be down to reprise his character from one of NBC’s best sitcoms? He told EW:

Is that not the most Tom answer ever? Aziz Ansari sounds way more focused on having fun with his former co-stars than the actual work they’d be doing.

Many actors who discuss revisiting a popular project might say they’d be down for it as long as the story made sense, or if the original creator were involved or a majority of the cast were available. For the Human Giant comedian, however, he jokes that the quality of the revival wouldn’t matter — it’s all about hanging out and making a little cash.

Aziz Ansari said he did get together with some of his Parks and Rec friends a couple of years ago for his 40th birthday, and he’s recently seen Rashida Jones — who played Leslie Knope’s bestie Ann Perkins — and Adam Scott — Leslie’s eventual love interest.

This wasn’t the first time the potential of a Parks and Recreation reboot has come up. Just last month Chris Pratt said “of course” he’d be down to see what Andy Dwyer is up to a decade later. It does seem like it might be tough to coordinate everyone’s schedules in order to do that, though, especially with Amy Poehler and Parks co-creator Mike Schur working on a new project.

Together they are co-creating DIG, a book-to-screen adaptation of Kate Meyers’ bestselling 2023 novel Excavations, and Amy Poehler will also star as one of the four main characters in the upcoming comedic series.

We’ll certainly be looking forward to that, but it’s not likely to stop Parks and Rec fans from hoping a reboot does come to fruition someday. Unlike Aziz Ansari, however, we wouldn’t want the show to be terrible.

If you’re looking for your next long binge, you can stream Parks and Recreations’ seven seasons with a Peacock subscription.

Comedy is a lot harder to pull off successfully than it's often given credit for. It makes sense that some of the best filmmakers in history began their careers as comics, or at least comedic actors, given how a great comedian's mind works. They see the world in completely different ways, and that way of looking at things often means great movies, like some of the best rom-coms of all time, but they aren't always comedies. Here is our list of great comics who became great filmmakers.

Mel Brooks

You really couldn't have this list without Mel Brooks. His movies, which he's been making for an astonishing seven decades, never fail to disappoint. His career stretches back to the 1940s! He reinvented comedy on film with his early movies like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, and while he doesn't do as much directing these days, he's still killing it when he does.

Jordan Peele

Of all the comedians-turned-directors on this list, the biggest departure from his acting career to his directing career has to be Jordan Peele. He first entered our collective consciousness with his legendary sketch comedy show Key and Peele, but starting with Get Out in 2017, he's become one of the premier horror directors in modern Hollywood.

Amy Poehler

Like so many comedians over the last 50 years or so, Amy Poehler got her big break on Saturday Night Live. She left the long-running comedy show in 2008 to work on her next hit show, Parks & Recreation. In 2019, she directed her first movie, Wine Country, and followed that up with 2021's Moxie.

Christopher Guest

Some of the most quotable movies of all time have come from the collective minds of the ensemble casts that Christopher Guest has assembled for his movies, like Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. He serves as the director, but he gives great leeway to his fellow cast members in all of the movies.

Paul Feig

Though he's best known as a writer and a director these days, Paul Feig started as a stand-up comedian when he first arrived in Hollywood in the 1980s. He struggled as an actor before scoring a role in Heavyweights in 1995. While working on that movie, he met writer Judd Apatow and the two co-created Freaks and Geeks. The rest is history.

Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller's biggest early break came in the Ben Stiller Show on MTV, which blended sketch comedy with music videos. From there, Stiller basically took over Hollywood to the point that it seemed like he was making a dozen movies a year! Okay, maybe not that many, but he was in a lot of movies, including many that he directed, like Reality Bites, The Cable Guy, Zoolander, and Tropic Thunder.

Mike Nichols

EGOT winner Mike Nichols directed some of the most iconic movies in Hollywood history. Movies like The Graduate, Working Girl, and The Birdcage. Nichols started his career as part of the comedy duo Nichols & May alongside Elaine May, who also became a filmmaker of some renown.

Charlie Chaplin

There are few people in Hollywood history who are as important to the growth of the industry as Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin wrote, starred, and directed almost all his major hits from the silent era up until A Countess from Hong Kong in 1967. He even scored many of his movies. He started in show business in the very early 20th Century in comedic roles on stage before movies were even invented.

Rob Reiner

As the son of the great Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner has comedy in his blood. His biggest fame early came as Mike "Meathead" Stivic in All in the Family, but for most of the last half-century, he's been known for his writing and directing, creating such movies as This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally..., among many others.

Chris Rock

Like many SNL alums, Chris Rock has had an incredible career in Hollywood. He started acting as a teenager in New Jack City, but he quickly became known for his stand-up act and his work on SNL. He's long been a writer and producer, and he started directing in 2003 with his directorial debut, Head of State. He's been busy directing ever since, in addition to everything else he does.

Judd Apatow

One of the most successful comedy directors in the last few decades is Judd Apatow. He's a one-man show, in many ways, writing, producing, and directing hits like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, The King of Staten Island, and This Is 40. He's also produced a whole slew of successful comedies, like Bridesmaids, Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Pineapple Express. That doesn't even get into the TV shows he's produced or co-created, like Freaks and Geeks, Girls, and Crashing.

Harold Ramis

Without question, Harold Ramis belongs on the Mount Rushmore of comedy writers and directors. The list of movies he's directed and written (or co-written) is amazing. Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, and Groundhog Day are just the tip of the iceberg. Like so many in his generation of comedians, he started in sketch comedy at Second City in Chicago.

Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais gained worldwide fame when he co-created, co-wrote, and starred in the original version of The Office in the U.K. He's created a slew of shows since, and could even be credited with helping create podcasts with his early podcast, The Ricky Gervais Show. The stand-up comedian started directing films in 2009 with The Invention of Lying.

Penny Marshall

We lost a lot when Penny Marshall died in 2018 at age 75. She began her career in comedic roles, most notably as Laverne DeFazio, first on Happy Days, then in her own spin-off, Laverne & Shirley. Before long, though, she transitioned to directing. Her first movie, Jumpin' Jack Flash, introduced the world to Whoopi Goldberg as a comedic actor (her lone previous credit was in the drama The Color Purple) and went on to direct beloved hits like A League of Their Own and Big.

Seth MacFarlane

Seth MacFarlane started mostly as a comedy writer, which is hardly a surprise. He then created the animated shows Family Guy and American Dad for Fox. He made his directorial debut with Ted in 2012.

Albert Brooks

The legendary Albert Brooks started his career in sketch comedy in collectives like The Credibility Gap and appeared on variety shows in the late '60s and early '70s as a stand-up. His first directing gig was as part of the first season of SNL, before directing his first feature, Real Life, co-written with his buddy Harry Shearer. His later movies include classics like Defending Your Life, Mother, and The Muse.

Keenen Ivory Wayans

The Wayans brothers have certainly left a huge mark on Hollywood over the years, and the oldest sibling, Keenen Ivory Wayans, is the one who got them all started. He created and directed In Living Color, which made him a household name, but he had already directed I'm Gonna Git You Sucka before that. His biggest success, of course, is the Scary Movie franchise.

Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner got his start as a writer and actor in comedy sketches on two shows starring Sid Caesar, Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. He then teamed up with fellow writer from the shows, Mel Brooks, and together they released comedy albums in the early 1960s. By the end of the decade, he was directing movies, with his two most notable hits, The Jerk and Oh! God, coming in the late '70s.

Cheech Marin

One of the biggest comedy duos of the '70s is, of course, Cheech & Chong. Before long, Cheech Marin was directing movies without his partner, including his directorial debut, Born in East L.A., in 1987.

Woody Allen

WE couldn't have this list without Woody Allen. Setting aside any personal feelings people may have towards the actor for his questionable personal life, Allen is, hands down, one of the most successful comedy film directors in Hollywood history. The list of movies he's written, directed, and starred in is far too long to list here. He developed his famous persona while working as a stand-up comedian in New York in the 1960s.

Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton was one of the most successful comedic actors of the 1980s with movies like Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice, and Johnny Dangerously. He started taking on more dramatic roles as the decade came to a close, and of course, he starred as the Caped Crusader in Tim Burton's Batman. He made his directorial debut in 2008 with the drama The Merry Gentleman and, more recently, directed the underrated Knox Goes Away in 2023.

Bob Odenkirk

Along with David Cross, Bob Odenkirk first broke big on Mr. Show with Bob and David, but that was after years in sketch comedy on shows like SNL and The Ben Stiller Show. He has gained his biggest fame more recently as the character Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and the spinoff Better Call Saul (which somehow never won an Emmy).

Jerry Lewis

His comedy might not have been for everyone, but you can't argue with Jerry Lewis' incredible success over decades in Hollywood. Of course, he started as part of a duo with Dean Martin, but he soon took off on his own with movies like The Nutty Professor and The Bellboy. He directed both those movies as well, and would continue to direct his own movies throughout the '60s.

Donald Glover

While still in college, Donald Glover started doing sketch comedy in New York City. After graduating, he became a writer on 30 Rock first came to the public's attention in Community on NBC. His biggest critical success came with the show he created and produced the show Atlant,a in 2013. His first feature film directing gig came with Bando Stone & the New World, which is a companion piece to his album of the same name.

Jeff Garlin

For most people, Curb Your Enthusiasm is where they first saw Jeff Garlin, but his career goes back further than that. He also starred in The Goldbergs before abuse accusations led him to leave the show. Over the years, he's directed a number of movies, like the indie rom-com I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With and 2017's Handsome, which you can watch with a Netflix subscription.

Buster Keaton

Like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton was a huge figure in the silent era of Hollywood. Also like Chaplin, the comedian started in theater at the dawn of the 20th century and then began writing, directing, and starring in his own films in the teens. He was one of the biggest stars of the early film industry, making more than a dozen hits in the 1920s.

Bob Saget

Not only is one of the dirtiest comedians of all time (and his version of The Aristocrats joke proves it), Bob Saget was also so beloved TV dad and wholesome host of America's Funniest Home Videos. Saget's first directorial credit came in the hilarious and underrated Dirty Work, working with Norm McDonald and Artie Lang on what must have been just a wild film shoot.

Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari had his breakout role as a member of the cast of Parks and Recreation, but he was already an experienced stand-up when that show took off. He directed his first film, Good Fortune, which he also wrote and stars in.

Jerrod Carmichael

Jerrod Carmichael is one of the most popular stand-up comedians in recent years and got his first major exposure with The Carmichael Show on NBC in 2015. He made his directorial debut in 2021 with On the Count of Three, which he also stars in alongside Christopher Abbott and an ensemble cast that includes Tiffany Haddish, J.B. Smoove, and Henry Winkler.

Bo Burnham

Bo Burnham made his name as literally a one-man show with his musical comedy YouTube channel that he started in 2006 (the very early days of YouTube). His first job as a director came in 2018 with Eighth Grade, which he wrote and stars in, as well.

Robert Townsend

Robert Townsend was groundbreaking as a Black comedian-turned-filmmaker in the 1980s when he wrote, directed, and starred in movies like Hollywood Shuffle, The Five Heartbeats, and Meteor Man, which is a comic book movie that deserves a reboot.

Bobcat Goldthwait

Without a doubt, one of the strangest movies mentioned in this list is Shakes the Clown, which was the first film directed by legendary stand-up comedian Bobcat Goldthwait. He's directed seven independent films since Shakes and they are always unique and funny.

Keanu Reeves is one of the most dynamic and keeps-us-on-our-toes talent we have in Hollywood today. Reeves' decades' worth of stellar performances span genre, form, and style, yet the A-lister remains a bit of a mystery to the public. From starring in The Matrix franchise to cameo-ing in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and so much more), he always delivers, but what is he like on set? ​​Good Fortune’s director, Aziz Ansari, gives his perspective on the question.

The comedian caught up with EW to talk all about his directorial debut, which is headed to theaters in the latter half of the 2025 movie calendar. The Parks & Rec alum revealed that ahead of casting, he’d never met the Speed star, but all went well while filming (other than Reeves tripping over a rug and injuring himself for the first time ever on set). He had nothing but glowing things to say about his veteran co-star and equated him to one of the last performers to have a "real movie star aura." Ansari shared:

Okay, so the public and professional sides of Reeves apparently aren’t too different, which makes this fan feel better. As far as I'm concerned, it makes sense why he is so magnetic in any role he takes on. The intentional curtain the mega celeb has up works on everyone!

The stand-up also mentioned the first time meeting the Bill & Ted actor was when he knew he had to book him, saying:

The first meeting even sounds like a great cinematic performance for Reeves! And I can clearly imagine, and hear, The Master of None alum’s processing in my head, funnily enough. Opposites do sometimes attract, and the funnyman and icon are an unexpected but pretty fun pairing.

Ansari reiterated how thrilled he was about the whole thing, from casting to presently talking about his debut. In his words:

The praise of his leading "budget guardian angel" (per the teaser) has me stoked for this release. I’m glad the novice director went back to work on this feature after Ansari's first directorial debut attempt got canned after set drama involving his then-star Bill Murray. In my opinion, Reeves was the perfect pivot person to start again with, alongside longtime pal Seth Rogen, who also appears in the film.

While I can’t wait for this comedy, I’m also looking forward to the John Wick star’s upcoming action flick, Ballerina. While what we know about Ballerina remains relatively limited, it’ll be so fun to see the John Wick world expand. Which leads me to the question: will we, or Aziz Ansari, come to know Reeves more as the actor after Good Fortune hits theaters? Time will tell.

It’s an exciting time to be a movie fan because there’s so many actors in their 20s and 30s who are proving to have A-list star quality – from Timothée Chalamet to Zendaya, Florence Pugh and Glen Powell, or Jenna Ortega and Sydney Sweeney. I’m a big fan of all those names, but it’s time to talk about how we should be naming Keke Palmer among them. Sure, she falls into the category of child stars who made a comeback, but Palmer has too many huge and exciting projects on the way to be called anything but one of the biggest young actresses in Hollywood.

Earlier this year, Keke Palmer of course starred in One Of Them Days with SZA, which actually crushed at the box office with a $51 million worldwide haul against a reported $14 million budget. While certainly audiences were looking for a good comedy to start their year, I think undoubtedly Palmer was a huge selling point for the film, and women in the industry who are doing it like Keke Palmer are few and far between.

I Can’t Get Over How Funny Keke Palmer Is In One Of Them Days

When I walked out of One Of Them Days when it hit theaters in January, I was just happy. Along with critics having a blast with it, I had such a good time at the movies watching Palmer and SZA’s buddy comedy. I know I’m going to return to it when I need a few belly laughs, because there just aren't enough female buddy comedies like it. The movie proved further that there’s no shot Palmer has “no charisma” like her character says about herself as the down-on-their-luck besties hilariously tried to come up with their rent in the matter of hours.

The movie then arrived for those with a Netflix subscription at the end of March, and shot right to the top of Netflix’s top 10, making it one of the most popular movies being streamed at the moment. What makes the Netflix domination better is how much the movie deserves to reach its status.

Next, Palmer Is Set To Keep Her ‘Good Fortune’ In A Comedy Alongside Keanu Reeves And Seth Rogen

In honor of Keke Palmer finding huge success with a comedy, which is very hard to do in the present landscape in Hollywood, I decided to hunt around for what she’s up to next, and boy, was I not bummed out. Even though Keke Palmer has the baggage of being on Nickelodeon as a kid and recently became a first-time mother herself, she’s clearly hustling and being sought after with what she has next.

Her next project set to be released, which is among upcoming 2025 movies coming out in October, is another comedy called Good Fortune. The movie -- written and directed by Aziz Ansari -- will have Palmer starring alongside Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen and Sandra Oh! Is Palmer here to revive the theatrical comedy? I think she might be.

Anyway, in Good Fortune Reeves playing an angel named Gabriel who has Ansari’s and Rogen’s characters body swap to show the former struggling man that money won’t solve his problems. It leads Gabriel to lose his wings and all sorts of mayhem to occur following his actions. I’m so ready for this.

She's Also Going To Team Up With Eddie Murphy For A Movie!!

Another upcoming project that Palmer has under her belt will have her actually collaborating with comedy legend, Eddie Murphy. It’s a heist movie called The Pickup from the director of The Blackening and the Ride Along movies. It’s an Amazon Prime movie that also has Pete Davidson and Eva Longoria involved, so you know it’s going to be a funny one. I just need to see this pair’s chemistry like right now!

I’m Also Hyped For The Filmmaker She’s Working With On An Upcoming Sci-Fi Comedy

I was also excited to read that Keke Palmer will be the star of Boots Riley’s next movie, I Love Boosters, with Demi Moore, LaKeith Stanfield, Naomi Ackie, Eiza González, Poppy Liu, Taylour Paige and Will Poulter. The film is apparently about a group of shoplifters who target a fashion icon. Boots Riley directed a movie called Sorry To Bother You in 2018 that was absolutely wild and riveting, and I love that Palmer is getting a chance to be in more auteur projects alongside some pure fun comedies. I mean she was just incredible in Jordan Peele’s Nope, she deserves the range she’s getting in her career.

And, She Also Signed On For A Remake Of One Of My Favorite Weird ‘80s Movies

As if all those projects in and of themselves aren’t exciting already, per a Variety report from this past September, Palmer has also signed on to star in a remake of The Burbs for Peacock. I know it’s not one of the most popular '80s movies, but I watched the original The Burbs movie, which stars Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern and Corey Feldman, when I was growing up and I loved its weird, dark humor.

If you’re not hip to it, it’s about residents of a suburban neighborhood who start to suspect their neighbors are ritualistic murderers. While Palmer is doing all sorts of original stories not based on any IPs, I definitely can’t wait to see her spin on this classic, because I actually think she’s one of the few people who could really make it as funny (or funnier) than the cult classic.

I'm So Just Happy Keke Palmer Is Becoming A Bona Fide Movie Star Now, As She Should

Didn’t I tell you Keke Palmer is absolutely on fire? Of course, I don’t know at this point which of these movies will actually be good and which one’s might bomb, but I think her upcoming resume really shows how big a star Palmer is. And, it’s time for the public to recognize Keke Palmer as such, because it feels like she’s only just now starting to get her flowers!

I cannot count how many times Scrubs has come up when discussing the best TV sitcoms of all time. Over the course of nine seasons (and two networks), the Zach Braff-led medical comedy introduced audiences to some of the most iconic and endearing small-screen characters of the past 25 years, as well as some legendary celebrity guests. With Academy Award winners, Star Wars alumni, and on-the-rise comedians, Sacred Heart Hospital was a hopping place when these 32 actors popped up on Scrubs.

Brendan Fraser

Though Brendan Fraser is best known for roles in movies like The Mummy, The Whale, and Encino Man, the Oscar winner played a small yet pivotal role as Ben Sullivan on Scrubs. Dr. Cox’s (John C. McGinley) brother-in-law, Ben was at the center of several of the best episodes of Scrubs as well as one of the most emotional TV moments of all time. Seriously, Ben is one of the best characters to ever appear on the show, which is saying a lot.

Michael J. Fox

One of several Spin City cast members to show up on Scrubs, Michael J. Fox appeared in a pair of episodes during the show’s third season. Taking on the role of Dr. Kevin Casey, a confident and talented doctor and surgeon dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Ryan Reynolds

Before he was leading some of the best Marvel movies and showing up in great romantic comedies, Ryan Reynolds had a one-off appearance on Scrubs. Showing up in the show’s second season, Reynolds played Spence, J.D. (Zach Braff) and Turk’s (Donald Faison) college friend who comes to visit while in town for a wedding.

Courteney Cox

A few years after Friends came to an end and a few months before Cougar Town premiered, Courteney Cox had a brief fun on Scrubs. During her handful of appearances in the show’s eighth season, Cox played Dr. Taylor Maddox, the new Sacred Heart chief of medicine following Dr. Kelso’s (Ken Jenkins) sudden departure.

Dick Van Dyke

Probably the Scrubs celebrity guest with the most prolific career, Dick Van Dyke showed up for a single episode partway through the show’s second season. The legendary actor/singer/dancer took on the role of Dr. Doug Townshend, a Sacred Heart doctor who no longer wanted to stick around and keep up with technology and decided to retire.

Elizabeth Banks

In terms of guest spots, few actors appeared in as many episodes as Elizabeth Banks. Between Seasons 5 and 8, Banks popped up in a total of 15 episodes as Dr. Kim Briggs, a urologist at another hospital who eventually became the mother of J.D.’s son before it was all said and done.

Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell was just about everywhere in the 2000s, including Scrubs. The In Bruges actor played Billy Callahan, an Irishman who was sticking around to watch over a man he knocked out in a bar fight, partway through Season 4. Though his arrival caused a stir at Sacred Heart, it all eventually worked out in the end.

Aziz Ansari

Before he became one of the biggest comedians on the planet thanks to Parks and Recreation and Master of None, Aziz Ansari had a supporting role on Scrubs. Ansari appeared throughout the show’s eighth season where he played Dr. Ed Dhandapani, one of J.D.’s young interns, and possibly the laziest person at Sacred Heart.

Heather Graham

A major player throughout Scrubs Season 4, Heather Graham took on the role of Dr. Molly Clock, a psychiatrist at Sacre Heart who kept referring to J.D. as “Johnny.” She appeared in nine episodes during her single-season run on the show.

Billy Dee Williams

Billy Dee Williams, of Star Wars and Brian’s Song fame, showed up in a single episode of Scrubs Season 5. But like other guest stars, Williams played himself, or at least a version that was Julie Quinn’s (Mandy Moore) godfather.

Matthew Perry

The late Matthew Perry (appearing alongside his real-life father, John Bennett Perry) showed up for an episode of Scrubs back in the show’s fourth season. In his one-off appearance, Perry played Murray Marks, a man who comes to Sacred Heart Hospital to donate a kidney to his ailing father.

Mandy Moore

Several years before she led another all-time great NBC series, This Is Us, Mandy Moore showed up on Scrubs as Julie Quinn. Though she only appeared on a pair of episodes during the show’s fifth season, Moore’s character made quite an impact on the staff at Sacred Heart, especially J.D. Their romance was short-lived, but one the hopeless romantic doctor wouldn’t forget.

Richard Kind

Harvey Corman is definitely one of the most iconic (and annoying) guest characters on Scrubs, and that’s all thanks to the brilliant work by Richard Kind. A hypochondriac like no other, Corman was in and out of Sacred Heart Hospital with all kinds of issues and medical emergencies throughout Seasons 2 through 4.

Masi Oka

Before having a massive breakout role on Heroes, Masi Oka appeared on Scrubs off and on between Seasons 1 and 4, in which he took on the role of a lab tech named Franklyn. Though he only appeared in a handful of episodes before leaving the show, Oka’s character showed up in some of the most memorable moments in Scrubs history.

Tom Cavanagh

In addition to leading the comedy series Ed, Tom Cavanagh also had a sizable guest spot on Scrubs. Every once in a while, Cavanagh would show up as J.D.’s older brother, Dan Dorian. There for a life, a shoulder to cry on, or an important life lesson, Dan was there for some of his brother’s most trying moments.

Tara Reid

Tara Reid was part of the Scrubs cast for 11 episodes, with all but one coming from the show’s third season. During her run, Reid took on the role of Danni Sullivan, Ben Sullivan’s younger sister, who became one of J.D.’s many girlfriends at one point.

Phill Lewis

Phill Lewis has appeared just about everywhere throughout his prolific TV career, including Sacred Heart Hospital for a stretch. During his run on Scrubs, Lewis portrayed Hooch, an orthopedic surgeon with a wild and dangerous side, to say the very least.

Jason Bateman

Jason Bateman popped up for a single episode of Scrubs during the show’s fifth season. During his one-off appearance, Bateman plays Mr. Sutton, a garbageman who refuses to thank J.D. after being treated.

John Ritter

The late John Ritter showed up in two episodes of Scrubs as Sam Dorian, J.D.’s dad. The cash-strapped and constantly unemployed character had his issues, but still cared deeply for his song.

Taran Killam

Before landing a steady gig on Saturday Night Live, Taran Killam had a recurring role on Scrubs during the show’s penultimate season. Killam took on the role of Jimmy, one of J.D.’s interns at Sacred Heart.

Jimmie Walker

Jimmie Walker, best known for his portrayal of J.J. Evans and his “Dynomite” catchphrase from Good Times, appeared in two episodes of Scrubs. During the show’s first season, Walker played himself as he appeared in two of the J.D.’s signature daydreams.

Sean Hayes

Best known for his roles as Jack McFarland on Will & Grace, Sean Hayes has made a ton of other appearances over the years. This includes Scrubs, where he played Nick Murdoch, an intern whose time at Sacred Heart was shortlived because he couldn’t handle the stress and emotional toll of watching a young patient’s slow demise under his care.

Ricky Schroder

Ricky Schroder’s career got off to a hot start as a child actor, including multiple appearances and a leading role on Silver Spoons, one of the most beloved sitcoms of the ‘80s. That career would continue well into adulthood for the former teenage star, including a four-episode turn on Scrubs. During the show’s second season, Schroder played Paul Flower, a male nurse Elliott Reid (Sarah Chalke) was embarrassed to admit she was dating.

Kelli Williams

If you look at the list of the best TV shows of all time, you’ll find multiple featuring the work of Kelli Williams. In addition to Law & Order, Quantum Leap, The Practice, and Ally McBeal, there’s also Scrubs. During her two episodes back in 2001, Williams played Kristen Murphy, a surgical student at Sacred Heart Hospital.

Cheryl Hines

In the middle of her run as Larry David’s wife on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl Hines made a brief appearance on Scrubs. During a single episode in the show’s fifth season, Hines played Paige Cox, Dr. Perry Cox’s very religious sister who shows up at Sacred Heart Hospital and forces the temperamental doctor to think about memories he long locked away in the deepest and most secure vaults of his mind.

Dave Foley

Dave Foley, best known for his time on The Kids in the Hall and movies like A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2, had a pair of appearances on Scrubs during the middle of the show’s nine-season run. Foley took on the role of Dr. Lester Hedrick, a Sacred Heart grief counselor who was like a softer, kinder, and more easy-going mentor for J.D. when compared to the easily angered and annoyed Dr. Cox.

Julianna Margulies

E.R. wasn’t the only NBC-based show set in a hospital to feature the work of Julianna Margulies, as she also popped up on Scrubs for a couple of episodes during the show’s fourth season. But instead of playing a doctor this time, Margulies took on the role of Jenna Broderick, a candidate for the scariest lawyer award. The malpractice attorney had a habit of showing up and causing trouble, especially with J.D. Not much is known about the character’s whereabouts about J.D. put an end to things.

Keri Russell

Keri Russell, best known for her work on shows like Felicity and The Americans, had a short run on Scrubs, appearing in two episodes. In the show’s sixth season, Russell took on the role of Melody O’Harra, Elliott’s sorority sister who shows up and brings her easy-go-lucky personality and philosophy on life to the core group of the cast, but mostly J.D.

Heather Locklear

Heather Locklear added Scrubs to her long list of TV credits when she appeared for a pair of episodes during the show’s second season. During her time on the show, Locklear played Julie Keaton, a pharmaceutical rep who showed up at Sacred Heart Hospital to sell her company’s latest and greatest product. But she got more than she could chew when she started a relationship with Dr. Perry Cox, which provided a short-lived reprieve for everyone who had grown tired of his anger and outbursts while making rounds.

Christopher Meloni

Christopher Meloni played one of the most sadistic prisoners in the Oz cast as well as a dedicated and complicated detective on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but did you know he played a pediatrician on Scrubs? Well, that was the case for an episode during the show’s third season in which he played Dr. David Norris, Dr. Cox and Jordan Sullivan’s (Christa Miller) son’s pediatrician. Though a far stretch from his turn as Chris Keller on the landmark HBO series, Dr. Norris was still a wild card, to say the very least.

Amy Smart

Amy Smart showed up in movies like Varsity Blues, Road Trip, and The Butterfly Effect throughout the late ‘90s and early 2000s, but she also had quite a few TV appearances during that stretch of time. This included a spot on Scrubs as Jamie Moyer, aka “Tasty Coma Wife,” the wife of a car crash victim. This led to one of J.D.’s most ridiculous relationships on the series, which is saying something.

Nicole Sullivan

Mad TV star Nicole Sullivan appeared in a handful of episodes of Scrubs. Sullivan played Jill Tracy, a recurring troubled patient at Sacred Heart who made an impact on everyone she encountered, for better or worse. Her death, which ultimately led to one of the show’s most heartbreaking sequences (it features The Fray’s “How To Save a Life”), is one that had a massive impact on the medical staff for years to come.

Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation is a simple man. Or at least, that's what he would have you believe. While the show had amazing cast members and even more amazing guests, the head of the parks department, played by Nick Offerman, has some of the funniest and most ridiculous lines. From words of advice to cutting insults, his quotes are some of the best from the show, so here are 32 of our favorite Ron Swanson quotes from Parks and Rec. 

Well I’ve never been one for meeting new people, or doing new things, or eating new types of food, or traveling outside of southern Indiana. I’ve had the same haircut since 1978 and I’ve driven the same car since 1991. I’ve used the same wooden comb for three decades. I have one bowl. I still get my milk delivered by horse.

If there is any quote that perfectly sums up Ron Swanson, it's this one. He's a man of principle and a man stuck in his ways. He's also a man stuck in the 1800s, apparently. There's a lot to criticize Ron over, but you can't call him inconsistent.

Please talk more about how you hate Europe and Bicycles.

When Ron is forced to find a new barber for the first time in decades, Donna, played by Retta, takes him to her hairdresser, Typhoon. At first, Ron thinks he'll have little in common with the new-age stylist, but they soon bond over their shared hatred for Europeans and bicycles. How nice for them. 

Crying: Acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon.

The Ron Swanson Pyramid of Success is full of hilarious, if questionable, life advice. Apparently, to be "a man" or "a Swanson" you can only cry in two places. Ron does live up to this standard, mostly. He does occasionally cry when he's happy too, though. Besides at the Grand Canyon, that is. 

Capitalism is the only way… It makes America great, England OK and France terrible.

If there is one thing that is pretty distasteful about Ron's set core of beliefs, it's his jingoism. It's not pretty. It's on full display when he heads to England, but that's not the only we see it. Do better, Ron. 

Any dog under 50 pounds is a cat, and cats are useless.

At the risk of offending small dog owners (and I am one myself), Ron is 100% correct here. Dogs should be big and dopey, not small and yappy. The smaller the dog, the more cat-like they are. Like Ron, I'm not a cat person. I still love my tiny dog though. 

I’m impressed with Andy, pulling himself up by his bootstraps. Reminds me of a young me. I got my first job when I was nine working at a sheet metal factory. In two weeks I was running the floor. Child Labor Laws are ruining this country.

Andy (Chris Pratt) doesn't seem like the kind of person Ron would tolerate, yet he does, for some reason. Andy is a hard worker and dedicated to his job, (and a breakout role for Pratt) unlike Ron, but he also moonlights as a musician, playing in his band Mouse Rat, just like Ron moonlights as jazz musician Duke Silver. 

I like Tom. He doesn’t do a lot of work around here. He shows zero initiative. He’s not a team player. He’s never wanted to go that extra mile. Tom is exactly what I’m looking for in a government employee.

Tom (Aziz Ansari) is someone whom Ron Swanson barely tolerates. Everything Tom does seems to drive Ron nuts, except what Tom doesn't do. By being generally terrible at his job and worrying more about this personal life, Tom is Ron's perfect employee. 

There’s only one thing I hate more than lying: skim milk. Which is water that’s lying about being milk.

Ron Swanson hates lying. He talked about it more than once. He also doesn't like what he sees as health trends. Or anything healthy to eat, for that matter. Skim milk holds a special place of disdain in the heart of Ron. 

The less I know about other people’s affairs, the happier I am. I’m not interested in caring about people. I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes.

Something else Ron Swanson is consistent about it is his narcissism. While he probably wouldn't call it that, we just call 'em like we see 'em. Of course, he does care about people, a little. 

Fishing is for sport only. Fish meat is practically a vegetable.

Another bit of "advice" from the Ron Swanson pyramid of greatness. While Ron doesn't seem to like fish, he sure does love shrimp, especially if it's wrapped in bacon. Bacon makes everything better. 

The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you can! You are free to do so. To me, that’s beautiful.

Again, Ron really isn't into being healthy. He's also not interested in other people. That's why this quote is so perfect, it combines both of the things he seems most interested in. 

Fishing relaxes me. It’s like yoga, except I still get to kill something.

It's safe to say that anything Chris does is going to upset Ron in some way, but Ron holds a deep mistrust of yoga. He mentions it on a number of occasions, but it's the most ridiculous when he compares it to fishing. Though, he's not wrong, both activities are relaxing. 

Just give me all the bacon and eggs you have. Wait … I worry what you heard was, ‘Give me a lot of bacon and eggs.’ What I said was, give me all the bacon and eggs you have. Do you understand?

After being served what he thought was an underwhelming steak, Ron switches gears in one of the funniest scenes in the whole show. You can't help but be horrified and impressed by Ron's dedication to breakfast foods.  

You had me at ‘Meat Tornado'

While Ron doesn't really "go for ethnic food" he is stopped in his tracks when Andy tells him about the burrito called a "Meat Tornado." Maybe there is hope for Ron yet. 

It's a hamburger made out of meat on a bun with nothing. Add ketchup if you want. I couldn't care less.

At one point, Chris Trager (Rob Lowe) and Ron decide to have a competition over who can make a more delicious burger. Chris' burger is a beacon of healthy options, with all kinds of buzzy food options, like a brioche bun. Ron's is a burger. On a bun. Turkey can never beat cow, Chris. 

You’ve accidentally given me the food that my food eats.

Ron doesn't really go for salad and when he's served one, he makes it clear that it is not enough to satisfy him. He's also incredibly consistent when it comes to how much he hates vegetables. In that way, he's like a little kid who has to choke them down after being scolded by an adult. 

Normally, if given the choice between doing something and nothing, I’d choose to do nothing. But I will do something if it helps someone else do nothing. I’d work all night, if it meant nothing got done.

On some level, you can't help but admire Ron Swanson's dedication to his principles. He believes in small government. Strike that, Ron believes in no government. Anything he can do to stop government from doing anything at all, he'll work hard to achieve that.  

There are three acceptable haircuts: high and tight, crew cut, buzz cut

Even though it doesn't appear that Ron Swanson actually served in the military, he does appreciate a good, precise haircut, clearly. 

Birthdays were invented by Hallmark to sell cards.

Ron doesn't like making a fuss about anything and when the rest of the office is determined to celebrate his birthday, he makes it clear where he stands on the issue. 

Give 100 percent. One-hundred-and-ten percent is impossible. Only idiots recommend that.

One thing Ron Swanson cannot abide is fools. Of course, anyone who doesn't fit into the narrow parameters of his life views is a fool. Like people who exaggerate things, which is literally the one thing Chris Trager does best.  

When people get too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name to let them know I don’t really care about them.

He doesn't care about other people's problems, that's for certain. He also doesn't want to be friends and this is how he goes about it. He even teaches April, played brilliantly by Aubrey Plaza the same trick and she takes to it like a fish to water. 

America: The only country that matters. If you want to experience other ‘cultures,’ use an atlas or a ham radio.

Not all of Ron's beliefs are healthy, or advisable. His jingoism, which he thinks is patriotic, is actually idiotic. Still, ham radios and atlas are fun, so that but of advice is pretty decent. 

It’s always a good idea to demonstrate to your coworkers that you are capable of withstanding a tremendous amount of pain.

You might think that when Ron takes pliers and pulls his own tooth out, a tooth the dentist had already extracted, it was meant as a practical joke. Ron Swanson never jokes though, and he was really just doing it to shock his coworkers and it works. 

I would rather bleed out than sit here and talk about my feelings for 10 minutes.

Let's be upfront, Ron Swanson doesn't care about your problems, and he doesn't want to talk about his either. It may not be healthy to bottle everything up, but you know he's not budging on this one. 

I think that all government is a waster of taxpayer money. My dream is to have the park system privatized and run entirely by for-profit corporations, like Chuck E. Cheese. They have an impeccable business model.

The biggest source of conflict between Ron, the head of the parks department, and his deputy Leslie (Amy Poehler) is that Leslie believes that government can do good for people. Ron thinks it should be run by a pizza restaurant.

I hate metaphors. That’s why my favorite book is Moby Dick. No frufu symbolism, just a good simple tale about a man who hates an animal.

On some level, I'd like to believe that Ron is smarter than this. In a great bit of comedic irony, Ron talks about why he loves Herman Melville's Moby Dick, but the reason is... questionable. The book is full of metaphors, and is, indeed basically one big one. A big white whale of one. 

I love Food and Stuff. It’s where I buy all my food… and most of my stuff.

Ron Swanson is a simple man, with simple needs. Mostly meat, but a little stuff too. Luckily, his favorite store has both. He rarely "treats himself" like some of the other office workers. 

There is only one bad word: taxes.

A libertarian in the most extreme version, Ron really hates government. What he hates the most, it seems, is the taxes that the government collects. They may pay his salary, but that doesn't mean he appreciates them. 

History began July 4, 1776. Everything before that was a mistake.

Here we go again with the extreme patriotism. Ron Swanson just doesn't care about anything other than the United States, even the history that led to its creation. It's still not a good look and never will be. 

The key to burning an ex-wife effigy is to dip it in paraffin wax and then toss the flaming bottle of isopropyl alcohol from a safe distance. Do not stand too close when you light an ex-wife effigy.

If there is anything in the world that Ron hates as much as government and taxes, it's both of his ex-wives, Tammy 1 and Tammy 2. He holds nothing back when it comes to slandering them, without any respect whatsoever. Yet, he still believes in love. Good, I guess?

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Don’t teach a man to fish…and feed yourself. He’s a grown man. And fishing’s not that hard.

Fishing is important to Ron. Making friends and helping people is not. Case in point? This quote. Lighten up, Ron! 

The Human Resources department requires that I be available once a month to discuss workplace disputes with my employees. The rules do not specify whether or not I am allowed to listen to Willie Nelson on my headphones.

This is yet another example of Ron not caring about anyone other than himself. Willie Nelson is great, but try to set a better example, Ron! 

Another word for 'jokes' is 'lies'. I do not lie. Therefore, I do not joke.

Oh, but you do joke, Ron. Some of the very best jokes on Parks and Rec come from the mind of Ron Swanson, whether he appreciates them or not. Like all 32 of the jokes here. They are all gold, though you probably don't want to take his advice very often. 

Between his hilarious stand-up comedy specials, unforgettable performance on Parks and Recreation, and the landmark Master of None series on Netflix, Aziz Ansari has accomplished a lot over the past decade-and-a-half. Soon, the multi-talented star will add film director to his resume when his new movie, Good Fortune, has its world premiere.

If this is the first you’re hearing of Ansari’s new comedy film that will see him share the screen with Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen, as well as several other notable stars, don’t worry, because we’re about to break it all down. Here’s everything we know about Good Fortune, which sounds like one of the most promising upcoming comedies, at this time point in time. 

What Is The Good Fortune Release Date?

Though we would love to have a release date for Good Fortune to share with the world, the truth is Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, has yet to reveal when Aziz Ansari’s new comedy is going to land in theaters. With footage having been shown at CinemaCon 2024 and production nearing completion (more on both of those in a bit), it shouldn’t be too much longer before we receive word of a release date or at least a release window at some point in the next few months.

Good Fortune Follows Two Friends Who Switch Places And The Guardian Angel Who Makes It Happen

When Good Fortune does eventually find its way to theaters, Aziz Ansari’s new movie will follow two friends (played by Ansari and Seth Rogen) as they switch lives and learn a great deal about the world, life, and themselves in the process. Helping this all go down is what was described during the Lionsgate panel at CinemaCon 2024, which was attended by CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell, as a “budget guardian angel” played by Keanu Reeves.

With the poor and struggling friend taking the place of his more successful buddy, and the other way around, they will begin to see what everyday life is like for one another, which forever changes how they see the world. What ends up happening, and changing in their lives, as a result of this little experiment is anyone’s guess at this point, and we’ll have to wait and see it for ourselves somewhere down the road.

When Can We Expect A Good Fortune Trailer?

Neither Lionsgate nor Aziz Ansari have announced exactly when the world will get to see the Good Fortune trailer, but we know that one exists in some shape or form. During the aforementioned CinemaCon 2024 panel, Ansari unveiled a closed-door trailer that provided what appeared to be a detailed peek at his new comedy movie. As stated in CinemaBlend’s live blog of an event that also saw big reveals about the upcoming Ballerina film (which also features Keanu Reeves) and Eli Roth’s Borderlands adaptation, the trailer and movie both look great.

Expect to hear much more about the Good Fortune trailer in the weeks and months to come, as it appears to be a case of “sooner rather than later” when it comes to its reveal. 

Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen And Keanu Reeves Lead The Good Fortune Cast

A movie like this is going to require a group of actors with a lot of experience and versatility, and luckily for everyone, the Good Fortune cast has that in spades. Back in April 2023, Variety reported that Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen, and Keanu Reeves would be leading its cast.

Each of these actors is more than capable of handling a comedic premise that pretty much comes down to a guardian angel helping two friends trade places, even Reeves. Though mostly known for being at the center of some of the best action movies like The Matrix and the various John Wick films, Reeves’ work in the Bill & Ted franchise speaks volumes, as do his hilarious and random appearances in Always Be My Maybe and Toy Story 4.

But these three won’t be alone in Good Fortune, as the supporting cast is shaping up to be just as strong. In January 2024, Variety reported that Nope star Keke Palmer had joined the cast. Three months later, Deadline revealed that Sandra Oh, who most recently starred in Quiz Lady, would also be co-starring.

In April 2023, it was revealed that former Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who ended his 1,316-day title run in the bonkers WrestleMania 40 main event, was involved with the movie after Palmer posted a picture of him in her Snapchat Story (via Comicbook.com). Though his character hasn’t been revealed, he was spotted sitting in some kind of vault surrounded by women, money, and gold bars. 

Good Fortune Is Aziz Ansari’s Feature Film Directorial Debut

Though Aziz Ansari directed nearly a dozen episodes of his Master of None series on Netflix between 2015 and 2021, the comedian has never completed a feature film as a director. That will change with Good Fortune, as Ansari both wrote and directed the upcoming comedy in addition to starring in it, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Ansari was originally slated to make his feature film directorial debut a few years ago with Being Mortal, a dramedy starring Bill Murray. However, shortly after filming began in February 2022, production was suspended after an on-set complaint of inappropriate behavior by Murray, according to RollingStone. Murray later addressed the controversy, telling CNBC he thought he was doing something funny but it wasn’t taken that way. Production never resumed.

After Being Delayed Due To The 2023 Strikes, Production On Good Fortune Resumed In January 2024

Production on Good Fortune initially got underway in May 2023, but the shoot, like so many others, was suspended indefinitely due to the WGA Writers Strike, according to The Hollywood Reporter. What started as a short break turned into a months-long delay for Ansari’s directorial debut, which eventually resumed principal photography in January 2024, as revealed in an Instagram post by Keke Palmer.

Most of the shoot had been completed by the time CinemaCon 2024 rolled around in April, it was revealed that Reeves still had to complete a few more scenes after he recovered from a fractured knee he suffered after tripping on a rug in his trailer. 

Expect to hear much more about Good Fortune soon. But, in the meantime, don’t forget to check out our 2024 movie calendar for all the latest big-screen releases coming out this year.

There were some big surprises thrown out during Lionsgate’s 2024 CinemaCon panel, including the studio bringing out Aziz Ansari to talk about his new comedy Good Fortune with Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves. The latter has a good relationship with the studio thanks to the John Wick franchise, and filming a comedy after the fourth installment in the franchise might have felt like a breath of fresh air after all the action-heavy stunts Keanu does as Wick. Except, it turns out Good Fortune wasn’t so fortuitous for the actor, after all. 

When asked by Lionsgate film chairman Adam Fogelson about filming Good Fortune, the topic of Keanu came up. Ansari had really wanted an all-star cast so he could bring the comedy to the big screen, noting there had only been like “four” comedies given the chance since the pandemic, with one of those making a billion dollars (Barbie), so he felt like theatrical was a great fit. But he got more than he bargained for when Keanu injured himself on set.

Though it is worth noting other people have been injured on the Wick set before, Fogelson joked, “So, Chad Stahelski could not break Keanu Reeves on four John Wick movies…” during the panel. Ansari then confirmed he was the one who managed to "break" the then 58-year-old actor. All it took was someone putting a rug in his trailer. 

You may have already seen the image that subsequently rolled around the Internet. If you haven’t it’s quite notable, as the actor seems to be hobbling around on crutches and with a giant ice pack on his knee. It’s the type of set up you’d probably see after a sports injury, or, you know, an injury that came from attempting a major stunt. But nope, per the newcomer director, Keanu Reeves was not doing something cool while playing the angel Gabriel in the new movie, he was simply hanging out and tripped. 

It wasn’t just a tweak either. The rug fall literally fractured Keanu’s kneecap and he was unable to do major stuff on his knee for weeks. The good news is that Good Fortune is literally a comedy, and the actor was able to continue filming mostly without incident, though the director notes they did have to bring a double in for one “salsa” scene. 

Sure, it could have happened to anyone, but it’s not exactly how I’d picture the guy who does his own trick riding on a horse in John Wick horrifically injuring himself. For Ansari, who is a first time director with Good Fortune, the news was both problematic and hilarious. 

After filming on his original directorial debut Being Mortal was halted thanks to a complaint against Bill Murray, it's been a pivot just to get Good Fortune made. Of course, this movie was then the one that broke Keanu, and then the Internet found out about said injury thanks to a paparazzi photo. But he says the icing on the cake was when “#getwellKeanu” started trending following the release of the crutches image. You gotta love the ever-supportive Keanu fans. 

It's unclear if you'll be able to subtly spot the injury once Good Fortune hits theaters, but keep an eye on the 2024 movie release schedule. 

While Saturday Night Live may be the most recognizable and, easily, the longest-lasting sketch comedy series in American history, there have been others, in case you didn’t know. In fact, there are quite a few legendary comedic actors who got their start in sketch comedy and have even been prominently featured in some great SNL sketches as hosts, but have never called Studio 8H home… as regular cast members, at least. The following are some of our favorite well-known masters of mirth who did sketch comedy, but weren't SNL cast members. 

Jordan Peele

Before becoming known as the mastermind behind some of the best horror movies in recent memory, Jordan Peele made a name for himself as a MADtv cast member, and later, as one-half of Key & Peele’s eponymous duo on Comedy Central. The Academy Award winner was actually offered to be on SNL, but was unable to break from his contract with MADtv, which is why he left the Fox series on bad terms after five years.

Carol Burnett 

Carol Burnett has been one of the most essential names in comedy for decades, but you can find much of her most iconic performances — such as a timeless Gone with the Wind parody — on her own long-running variety show, The Carol Burnett Show. Following her dramatic turn on Better Call Saul, a viral campaign was launched for her to host SNL, which, very shockingly, would be the first time.

John Candy

The late John Candy is one of the most beloved comedic talents of all time, known for great movies like Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains & Automobiles. For years, the actor’s claim to fame was Canada’s SCTV, on which he debuted characters like Johnny LaRue, whom he based off of rude people he knew and “wanted to get back at.”

Dave Chappelle

Any time that Dave Chappelle has hosted SNL, it always seems to spark controversy for one reason or another, which should come as no shock to anyone who watched the Emmy-nominated Chappelle’s Show. Running from 2003 to 2006 on Comedy Central, the series reflected the comic’s risqué, but thought-provoking, humor and featured now iconic bits including recreations of true stories about Rick James and Prince and an epic Wayne Brady cameo.

Jamie Foxx

Multi-talented Academy Award winner and Grammy winner Jamie Foxx has proved to be an absolute natural when he shows up at Studio 8H. After all, the Spider-Man movie villain actor — who also had his own sitcom featuring SNL alum Garrett Morris called The Jamie Foxx Show — did get his start on In Living Color from 1991 to 1994.

Eric Idle

There are some really weird SNL sketches that toe the line between terrible and amazing, but none have reached quite the level of distinct surrealism that Monty Python’s Flying Circus is defined by. One of the most famous members of the eponymous British comedy troupe is Eric Idle (i.e. “Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more”), who would headline at Studio 8H four times in the ‘70s.

Catherine O'Hara

In addition to her epic film career — including the Home Alone movies, Beetlejuice, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, to name a few — Catherine O’Hara’s small screen career has earned her two Emmy awards. Her more recent win was for playing Moira Rose in the Schitt’s Creek cast, but there first was as a writer for SCTV, on which she also inspired laughs as a cast member.

Bob Odenkirk 

Future Breaking Bad cast member Bob Odenkirk actually wrote some beloved SNL sketches, such as Chris Farley’s first appearance as Matt Foley. His skills as a sketch comedy performer, however, could be seen in the 1990s on the short-lived The Ben Stiller Show, the more successful HBO series, Mr. Show with Bob & David, and its Netflix original revival, W/ Bob & David, in 2015.

Michael Richards

Years before starring in the Seinfeld cast as one of the funniest sitcom characters ever, Cosmo Kramer, Michael Richards portrayed various characters on Fridays. The short-lived sketch comedy — essentially ABC’s answer to Saturday Night Live — is also where the three-time Emmy winner met Seinfeld creator Larry David.

Jim Carrey

There are few living comedic legends as widely celebrated as Jim Carrey, who has hosted SNL a number of times and even signed on as the show’s resident Joe Biden for a brief period. What first led the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Dumb and Dumber actor on the path to stardom was his four-year stint on In Living Color, on which he debuted characters like Fire Marshall Bill, which came out of a failed sketch idea, apparently.

Aziz Ansari

Along with The League star Paul Scheer and Children’s Hospital actor Rob Huebel, Aziz Ansari formed a comedy troupe called Human Giant, who led their own titular sketch series that lasted for 20 episodes on MTV. The comic — who has also hosted SNL before — saw his star power rise when he joined the Parks and Recreation cast and went on to play one of best South Asian TV characters in recent memory on Netflix’s Master of None, which he also co-created. 

Rowan Atkinson

While most people associate him best with Mr. Bean these days, there are many great Rowan Atkinson movies and TV shows that pre-date his debut as the famous man-child. For instance, one of the the British comedian’s earliest claims to fame was a sketch comedy series called Not the Nine O'Clock News, which ran from 1979 to 1982 on the BBC.

Eric Wareheim

A series that best defines the surreal humor that Adult Swim is known for is Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, in which Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim portray various characters in strange situations in sketches the drip of a low-budget. Wareheim has done many notable things on his own — such as his starring role on Master of None and recurring character on Bob’s Burger — but the duo still works together on shows like Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories or the sitcom parody Beef House from 2020.

Goldie Hawn

A show that largely inspired SNL was Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In — which, also like SNL, served as a jumping off point for many stellar careers, such as Lily Tomlin and Richard Dawson. Perhaps its most icon and successful alum, however, is one-time Hollywood It Girl Goldie Hawn, who won an Oscar for Cactus Flower very shortly after leaving the show and before going on to lead classics like Private Benjamin and Overboard.

Eugene Levy

Before starring in the American Pie cast, before Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, and before many other great Eugene Levy movies and TV shows, the Canadian actor gained notoriety as party of Second City. His stint on the eponymous, Emmy-winning sketch series, SCTV, also saw the beginning of professional and personal relationship with the likes of John Candy, his Schitt’s Creek co-star Catherine O’Hara, and plenty more.

Flip Wilson

In the early 1970s, before SNL’s premiere, Flip Wilson hosted his own variety show, which was one of the most popular series on television during its four-year run on NBC. The most famous character the comedian portrayed on The Flip Wilson Show was a boisterous woman named Geraldine, whom he resurrected when he hosted SNL in 1983.

John Cleese

John Cleese — also known for writing and starring in the classic con artist movie, A Fish Called Wanda, and voicing the King in the Shrek movies — has never hosted SNL, but did appear on an episode with fellow Monty Python member, Michael Palin, in 1997. In addition to a cold open poking fun at the recently instituted TV ratings system, Cleese and Palin performed a special recreation of one of the most famous Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketches, “Dead Parrot.”

Bobby Lee

Known for characters like counter-productive translator Bae Sung, wannabe tough guy Tank, or Bruce Lee’s cousin, Bobby Lee is one of MADtv’s most notable success stories. The Korean-American became a staple of the Harold and Kumar movies, landed recurring roles on show like Magnum P.I. and Reservation Dogs, has moonlighted as the host of podcasts TigerBelly and Bad Friends, and plenty more to boast.

David Cross

From playing Tobias Funke — a character who could totally ruin Thanksgiving — on Arrested Development to appearing in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, David Cross has a pretty stacked and reputable resume. What set the path for the comedian’s success was co-headlining (along with Bob Odenkirk) HBO’s Mr. Show, on which he debuted a character who got his own movie in 2002 called Run Ronnie Run.

David Alan Grier

Arguably David Alan Grier’s most famous character from his In Living Color tenure was Antoine Meriwether — one half of a duo also consisting of Damon Wayans’ Blaine Edwards. The They Cloned Tyrone cast member — who hosted SNL a couple of times in the ‘90s — reprised the flamboyant film critic on an SNL episode hosted by Wayans.

Rick Moranis

The beloved Rick Moranis has starred in many funny movies, such as Ghostbusters from 1984 and 1983’s Strange Brew. The latter was the film debut of Bob McKenzie — a stereotypical hoser he originated on SCTV alongside Dave Thomas as his brother, Doug.

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman was cast on a few different sketch comedy shows — such as BBC’s A Kick Up the Eighties — before becoming the star of her own in 1987, which also saw the debut appearances of the Simpsons. Fox’s The Tracey Ullman Show was actually just one of many sketch series that the British comedian would headline, such as HBO’s Tracey Takes On… and Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union.

Keegan-Michael Key

In 2021, Keegan-Michael Key became the first MADtv alum to host SNL, which saw him reunite with this fellow Schmigadoon cast member, Cecily Strong. The episode — in which Key broke into laughter during a sketch featuring the Muppets —  was certainly a Season 46 highlight, but could have been even better if he brought back characters from some of the best Key & Peele sketches, like Luther.

Jennifer Saunders

Arguably, the most iconic duo Jennifer Saunders is a part of comes from Absolutely Fabulous, in which she plays Edina opposite Joanna Lumley’s Patsy. However, a sketch comedy that both predates and surpasses that long-running Britcom is French and Saunders, in which Saunders and her fellow Death on the Nile cast member, Dawn French, cleverly send-up everyday life in the U.K. and American cinema.

Larry David

In a story shared to Vanity Fair that mirrors one of the best Seinfeld episodes, the sitcom’s co-creator, Larry David, once quit his SNL writing gig in a rage, only to return on Monday acting like it never happened. Years later, he would make semi-regular appearances on the show as Bernie Sanders but, prior to all of this, the Curb Your Enthusiasm star was a performer on Fridays from 1980 to 1982.

Tim Heidecker

Tim Heidecker is best known as one half of the eponymous duo from Adult Swim’s hit sketch comedy series, Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! On his own, the Us actor has made waves in the comedy world with the 2012 dramedy, The Comedy, or for an ongoing, multi-media big following his fictionalized self’s murder trial.

Carrie Brownstein

Carrie Brownstein has been on SNL a few times — including once as herself for an edition of “What Up With That?” that did not go as planned, thanks to Samuel L. Jackson’s F-bomb. The musician and actor has also shared the screen with several Studio 8H all-stars on Portlandia, including her co-star and co-creator of the Portland, Oregon-based sketch show: Fred Armisen.

Stephen Fry

Before earning a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Wilde in 1999, later appearing in Amazon’s adaptation of Red, White and Royal Blue, and other versatile achievements, Stephen Fry was partners in comedy with House’s Hugh Laurie on BBC’s A Bit of Fry & Laurie form 1989 to 1995. Earlier than that, the pair were on another British sketch comedy show with future Harry Potter movies stars Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane called Alfresco. 

Michael Ian Black

Michael Ian Black is, perhaps, best known from Wet Hot American Summer and its Netflix original series spin-offs, but many of his collaborators on that cult comedy favorite — including director David Wain and his co-writer Michael Showalter — were on MTV’s The State together. Black later worked with Wain and Showalter on a sketch series called Stella and then headlined a sketch comedy/sitcom hybrid with Showalter for Comedy Central called Michael & Michael Have Issues in 2009.

Amy Schumer

One of the biggest names in stand-up is Amy Schumer, whose notoriety expanded after her Golden Globe-nominated performance opposite SNL’s Bill Hader in 2015’s Trainwreck, which she also wrote. Before then, however, the comedian’s stardom certainly rose after she scored her own Comedy Central show called Inside Amy Schumer, which won three Emmys — including Outstanding Variety Sketch Series.

Tim Conway

It may have been Carol’s show, but one could argue that the funniest cast member from The Carol Burnett Show was Tim Conway, who passed away in 2019. Some of his most memorable moments do not even involve the eponymous host, such as a sketch where he plays a clumsy doctor that had co-star, Harvey Korman, in stitches.

Amanda Bynes

Kenan Thompson — one of the longest-running SNL actors ever — is easily one of the biggest stars to start out on All That (essentially SNL, but with kids), but his co-star, Amanda Bynes, was the first to get her own sketch comedy series: The Amanda Show. Her post-Nickelodeon career includes leading the sitcom What I Like About You and movies like the Shakespeare-inspired rom-com, She’s the Man.

We still have nothing but love for our favorite iconic SNL actors, but also recognize that they do not make up all of our most cherished heroes in sketch comedy.

Parks and Recreation is arguably one of the best workplace sitcoms of all time, largely thanks to the hilarious writing and talented ensemble cast. With seven seasons of genuinely hilarious episodes, it can be hard for fans to pick a favorite episode. I, however, don’t have that problem because I know without a doubt that my fave is “Pawnee Rangers,” more commonly known to fans as the ep that gave us the iconic “Treat Yo Self” plot. 

The episode, which aired during Season 4 of the NBC sitcom, turns 12 on October 13, and while some sitcom episodes don't always age well, I’m happy to report that this isn’t one of them. In fact, I still love this 22-minute block as much as I did the first time I watched it. 

The ‘Treat Yo Self’ Plot Is Still My Life Motto 

Obviously, one of the reasons “Pawnee Rangers” is my favorite is because of the “Treat Yo Self” B-plot, which centers on Donna (Retta) and Tom (Aziz Ansari) as they embark on their annual “Treat Yo Self” shopping extravaganza, where they feel free to buy and do whatever they want without an iota of guilt. Despite not always seeing eye to eye with the more practical Ben (Adam Scott), the duo invites him along on their trip in the hopes of cheering him up. As the episode progresses and Ben fails to relax, Donna and Tom realize that treating yourself might look different for Ben. In the end, they encourage him to find his own way to enjoy something without guilt, which leads to him purchasing a movie-quality Batman costume. Naturally. 

As someone who tended to be a bit more practical with my own money and time, this episode gave me a new lease on life. Why shouldn’t we enjoy the finer things that life has to offer? And who says treating yourself has to include spa days and shopping sprees? Maybe the world would be a better place if we all indulged in our childlike whims and bought movie character costumes. I know my life has definitely gotten better now that I allow myself to buy a frivolous stuffed animal or random trinket while out adulting. 

“Treat Yo Self” day isn’t just about spending money frivolously, of course; it’s about putting yourself and your needs first every once in a while. A lesson I think we humans all can agree on (though my bank account might disagree). And really, the best part of the "Treat Yo Self" motto may very well be that it continues popping up again and again in later Parks and Recreation episodes. 

The Main Story Plot Is Still Incredibly Timely And Relevant

“Pawnee Rangers” usually gets hailed by fans as one of the best Parks and Recreation episodes because of the “Treat Yo Self” plot, but it’s actually not the main narrative thrust. That honor falls upon Leslie (Amy Poehler) and her quest to make sure her newly founded girls-only wilderness group, Pawnee Goddess, is better than Ron’s (Nick Offerman) all-boys Pawnee Rangers. Of course, things don’t go quite as planned as Leslie realizes that in excluding the Pawnee Rangers from the Pawnee Goddess camping fun, she’s no better than the latter group. 

On the surface, the episode is just another example of Leslie and Ron’s silly rivalry and their different approaches in life, but it also holds a deeper weight when one considers the real-life Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts organizations who have had to adjust their all-boy, all-girl membership guidelines. The episode may not have set out to champion inclusive wilderness groups, but that’s definitely the message that has stuck with me over the years. 

All the plots in the “Pawnee Rangers” episode are all about finding ways to make yourself happy. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it — some people enjoy spa days, others want to buy Batman costumes, and some actually want to spend a day in the wilderness. What matters is that no one should feel guilty or judged for doing things that they love. Especially if those things one enjoys might be different from the traditional masculine and feminine hobby ideologies. 

All seven seasons of Parks and Recreation are available to stream with an active Peacock subscription. If you want to rewatch “Pawnee Rangers” to celebrate its 12-year anniversary, head straight to Season 4, Episode 4. And keep an eye on our 2023 TV schedule; you never know where the Parks and Rec cast are reuniting next!

In the making of Aziz Ansari's directorial debut, things definitely didn't go as planned. The film, titled Being Mortal (based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Atul Gawande), went into production in March 2022, but filming was halted a few weeks in due to the investigation of a complaint against star Bill Murray. In the following months, Murray spoke out about the controversy, but it was announced by Searchlight Pictures earlier this year that the movie was cancelled. This was obviously a big career blow to Ansari, but he's now set to get back up on the metaphorical horse – set to helm a brand new project that has Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves attached to play leading roles.

According to Variety, the new comedy is titled Good Fortune... though that is presently pretty much all we know about it, as plot details are being kept a secret. Ansari is set to wear many hats in the making of the movie, as he will not only be directing, but also writing the script and co-starring. As you probably could have guessed, there isn't any information available about the roles that Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves will be playing.

Good Fortune will mark a reunion for Aziz Ansari and Rogen, as the Fabelmans actor had a leading role in Being Mortal opposite Bill Murray and Keke Palmer. As actors, the two men have shared credits in Jody Hill's Observe And Report, Judd Apatow's Funny People, and Rogen's own directorial debut This Is The End (which he helmed in collaboration with Evan Goldberg).

In complete contrast, this will be Keanu Reeves first time working with both Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen. This is a side-effect of the John Wick: Chapter 4 star not doing a lot of comedies – but he is far from a neophyte when it comes to funny movies. After all, we are now just a few years removed from his reprisal as Ted "Theodore" Logan in Dean Parisot's Bill And Ted Face The Music, and he is hilarious playing himself in Nahnatchka Khan's Always Be My Maybe (which arrived on Netflix in 2019):

Good Fortune is evidently moving very quickly through the stages of production, as Lionsgate has picked up the rights to the movie and filming is expected to begin in Los Angeles in May. As more is reported about the project, hopefully we'll get a better sense of what to expect from it plot-wise.

If you're curious about Aziz Ansari's skills as a director, he helmed 11 episodes of Master Of None, which he co-created with Alan Yang (and is available to stream with a Netflix subscription). For those of you who need a Keanu Reeves fix immediately, John Wick: Chapter 4 is still kicking a lot of ass in theaters, and as for Seth Rogen, he voices Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is presently dominating the box office.

Given how soon production on Good Fortune will begin, it theoretically won't be long until it's released, and in the meantime you can plan your next trip to the theater with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.

When I first learned that The Late Late Show with James Corden was coming to an end because Corden was stepping down as host of CBS’ talk show after nearly a decade on the job, I knew the announcement would be met with some differing reactions from the public. However, all that went through my mind was the question of whom the English Emmy and Tony Award winner would be passing the torch to when he officially leaves in the spring of 2023.

Later, I heard from Variety that CBS was considering abandoning the single-host format and replacing the actor with a whole panel. I will certainly keep that exciting idea in mind as I present a few people I think would make for a great new Late Late Show host (or hosts, perhaps).

Neil Patrick Harris

Like James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris has won multiple Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and has hosted a few award ceremonies to great acclaim, including the Oscars in 2015. Of course, that information just barely scratches the surface as to why the multi-talented and effortlessly charming former How I Met Your Mother cast member would kick serious butt as the new face of The Late Late Show.

Tig Notaro

Acclaimed stand-up comedian and Army of the Dead cast member Tig Notaro once hosted an online talk show called Under a Rock, which sheds light on her inability to immediately recognize celebrities by challenging her to guess the name of her guest in each episode. I think the experience might have served as great preparation for her to take on a job like hosting The Late Late Show, which would also give her the opportunity to become a little more in tune with pop culture.

Samantha Bee

Someone with experience hosting a late night show and whose own Emmy-winning program was recently and suddenly cancelled after seven seasons on TBS is Samantha Bee. I believe the Full Frontal host deserves to be given another chance to have her bold, unfiltered voice heard as the headliner of another show and I like the idea of her following her fellow former Daily Show correspondent — Late Show host Stephen Colbert — every night.

Nish Kumar

A comedian known for hosting the United Kingdom’s own equivalent to The Daily Show, The Mash Report, from 2017 to 2020 is Nish Kumar, who is severely underrated and underexposed in the United States. Because James Corden was also not very widely known to American audiences before taking over as host of The Late Late Show, maybe the gig could help the British-Indian comic — who already deserves another show, in my opinion — achieve greater status here.

Richard Ayoade

Another supremely talented British comedian I thought of to replace Corden (and I promise the amount of fellow U.K. natives on this list was purely coincidental) is Richard Ayoade, whom most probably recognize as Maurice Moss on one of the funniest British comedies on Netflix, The I.T. Crowd. He has brought his signature, subversive wit to various hosting gigs over the years — i.e. his Oscars Slap joke at 2022’s British Academy Television Award — and I believe it deserves a more stable home for American audiences to bear witness to on a nightly basis.

Matt Berry

Ya know, if The Late Late Show does become a panel talk show, I think it would be a great opportunity for Ayoade to reunite with fellow The I.T. Crowd star Matt Berry as co-hosts. Yet, that being said, the star of FX’s series adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows (and Toast of London, to name just a few) — with his velvety, booming voice and impeccable comedic talent — would be a more-than-perfect choice on his own, too.

Keegan-Michael Key

Ever since he and Jordan Peele brought their beloved, eponymous sketch comedy series to a close in 2015, Keegan-Michael Key has been busy doing a bunch of stuff, from poking fun at musicals with Cecily Strong on Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon! or doing the same with Hollywood’s obsession with reboots in the Reboot cast for Hulu. The Emmy winner has also tried his hand at hosting the likes of game shows, awards ceremonies, and even daytime TV (with a guest host gig on Live with Kelly and Ryan), but not late night, which I think he would be a fantastic candidate for. 

Tiffany Haddish

Tiffany Haddish has also been a guest-host on Live with Kelly and Ryan, as well as Ellen, in addition to hosting TBS’ movie presentation lead-in talk show, Friday Night Vibes, for 13 episodes and winning an Emmy for hosting Saturday Night Live in 2018. Let alone the fact that she is one of her generation’s most renowned comedians and versatile talents, she certainly has the right experience to show that she is ready to take on a gig like hosting The Late Late Show.

Aziz Ansari

Since he and the rest of the Parks and Rec cast had their final curtain call, Aziz Ansari has been up to a lot of different things — such as creating and starring on the Emmy-winning Netflix comedy, Master of None, and working on his feature-length directorial debut, Being Mortal — but “host” is not a title he has added to his resume since the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. I think we should change that, because The Late Late Show could use someone with the unique, comedic perspective that he has shown in some great stand-up specials over the years.

Billy Porter

I am not sure if there is anything that Billy Porter cannot do, based on his Emmy Award win for his starring role as Pray Tell on Pose, multiple Tony Award wins, and reputation for consistently employing the most entertaining presence in whatever project he is involved with — such as in Amazon Prime’s Cinderella cast, for instance. Therefore, even if he was not brought on as the sole host of The Late Late Show, his lively, infectious, flamboyant personality would easily make him the most memorable member of the panel.

Craig Ferguson

Do you remember when Conan O’Brien took over The Tonight Show for an astoundingly brief seven months and people got pissed when the person he replaced, Jay Leno, came back to host it afterward? I think that if Craig Ferguson — the person James Corden replaced — were to come back to The Late Late Show, it would have the opposite effect, because the Scotsman remains, in the eyes of many, the most beloved host in the show’s history.

Especially if the multi-host format becomes a reality, the possibilities of who could take The Late Late Show to new heights in its next era are endless.

As of late, actor and comedian Aziz Ansari has been working on his feature directorial debut, Being Mortal. The production, however, experienced a setback after a crew member filed a complaint against one of the film’s stars, Bill Murray. As of right now, filming has been shut down by Searchlight Pictures. While the movie’s status remains unclear, Murray has broken his silence on the complaint against him and clarified where things currently stand within the situation. 

When the complaint was initially reported, it was unclear as to who was filed against. It was shortly after that the 71-year-old Bill Murray was said to have been the recipient. The veteran star discussed the matter with CNBC, stating that he had a “difference of opinion” with a female colleague he was working with on the set. While Murray didn’t give specific details about the incident itself, he said that he’s had time to reflect on things:

One of many upcoming movies, Aziz Ansari’s motion picture is an adaptation of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, a non-fiction book that addresses end-of-life, among other topics. Aside from directing, Netflix’s Master of None creator is also producing and starring in the film. Other confirmed cast members include Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer. According to CNBC, the movie was halfway through principal photography when production shut down. Searchlight Pictures had slotted the film for a 2023 release, though it remains to be seen if this delay will shift the studio’s plans. 

Even though things are at a standstill, the Ghostbusters: Afterlife is hopeful that work will pick up again and that he and the crew member “are going to make peace.” But his sentiments indicate that he ultimately wants things to move forward only if said colleague is ready to do so as well:

Being Mortal is only one of a few movies Bill Murray has coming up. The star is reteaming with frequent collaborator Wes Anderson for Asteroid City and starring in Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever. Many may have been particularly surprised, though, when the actor revealed that he’s set to appear in an upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe pic. It was later said that he’d joined the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, yet cast and crew, including co-lead Paul Rudd, aren’t confirming the rumors.

But more immediately, eyes are more than likely on Searchlight Pictures as they, alongside Aziz Ansari, decide on how best to proceed with Being Mortal. Time will tell if Bill Murray remains with the production.

Along with being a comedian and actor, Aziz Ansari also has some directing experience under his belt from the Netflix series Master of None, which he also co-created, co-wrote, executive produced and starred in. Ansari was set to take the directorial aspect of his career to the next level by helming Being Mortal. However, this upcoming movie is now dealing with a production shutdown following an investigation, and Bill Murray is allegedly involved. 

A Deadline report states that the reason Being Mortal's production was suspended was due to a complaint made against Bill Murray for "inappropriate behavior." At this time, it's unclear what Murray's involvement in the movie will be going forward. 

While Being Mortal’s production had already been halted earlier this week, Searchlight Pictures has reportedly suspended production on the adaptation of the nonfiction book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. The cast and crew have received a letter informing them of this decision, which was also shared by Deadline. Initially, the outlet reported this move from the studio was due to a complaint being filed last week. Said complaint was investigated and more details were revealed. 

As things stand now, Aziz Ansari and his producing partner, Youree Henley, are working with Searchlight Pictures on figuring out what steps to take on Being Mortal. Principal photography began on March 28, and this production suspension occurred roughly as filming was halfway completed. Being Mortal is intended to be released sometime in 2023, but it’s unclear at this point if the suspension will affect that plan.

Movie and TV production shutdowns were certainly commonplace in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, with movies like The Batman having to reconfigure how to shoot the rest of its footage months after the fact. As already noted though, the reason for Being Mortal’s production suspension is due to a complaint being filed against a member of the cast or crew. 

Before the update, the mysteriousness around the incident was reminiscent of when Midas Man, the movie about Beatles manager Brian Epstein, initially shut down its production last November. At the time, it was reported that Midas Man’s director, Jonas Akerlund, was “taking a break,” and he eventually departed, with Sara Sugarman inheriting the helming reins and the production resuming in January.

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next with Being Mortal, but it sounds like Searchlight Pictures intends to finish it,  as opposed to when Netflix scrapped production entirely on Nailed It! Halloween midway through the filming schedule. In addition to directing, Aziz Ansari is also starring alongside Bill Murray, Keke Palmer and Seth Rogen. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End has been named a Best Book of the Year by publications like The Washington Post and The New York Times Book Review.

CinemaBlend will pass along any major updates on what’s happening Being Mortal’s progress. Aziz Ansari can next he heard voicing Daryl in The Bob’s Burgers Movie, which comes out May 27.

After many years of South Asian characters in movies and TV being largely stereotypical side characters, there’s recently been a shift in Hollywood. In recent years, there are more and more examples of leading characters played by actors who have roots in India and Pakistan, among other locations in South Asia. Plus, they tell stories that don’t put them into a small boxes, and represent a larger experience that is what representation in film and TV is all about. 

We all deserve to be seen on the big and small screen, and characters like these open more doors for this community that makes up 25 percent of the population of the world. From regency romance to a Marvel superhero, we’re celebrating some recent great South Asian characters in movies and television. Check it out: 

Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) - Bridgerton

Bridgerton became the talk of the ton in 2020 when the Netflix series became the most successful original TV show for the streaming service. For the recent Season 2, Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me was adapted for television with its lead Kate played by British-Indian Sex Education actress, Simone Ashley. For the romance, the character was altered slightly to be Kate Sharma instead of Sheffield, with her and her family’s backstory being from India. The 2022 season seamlessly infused Indian culture into Kate and her sister Edwina’s identity whilst also ushering in an Indian lead of a romance set in the Regency era and for a very mainstream series. 

Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) - Sound Of Metal 

When it comes to South Asian actors being considered for award season buzz, oftentimes the storylines have been around starring in a story about and set in their home country such as 1982’s Gandhi and 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. Riz Ahmed changed this when he received an Oscar nomination for Sound Of Metal, becoming the first Pakistani actor and first Muslim actor to be included in the Best Actor category. In the drama, Ahmed plays a drummer in a metal band and drug addict who loses his hearing and must join a shelter for deaf recovering addicts. Ahmed’s incredible performance included the actor learning American Sign Language and how to drum like a pro. 

Dev Shah (Aziz Ansari) - Master Of None

After Aziz Ansari ascended into popularity on Parks and Recreation as the sarcastic and entrepreneurial Tom Haverford, the comedian created his own series in Netflix’s Master of None. The show, which he also starred in and wrote, really showed the actor’s personal perspective as an actor and Indian-American immigrant through a somewhat fictional lens. One especially memorable episode is called “Indians on TV” where he touches on how Indian actors are often expected to be stereotypes with heavy accents. In the most recent season of the show, Ansari took a step back from starring to highlight Lena Waithe’s character while he showcased his impressive directorial approach. 

Lucy Gulliver (Geraldine Viswanathan) - The Broken Hearts Gallery

The romantic comedy is a beloved genre, but over the years it has been plagued with the same faces and tropes over and over again. In 2020, though, Aussie actress Geraldine Viswanathan got to shine as the lead of The Broken Hearts Gallery alongside Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery. In the movie, Viswanathan plays a young woman who recently suffered a breakup and decides to start a gallery devoted to fallen relationships. The movie delivers a quality and unique rom-com that allows its half-Indian (of Tamil ancestry) main character / actress to lead the type of movie that has gone to white actresses over the years, and without her identity having to be her core personality trait, either.

Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra) - Blinded By The Light

Blinded By The Light premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before becoming a beloved (yet underrated) dramedy in 2019. The movie, directed by Gurinder Chadha, who previously made history as the helmer of Bend It Like Beckham, is about the son of Pakistani migrant parents, Javed, who falls in love with Bruce Springsteen’s music and uses it as an inspiration to write his own poetry. The story is inspired by the life of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor, who co-wrote the Blinded By The Light script. The movie and the character of Javed show how music can speak to and connect with anyone, including an immigrant kid who feels otherwise like an outsider in his life. 

Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling) - The Mindy Project 

After Mindy Kaling wrote for and portrayed Kelly Kapoor on The Office, the comedian pitched her own comedy to FOX, The Mindy Project. She created, produced and starred in the series about a gynecologist’s attempts to balance her personal and professional life. The series that aired for six seasons brought Indian representation to television in a big way, with Kaling becoming the first Indian American to have her own TV show on a major network, and in a way that wasn’t solely focused on her ethnicity, but addressing the life of a working career woman, and later, motherhood.  

Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli) - Midnight Mass

Mike Flanagan’s incredible Netflix horror franchise continued in 2021 with an original series called Midnight Mass, which served as an existential discussion about faith alongside its scares. Among the cast was the groundbreaking character of Sheriff Hassan, played by Rahul Kohli (previously in The Haunting of Bly Manor and iZombie). He played the island’s sheriff, who is a Muslim who struggles with his teenage son to fit into the town’s predominantly Catholic population. Within the series, Midnight Mass beautifully represents a South Asian Muslim family and their difficulties in the western world as all the spooky things take place. 

Rhea Kumar (Avantika Vandanapu) - Spin

Disney Channel is known for propelling young stars into mega stardom, such as Zendaya, Miley Cyrus, and Zac Efron, with their original films and TV shows. In 2021, the network made a massive move in representation by releasing the new DCOM, Spin, which is about an Indian-American teen who works at her tight-knit family’s restaurant, but realizes her true passion is to be an EDM DJ. The movie highlights Indian culture in a beautiful way and allows its young star, Avantika Vandanapu, to shine in a breakout performance. 

Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) - Quantico

Another network television win for a great South Asian character is Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ leading role in the ABC series, Quantico. The Indian A-lister moved to the American market to star in the thrilling drama about an FBI agent who becomes the prime suspect of a terrorist attack. It’s another first, with the actress becoming the first Indian actor to lead a primetime drama on American TV. But, Chopra Jonas also did so by playing a charismatic, badass, and intriguing character during the series’ three seasons. 

Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) - The Green Knight

Medieval epics have always been led by white men, but David Lowery’s 2021 adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gave Dev Patel a unique role in that space. The existentialist storyline allowed Patel to deliver a meaty performance that comments on the hero’s journey in a refreshing (yet taxing) trudge to meet the Green Knight. Patel’s performance is one of the best of 2021 and should have really gotten more Oscar recognition. 

Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) - Never Have I Ever 

Following Mindy Kaling’s The Mindy Project, she moved behind the scenes completely to create Never Have I Ever, a coming of age Netflix series. It stars newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who hails from Canada and was born to Tamil parents. It is loosely based on Kaling’s childhood experiences, as it follows an Indian-American Tamil high school student dealing with the sudden death of her father, who decides to change her social status, though it does not come easy. The show is much like a lot of high school series in a lot of ways, but it also adds the layers of her grappling and balancing her Indian-American identity as well. 

Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) - Eternals 

After Kumail Nanjiani made waves as a Pakistani-American comedian, writer, and actor in projects like Silicon Valley and The Big Sick, he was cast as the first South Asian superhero in Marvel’s Eternals. Not only does the movie include a big-screen Bollywood dance sequence, but Nanjiani got super ripped to take on the role because he wanted to make sure the first Pakistani superhero “could hang with Thor and Captain America.” Kingo is an Eternal and flashy actor who continued this breaking of stereotypes and continues to show Hollywood that South Asian actors have range and can fit in all genres far and wide.  

In just the past few years, there’s been an uptick in South Asian representation and a lot of different firsts for its large population in the framework of Hollywood. Here’s to more great South Asian characters in the years ahead. We’ll look out for more examples of them in new TV shows and upcoming movie releases. 

After a four-year break, Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s popular dramedy series Master of None is finally set to return to Netflix, though the show’s latest chapter doesn’t look like it will be picking up where things left off for Ansari’s Dev Shah at the end of the show’s second season. With a new name — Master of None Presents: Moments in Love — and a new focus, the award-winning series looks to continue with its engaging storytelling and exploration of the human condition sooner rather than later.

So, ahead of the return of Master of None Season 3, we’ve put together a quick rundown of seven quick things we know about well-regarded Netflix series including its premiere date, cast, and other key details to keep in mind before things pick back up later this spring.

Master Of None Presents: Moments In Love Premieres May 23

When Netflix initially released its May 2021 schedule, the streaming giant had Master of None Season 3 listed in the “TBD” category, surprising just about everyone with the surprise and long-awaited return of Aziz Ansari’s drama series. The surprises kept coming for fans of the show as Netflix released a trailer just days later giving fans their first glimpse of Master of None Presents: Moments in Love before revealing the May 23 release date.

Lena Waithe And Naomi Ackie Lead The Master Of None Season 3 Cast

Previous seasons of Master of None have primarily been focused on Dev Shah (Aziz Ansari) as he explores love and life in places like New York City, Nashville, and Italy as seen in Season 2, but this time around, the show will instead follow Dev’s friend, Denise (Lena Waithe) and her partner, Alicia (Naomi Ackie).

Prior to landing a role on Master of None Presents: Moments of Love, Ackie made a name for herself in various stage productions in London before giving a BAFTA Award-winning performance in The End of the F*ing World in 2019, a series that was carried by Netflix outside of the U.K. Lena Waithe, who voiced the first LGBTQ+ character in a Pixar movie with her brief performance in Onward, previously won an Emmy Award for the Master of None Season 2 episode “Thanksgiving,” which she co-wrote with Aziz Ansari.

Master Of None Season 3 Illustrates The Highs And Lows Of Relationships In Intimate Detail

Over the course of the Master of None Presents: Moments of Love, the relationship shared by Denise and Alicia will be explored in great and intimate details. This modern love story illustrates the ups and downs of marriage, struggles faced when trying to have children, and the ways in which a couple grows when they’re together as well as when they’re apart. Through existential questions about the meaning of love and life in general, Denise and Alicia's bond will be tested as they face the highest highs and lowest lows.

Although He’s Not The Main Focus, Aziz Ansari’s Dev Shah Will Appear In Some Capacity

Even though Aziz Ansari’s Dve Shah is not the main focus of Master of None Season 3, the character will appear in some capacity, as seen in the show’s teaser trailer released in April 2021. How large of role Dev will play, however, remains to be seen. And while Moments of Love breaks new ground in terms of storytelling, the new season is tied to the characters and events that transpired earlier in the series.

Aziz Ansari Co-Wrote Master Of None Season 3 With Lena Waithe And Also Serves As The Director

Previous seasons of Master of None have largely been written by Aziz Ansari and the show’s co-creator Alan Yang, with other writers stepping in on occasion like in the case of the aforementioned Emmy winner “Thanksgiving” in Season 2. This time around, however, Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe are listed as co-writers, which makes sense considering Master of None Presents: Moments in Love looks like it will primarily focus on her character, Denise.

Aziz Ansari also directed the entirety of Master of None Season 3, which is a change from previous seasons which have seen the show’s co-creator trade off directing duties with Eric Wareheim and Queen and Slim director Melina Matsoukas among others.

Master Of None Season 3 Will Consist Of Five Episodes

The first two seasons of Master of None consisted of 10 episodes each, but the story in Master of None Presents: Moments in Love will be told over the course of the five episodes. This makes sense when you consider that Season 3 will focus on the story of Denise and Alicia’s relationship, while previous seasons have each touched on the multiple arcs not tied to Dev’s relationship with Rachel Silva (Noël Wells) in Season 1 or Francesca (Alessandra Mastronardi) in Season 2.

If either of those two characters, or the numerous others that have appeared over the years including Arnold Baumheiser (Eric Wareheim) or Brian Chang (Kelvin Yu), will appear in Master of None Presents: Moments in Love remains to be seen. But come on, who doesn’t want more Big Bud, Lil Bud shenanigans like we’ve seen in the past?

Master Of None Season 3 Was Shot In The U.K. During The Pandemic

There was a stretch there where Master of None Season 3 wasn’t guaranteed, especially back in 2017 when Aziz Ansari alluded to taking a “looonng” break after finishing the show’s second season. At the time, Ansari told Vulture he didn’t really having anything left to say about being a young single guy in New York and would need to take the show in a different direction. And that’s exactly what happened when Ansari and Lena Waithe came up with the idea for Moments in Love.

According to Chortle, principal photography was initially slated to get underway in London back in early 2020 but when the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything a screeching halt, so did production on Master of None Season 3. Cameras did eventually start rolling in early 2021, with Variety confirming the season was shot on location during the ongoing pandemic.

Master of None Presents: Moments in Love is just one of the popular Netflix TV shows returning to the streaming giant later this year. If you want to know about upcoming shows not on Netflix, check out CinemaBlend’s 2021 Summer TV schedule.

Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s hit television series Master of None first premiered on Netflix way back in 2015, with the second season releasing in 2017. Despite ending on a pretty massive cliffhanger, Ansari decided to take a break from working on the series. That is until last year when production started for the secretive third season. Now, Aziz Ansari has shared the first trailer for Master of None Season 3, titled Master of None Present: Moments In Love, and it’s like a completely different show.

Instead of following Ansari, who plays budding actor Dev Shah, and Eric Wareheim’s Arnold Baumheiser, Master of None Presents: Moments In Love will focus on recurring character Denise, played by Lena Waithe. From the trailer it looks like the new season will focus exclusively on Waithe’s character and a blossoming relationship with her partner Alicia, played by Naomi Ackie.

According to the credits Lena Waithe co-wrote the new season alongside Ansari, who directed every episode. Unfortunately, the long-awaited third season will only run for five episodes, instead of the ten released for each of the first two seasons. But hey, I can’t complain. I’ll take any and all Master of None I can get.

The first season of Master of None followed Ansari’s Dev as he navigated New York City, an acting career and the dating scene. The show was a massive hit for Netflix, earning a number of awards including three Emmys and a Golden Globe. The second season saw Dev and ‘big bud’ Arnold galavanting across Italy before returning to New York. Season 2 culminated with a pretty intense cliffhanger, leaving fans searching for answers.

However, Ansari was adamant about taking a “pretty long break” from the series after the release of Season 2. According to the actor, he needed to make some major life changes before coming back for Season 3, which I totally respect. While I certainly loved watching Dev frolic around New York, I would love to see the show explore more of the personal aspect of romance, which is what we were seeing towards the end of Season 2, until that cliffhanger.

It doesn’t look like fans will be getting a ton of answers in terms of Dev’s relationship status for Master of None Presents: Moments In Love, but they will be able to see what Denise has been up to all of this time. Hopefully Ansari and Waithe can lean into the more romantic side of things, because I think that’s where the show really shines. Don’t get me wrong, the comedy is great, but the show’s best moments are rooted in the romantic relationships of its characters.

Fans can check out the long-awaited Master of None Presents: Love Moments In Love when it releases on Netflix May 23rd, 2021. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the first two seasons, now is the perfect time to dive in ahead of Season 3. As Dev would say, Allora!

While NBC's workplace comedy Parks and Recreation was a bit of an underdog when it started (coming on the heels of the similarly styled hit The Office), after a bit of retooling for the second season it became a critical and audience favorite, lasting seven seasons and helping to launch several careers. Well, five years after fans said a bittersweet goodbye to the wild and wonderful denizens of Pawnee, Indiana, Parks and Recreation is coming back with original cast members like Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt and Nick Offerman! But, there is one catch.

Unfortunately, the Parks and Recreation revival isn't going to give us Will & Grace-like amounts of content, but the good news is that it's coming very soon. Parks and Recreation is doing a one-off special, set to air on April 30 at 8:30 p.m., which will benefit Feeding America. All of your favorite funny characters will be back, and we'll be treated to an all new story featuring Poehler, Pratt, Offerman, as well as Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Retta, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe and Jim O’Heir. I need the end of this semi-trash month to get here NOW!

Take a look at the announcement about the Parks and Recreation special that went up on the show's official Twitter page:

I am so very ready for this! In case you're wondering what, exactly, this Parks and Rec special could be about, well, look no further than the world we currently live in. The show will be all about Leslie Knope (Poehler) trying to stay in touch with all of her friends / de-facto family during a time when self-isolation and social-distancing are the order of the day. I cannot wait for the show to explain why the three main couples (Leslie and Ben, April and Andy, and Ann and Chris) do not appear in the same room with their spouse, but I fully trust executive producer Michael Schur to come up with sweet / goofy explanations.

If you are (shamefully) unaware of the nature of Parks and Recreation, the story focuses on Leslie, the deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department of a small, fictional town in Indiana, who's complete dedication to her job and the people of Pawnee leads her to strive for excellence among some very daunting and silly situations. And, many of those situations come about because of her co-workers, friends and the corrupt / ineffective politicians and townspeople around her.

So, what's even better than getting a new episode of Parks and Rec with all of the main stars and which will benefit charity? We've been teased that some of Pawnee's other important citizens will be making appearances, too. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be sad if we don't at least see some Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz), Diane Lewis (Lucy Lawless), Tammy II (Megan Mullally), Craig Middlebrooks (Billy Eichner) and, man, if they could even work in Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson) or Jeremy Jamm (Jon Glaser) somehow I'd be so happy.

You might be wondering why, after a few years worth of hints that the cast and creatives behind Parks and Recreation were game to come back together, they all finally decided that this was the right time. Here's what Michael Schur had to say about the return and becoming the first scripted show on broadcast TV to address our current situation:

I. Love. This. And, now I need to binge Parks and Recreation by Thursday night at 8:30 p.m., so you'll need to excuse me. You can revisit the series on Netflix or Hulu, but if you'd like some other viewing options until the special airs on NBC, check out our 2020 Netflix premiere schedule and see when all of this season's finales will air!

The Parks And Recreation cast has become legendary since it started its run on NBC a decade ago -- yes a decade -- in 2009. Not only did the show produce some of the biggest stars in Hollywood today, like Chris Pratt and Aziz Ansari, but its endless parade of guest stars and cameos is also amazing.

Parks & Rec had an amazing ensemble cast, each of whom brought some unique and hilarious to the project. Characters like Tom Haverford and Ron Swanson have broken free of being mere sitcom characters and have become cultural icons. The actors who played them are still some of the funniest people in Hollywood and have continued to make audiences laugh long after the show wrapped up its final episode in 2015.

But which are the funniest? In a cast that includes Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, and Rob Lowe, not to mention smaller cameos and guests starring roles from the likes of Bill Murray, Andy Samberg, Dan Castellaneta, Patricia Clarkson, Henry Winkler, and so many more legends, how do you rank them? Well, let's take a shot here.

10. Rashida Jones (Ann Perkins)

On Parks And Recreation, Rashida Jones plays the kind and loving nurse and best friend to Leslie, Ann Perkins. While Ann is generally positive and bubbly, she has a dark streak in her too. Her low-key, measured and often deadpan reactions to the chaos that her co-stars create on Park & Rec are fantastic as she often seems to be the only sane person in Pawnee, Indiana.

Rashida Jones herself is Hollywood royalty, as the daughter of Golden Globe-winning actress Peggy Lipton and legendary music producer Quincy Jones. She first hit the big time when she starred as Karen on The Office. Jones is also a writer and a producer and was involved early on as the co-writer on Toy Story 4, and she has also written or co-written an episode of Black Mirror and the underrated rom-com Celeste & Jesse Forever (in which she also starred alongside Andy Samberg).

9. Adam Scott (Ben Wyatt)

Sir Ben Wyatt is the both hapless and brilliant love interest of Leslie Knope. Wyatt is basically a socially inept, awkward nerd who comes to town with a truckload of political baggage thanks to his ill-fated term as the youngest mayor in America in his hometown of Partridge, MN. He also holds a knighthood from the Queen of England and owns his very own Iron Throne from Game Of Thrones.

Adam Scott is a brilliant comedic actor who effortlessly plays understated characters and who brings humor in subtle and unexpected ways, well, except for his over-the-top and ridiculous coke-fueled character in Eastbound & Down. Even still, his character is like a more understated version of Kenny Powers, with a filthy mouth and messed up sense of humor.

8. Billy Eichner (Craig Middlebrooks)

Billy Eichner was a late addition to the Parks and Recreation cast, joining the show in Season 6 when Pawnee merged with Eagleton and he transferred to the parks department. His loud, overly enthusiastic and fairly angry character was a completely new voice for the show.

Since his stint on Parks & Recreation ended, it sure seems like Billy Eichner is everywhere these days, usually playing himself or some version of himself, screaming and carry on wherever he pops up, from late night talk shows to The Simpsons and everywhere else. He’s even got a part in the upcoming Lion King remake. His loud, brash humor is as hilarious as it is uncomfortable.

7. Rob Lowe (Chris Traeger)

When Rob Lowe joined the cast in Season 2, it was only supposed to be for a quick run as a guest star, but the character was so popular and Lowe liked it so much, he soon joined the cast full time as State Auditor and uncompromising health enthusiast Chris Traeger. Chris Traeger is literally one of the funniest characters Rob Lowe has ever played.

By the time he joined Parks & Rec, Rob Lowe was obviously already a huge star, going back to his “Brat Pack” days in the '80s when he starred in movies like St. Elmo’s Fire, and About Last Night, not to mention his hilarious roles in Tommy Boy and Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery. While Rob Lowe has also played serious, dramatic roles, most notably as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, his charm and humor have always shined through, no matter the role. He also hasn't doesn't take himself too seriously, popping up in cameos all over the place, or starring in movies like Sex Tape, having been one of the original celebrities to deal with the release of one way back in the late '80s.

6. Aubrey Plaza (April Ludgate)

Aubrey Plaza’s April Ludgate was such an underused character at the beginning of the Parks and Recreation run. It took some time for the character to properly develop but once she did, it was spectacular. Her unpromisingly dark and nihilistic attitude is the direct foil to her unfailingly positive boyfriend/husband Andy Dwyer and together they are one of the funniest couples in sitcom history.

For her part, Aubrey Plaza has become a huge star since the show, starring usually as a similarly dark character in movies like Dirty Grandpa with Robert De Niro and Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates, not to mention the upcoming reboot of Child's Play. But her best post-Parks & Recreation role may just be as Aaron Burr in the Hamilton episode of Drunk History. It is seriously funny.

5. Megan Mullally (Tammy Swanson – Tammy II)

Tammy II is Ron Swanson’s second wife and the bane of his existence. She is also the director of the Pawnee Public Library and the bane of Leslie’s existence. She is manipulative with both characters and serves as a unifying force for both characters to team up against.

Tammy II is played, of course, by the fantastic Megan Mullally, the real-life wife of Nick Offerman and now an often comedic partner with her husband. For 20 years she has been one of the funniest people in Hollywood, first making a big name for herself in her Emmy-winning performance as Karen Walker on Will & Grace starting in the late '90s. Since then, she’s has shown up in a string of hits, like Boston Legal, 30 Rock, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, and many more, including her current portrayal as Nick Offerman’s sleazy wife in the Sling Box commercials that make commercial breaks worth watching.

4. Chris Pratt (Andy Dwyer)

It’s hard to argue that by far the biggest breakout star from Parks And Recreation is Chris Pratt. His character Andy Dwyer started as more or less a side character, a failed musician and deadbeat boyfriend of Ann Perkins who falls into the hole behind their house and ends up working for the Parks Department after marrying April.

As for Chris Pratt, he is now one of the biggest stars in the world, starring in three of the biggest franchises in Hollywood. First as Emmet in The Lego Movie, then as Star-Lord in Guardians Of The Galaxy, and also as the dinosaur handler Owen Grady in Jurassic World and its follow-up, Jurassic Word: Fallen Kingdom, with another Jurassic World movie expected in 2021.

3. Aziz Ansari (Tom Haverford)

Tom Haverford has, by far, the most laugh-out-loud lines in Parks And Recreation. His ridiculously bougie aspirations keep the laughs coming from the first episode until the last. He was an early highlight on a show that was notoriously slow to find its footing in the first season. Luckily, once the comedy picked up speed, his character never lost the funny.

Aziz Ansari was another huge breakout star of the show. His multiple stand up specials and his Netflix show Master Of None have been huge hits and Ansari is one of only a handful of stand-up comedians to sell out Madison Square Garden in New York. That tells you everything you need to know about how funny he is.

2. Amy Poehler (Leslie Knope)

The star of Parks And Recreation and one of the funniest people in Hollywood, Amy Poehler has become a legend. Her character, Leslie Knope is a brilliant “every man (or woman),” determined to do good and make the world, or her small part of it, better. Her aspirations should be the aspirations of everyone, except for maybe the obnoxious (but hilarious) enthusiasm for everything. Literally everything.

Poehler got her first big break as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, during one of its most creative and funniest periods, alongside fellow cast members Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, and Tracy Morgan. Amy Poehler has written and starred in countless movies, often with her fellow SNL alum Tina Fey and has been praised for hosting both SNL and The Golden Globes, winning an Emmy for the former. Her latest project, Wine Country, can be found on Netflix.

1. Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson)

Ron Swanson is the undisputed king of Parks And Recreation. As the ornery “man’s man” who heads the department with an attitude that since government is inherently bad, the best way to do a government job is to barely do anything at all, Ron Swanson is great at doing very little at work. He balances his lack of hard work on the job with a slew of “manly” hobbies, like fishing, hunting, woodworking, lounge singing, meat eating, and ex-wives named Tammy.

Nick Offerman’s performance as Ron Swanson puts him in the upper echelon of all-time great sitcom characters, up there with George Costanza, Michael Scott, Liz Lemon, Norm Peterson, and any other great you can think of. In the years since Parks & Rec he has starred in stand-up specials, movies and TV shows like The Lego Movie, The Founder, Fargo and most recently in Amazon Prime’s Good Omens. It’s hard to image how funny life must be at home for two people like Offerman and his wife Megan Mullally.

Of course, there are characters and actors we’ve left off that hurt a lot to leave off, like both Saperstein siblings, Jean-Ralphio and Mona-Lisa, or their father Dr. Saperstein, played by Henry Winkler. There are three Tammys and only one made the list but all three are amazing.

By far the hardest to leave off are the other two full time employees of the Pawnee Parks Department, Donna, played by Retta and Jerry/Garry/Larry/Terry played by Jim O’Heir. They deserve better, as they are amazing too. But a ranked list is a ranked list and this time they didn't quite make the cut. Although if we were ranking by best one-liners, "treat yourself" would have to be on there.

Warning: spoilers ahead for Master of None Season 2! Read ahead at your own risk!

In a mere two seasons on the air, Aziz Ansari's Master of None has become one of the most popular shows on Netflix and one of the best comedies on television. Channeling the best instincts of Woody Allen, the comedian's take on modern romance and life in the big city has clearly resonated with fans even through an incredibly frustrating and heartbreaking Season 2 cliffhanger. Fans of the romantic comedy series are dying to know what happened between Dev and Francesca, but now it seems that Ansari won't return to the Master of None universe until he has enough ideas for a good third season -- if he even returns at all. The comedian explained:

As excited as we are for a possible third season of Master of None, Aziz Ansari's recent comments to Vulture make plenty of sense. Master of None has received near universal acclaim from fans and critics alike, and as such he only wants to return to this universe if he can craft something that will please the audience. Even if that means never returning to pay off the cliffhanger between Francesa and Dev, Ansari seems willing to take that risk.

We've seen this situation play out before with other beloved comedies like Louie, as FX similarly gave stand-up comedian Louis C.K. as much time as he needed between seasons to properly craft his stories during that particular show's run. Rather than focusing on a deadline or a set in stone return date for Season 3, Aziz Ansari intends to continue living his life to generate authentic story ideas that feel organic and lived in for the established Master of None universe.

This hesitation to return to Master of None doesn't just stem from creative integrity, however. It also derives from the fact that making the show is incredibly taxing on Aziz Ansari. The Parks and Rec alum continued:

In essence, what Aziz Ansari is trying to say is: stop bugging him about Season 3. He just finished work on Season 2 and now wants to rest up before diving back into another year from hell.

We will bring you more information related to the third season of Master of None (if it ever happens at all) as new details become available. Season 1 and 2 are currently available to stream on Netflix. If you happen to find yourself on the lookout for more information regarding the rest of this summer's television debuts, make sure to check out our premiere guide and fill out your TV viewing calendars with all of the most important dates.

Aziz Ansari became a familiar face on the small screen thanks to his scene-stealing role as Tom Haverford on NBC's Parks and Recreation, and he has become one of the funniest folks on Netflix thanks to his series Master of None. The first season was a hit for the streaming service, and the second season is only a couple of weeks away from premiering. Now, Ansari has weighed in on whether a Season 3 could happen, saying this:

Master of None stars Aziz Ansari as Dev Shah, who kicked off the series as a slightly successful New York City actor. He'd been mostly coasting off of a Go-Gurt yogurt commercial in his career, and his various shenanigans with friends in the city kept him pretty busy. Season 1 ended with him broken up with his girlfriend and moving to Italy to raise his pasta game; according to Ansari in his chat with Vulture, the action of Season 2 will pick up on Dev Still in Italy.

Considering that Netflix has given Aziz Ansari the freedom to do pretty much whatever he wants with Master of None, it makes sense that he's not sure if the show will ever come back for a Season 3. If he's in charge, he can control the creative process that would or would not result in a third season. Ansari went on to say this about why he would probably need the big break for a potential Season 3:

The first season took Dev on a journey much like a less successful version of Aziz Ansari's as an actor, and the second season will once again set Dev on a path similar to Ansari's. Evidently Ansari has now run out of personal material that would bring the laughs in a fresh way after Season 2. If a major change happens in his personal life, he may feel inclined to bring Dev back for another batch of episodes.

If Season 2 is as successful as Season 1, we can bet that Netflix will be willing to accommodate whatever schedule Aziz Ansari wants. The first season scored nominations in four comedy categories at the 2016 Emmys, including Outsanding Directing, Outstanding Lead Actor, Outstanding Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing. Ansari and his writing partner Alan Yang took home the top prize for Outstanding Writing.

Master of None Season 2 will debut on Tuesday, May 15 at 12:01 a.m. PT. Take a look at our 2017 Netflix schedule to see all the upcoming premiere dates, and don't forget to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well.

Awards Season is a funny time for the world of movies. A year's worth of great work is quickly encapsulated in the quest for statues which will help cement the winner's place in film history. One of this year's films that has probably the most Oscar buzz is Damien Chazelle's romantic musical dramedy La La Land, which cleaned house at this year's Golden Globes. After winning a whopping seven awards and breaking the previous record for most wins, it seems like La La Land is set up or an awesome Oscar Sunday. But not everyone is that wild about the musical, and Saturday Night Live addressed the naysayers in a hilarious new sketch.

Last night Aziz Ansari hosted Saturday Night Live, where did a variety of pretty great sketches. But perhaps my favorite was "La La Land Interrogation", where Ansari was arrested for not being obsessed with the movie. The results are pretty hilarious, check it out.

I mean, come on. Aziz Ansari's honest and calm response to La La Land, juxtaposed with the almost manic police officers who were interrogating him made for a truly noteworthy sketch. Let's break it down.

The sketch begins with Aziz Ansari in a police station after some "incriminating" footage was found of him on a date. Said footage? Just a dinner conversation where Ansari admitted that he liked La La Land, but thought it dragged a bit toward the middle of the film. That was all it took to book him, as the interrogating officers guffawed at his lack of enthusiasm for the romantic movie musical. La La Land is perfect, damnit; they need Aziz to realize it.

What is the most effective about this sketch is that many of Aziz Ansari's problems with La La Land are exactly what the film has been praised for. While he was unimpressed with the vocal performances by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, it was definitely a purposeful choice on the part of Damien Chazelle. Rather than highlighting Broadway voices, the film featured a cast who sang more like the average moviegoer. And while Ansari's character in the sketch didn't enjoy the myriad montages that were present toward the middle of the film, it was done to show the passing of time through the story.

The interrogating officers reached a true boiling point when Aziz Ansari's character revealed that he actually fell asleep at around the middle of La La Land's runtime. Fans will know that this is when some of the film's most magical moments happen, including Sebastian and Emma' dance among the stars at the Griffith Observatory. With the revelation that Ansari actually missed this gorgeous sequence, Cecily Strong basically loses her shit.

This was probably my favorite sketch of the night, although it did make me rethink my adoration for La La Land. That being said, I'm going to retire to listen to the soundtrack for the 400th time.

Aziz Ansari is a certified comedy superstar, with his Netflix show Master Of None setting to debut in the near future. What's the secret to his success? Simple: he took increasingly larger scale parts that suited his comedic talents, and he avoided Michael Bay's Transformers like a racist plague.

Vulture managed to gain some insight into how the Parks And Recreation actor was offered a rather infamous bit part in the first Transformers film, through a stand-up routine he did after a screening of his new show. Ansari turned the part down because of its obvious racism, but in the following anecdote he describes not only how he passed up the opportunity, but how he didn't hold it against his friend got the role instead:

A lot of actors have taken the "token ethnic role" and managed to make careers for themselves afterwards. Of course, the possibility always remains that once you take one stereotypical role, you'll get stuck with all of them. Which is probably the best part of how Aziz Ansari rejected this thankless job of a role in Transformers. In case you don't remember this rather problematic scene from Michael Bay's first time around the block with Autobots and Decepticons, you can check it out – and cringe – below:

Racism, much like gender bias, is still a big problem in Hollywood, and Aziz Ansari knows this better than anyone else. Which is probably part of why he not only casts his actual parents to play that same role in Master Of None, but he also cast his friend, Ravi Patel, years after he did take the Transformers gig. The other part of his authentic, and personally friendly, casting choices is summed up in the following Ansari-delivered zinger, justifying his choices:

While it would have been an easy way to grab some screen-time, as well as the obvious laughs that he could have milked out of the small role of a call-center operator, Ansari would have probably crushed the role. The only problem is, he probably would have been brought back for as many Transformers films as his agent would have signed him up for, putting him off of projects that he could have been doing instead. Seeing as this was the same time Aziz Ansari was teamed up with Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer for their short-lived, but infinitely more memorable MTV show Human Giant, we may not have gotten the Aziz that we all know and love today.

You can thank Aziz Ansari for his good decision making by watching Master Of None, when it premieres on Netflix on November 6th.

Just two months after we last saw Tom Haverford treat himself for the last time on Parks and Recreation, star Aziz Ansari has already landed his next series. Netflix has granted the hilarious actor and stand-up comedian a series order for his very own show. This marks roughly the jabrillionth project Netflix has put into orbit since the beginning of the year.

The new series, which Ansari co-created with Parks and Rec co-executive producer Alan Yang, will see a ten-episode Season 1. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a name just yet, or an official plotline to accompany the order. According to Deadline’s sources, however, the show will revolve around “semi-autobiographical elements and deals with dating and relationships.” That doesn’t exactly sound like the most dazzlingly original bare-bones description, but more Ansari is never a bad thing. (And it kind of fits in with what I wished for last year.)

Though the show’s plotline is a mystery, we do know a handful of the talented actors that will be joining Ansari.

First we have the comedy mainstay and instantly recognizable voice actor H. Jon Benjamin, who is currently starring as the titular leads in Bob’s Burgers and Archer. (He co-starred in an episode of Parks and Recreation in Season 2.) As well, Dear White People producer and occasional Bones writer Lena Waithe will take on her first starring TV role, though she also appeared in an episode of The Comeback’s second season last year.

The multi-hyphenate Eric Wareheim, of Tim and Eric fame, will also be on board, along with recurring Saturday Night Live actress Noël Wells, most recently seen on Season 4 of Comedy Bang! Bang!. TV vet and Cloverfield co-star Kelvin Yu, last seen on USA’s Satisfaction, rounds out the list of presumed regulars. A notable guest star mentioned is Homeland’s Claire Danes, who should add a bit of potentially neurotic fun to the process.

This will be Ansari’s third venture with Netflix. His early stand-up specials are currently available, and the streaming service produced his 2013 special Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive and his latest special Live at Madison Square Garden, which premiered in March 2015.

Aziz Ansari’s new show, which I kind of hope will end up being the title, is currently in production in New York with The Spectacular Now director James Ponsoldt behind the camera, which means we might end up seeing it by the end of 2015. And that’s definitely worth a round of whiskey lotions.

Now that Parks and Recreation has ended, Aziz Ansari has set his sights on a much bigger gig. The actor and comedian recently put together a large stand-up special in Madison Square Garden. If you weren’t one of the thousands of people able to attend, have no fear, we’ve got a first look at the comedy special, below.

Like many comedians, Aziz Ansari’s comedy comes from real life. He’s a fun mix of goofy swagger and stories with a ring of truth and poignancy to them. In the clip, he talks about growing up with immigrant parents, and it’s incredibly cool how he can get across love and respect for his parents and their sacrifices while cracking enough jokes to keep the audience rolling in their seats. I already miss Parks & Rec’s obnoxious Tom, but this sketch is enough to get me excited about Ansari’s stand-up.

If you like what you see here, you won’t have too much longer to wait. Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden is actually hitting the subscription streaming service on March 6, which means fans will have less than 24 hours before they can catch the comedy special, which was filmed in front of a sold-out live audience. The Madison Square Garden stage venue is huge and Netflix tries to give us a sense of its grandiosity in the poster for the special, below.

Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden is probably the biggest stand-up special the comedian has attempted, but it isn’t his first stab at comedy on Netflix. In the past, Netflix has also been the distributor of other Ansari comedy specials, including Buried Alive. In addition, Ansari’s Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening and Dangerously Delicious are also available on Netflix.

Aziz Ansari isn’t the only Parks and Rec cast member to have put together a stand-up special for Netflix. Nick Offerman’s hilarious special Nick Offerman: American Ham hit the schedule in December. That special ripped on pop culture and more, including a hilarious bit poking fun at Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take The Wheel.” Now, give me a Retta Netflix special and I can die a happy woman.

In addition to the Netflix special, you can also catch up on the last few episodes of Parks and Rec. NBC currently has the seventh and final season of the series available over at its website. The twelve episodes should be enough to distract you while you wait for Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden to drop after midnight tonight.

Since its earliest days, television has always looked to stand-up comedians to deliver the medium's biggest laughs. That has only slightly changed in recent years, as comics Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson were both driving forces in this millennium’s late night crowd, and the most popular sitcom in modern history is arguably Seinfeld, which along with It’s Garry Shandling’s Show broke the mold on conventional sitcom presentation.

Tonight brings us FX's long-awaited fourth season premiere of mega-popular comic Louis C.K.’s acclaimed series Louie, and Thursday night is host to the second season premiere of IFC’s Maron, from comedian/podcast superstar Marc Maron, and the third season premiere of Comedy Bang! Bang!, a surreal talk show in which Earwolf founder Scott Aukerman and music maestro Reggie Watts largely ignore their guests in the name of silliness. All three shows are distinct, but they share a self-aware faux reality in which the comics play heightened versions of themselves. In that respect, here are 20 more comedians (in no particular order) that we think are ready for self-skewing primetime, and the kind of shows we want to see them in. (Note that we tried to avoid people who have already headlined their own series, or those with series currently in development.)

Aziz Ansari

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: Parks and Recreation, Human Giant

The Premise: With a stand-up act that plays into pop culture and celebrities, Aziz Ansari's career is ripe for a creative implosion, resulting in a series focused on Ansari coping with the end of Parks and Rec's televised run. He slowly realizes he’s turning into his Parks character Tom Haverford in real life, which leads to serious money problems, a complete mental breakdown, and an abundance of trendy colognes.

Tig Notaro

Where You Know Her Outside of Stand-Up: the Professor Blastoff podcast and The Sarah Silverman Program

The Premise: Just as her career was taking off in 2012, Notaro suffered a series of health issues, including breast cancer, which she documented in the pinnacle of stand-up sets, Live, released on Louis C.K.’s website. Like C.K., Notaro could use her deft blend of emotional drama and absurdist comedy to tell a fictional version of this most tumultuous period in her life, with presumably memorable results.

Kyle Kinane

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: Drunk History and multiple podcasts.

The Premise: Given Kyle Kinane’s material often includes stories of drunken debauchery, his series could follow him as the host of a faux reality travel series, visiting different places in the world known for their alcohol. TV rarely gets to the brass tacks of extreme sloshedness, and there’s no one better equipped to pull off being shitfaced-for-comedy than Kinane. Except maybe Dave Attell, who could easily co-star.

Hannibal Buress

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: 30 Rock, The Eric Andre Show, Broad City

The Premise: Hannibal Buress’ act employs a signature blend of stoner swag and wit-filled brevity, which makes him the perfect choice to create the next awesome “bro” comedy, in which he and his comedian friends just hang out on their off nights, playing video games and flicking pickle juice onto sandwiches. And if the festivities sometimes included improvised rap battles, that’d make it all the better.

Amy Schumer

Where You Know Her Outside of Stand-Up: Inside Amy Schumer, Comedy Central Roasts

The Premise: Sure, Amy Schumer already has a series on the air, but it has only served to prove how adept she is at chiseling comedy out of the differences between women and men without overtly saying at the beginning of every sketch, “This is the difference between women and men.” A series focused solely on the group of self-shaming women would work wonderfully in long form, but any version of Schumer’s dark take on girl power would be a fine season of television, even if it was just the comedian digitally inserted into twenty-minute installments of Erin Brokovich.

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele

Where You Know Them Outside of Stand-Up: Wanderlust, Mad TV, Key & Peele

The Premise: Like Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have gone from merely funny to erudite masters of topic-focused humor, though they play the race card more than the gender one, but always with hilarious results. The best way to utilize their unique comedic stylings is to set them in a show where they are the only black people left on Earth after some unexplainable phenomenon. I’m sure they’d have much to say about the changed state of crime, the music industry and a government without a black president.

Patton Oswalt

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: King of Queens, Big Fan, his epic Parks and Rec filibuster

The Premise: One of the few comedians who could pull this off, Patton Oswalt deserves a series specifically devoted to his Twitter account, which could offer big boosts in social media cross-promotions. Watch Patton as he discusses Star Wars with his friends while tweeting about Episode VII, or take a trip with him as he jumps up the wazoo of some unsuspecting major American chain store or restaurant with a series of poignantly dismissive hashtags, all while namechecking everything cool in pop culture.

Kulap Vilaysack

Where You Know Her Outside of Stand-Up: the Who Charted? podcast, Childrens Hospital

The Premise:The wife of Comedy Bang! Bang!’s Scott Aukerman, Kulap Vilaysack actually has a legitimately intriguing life story that could perfectly be served up as comically dramatic storytelling. Who Charted? fans know the American-born multi-cultural comic is currently in the production stages of a documentary centered on her travels to Laos to meet her birth father and his family for the first time. A sitcom going behind the scenes of this documentary could be an emotion-tugging experience like nothing else on TV right now, and Vilaysack is definitely hilarious and earnest enough to sit center stage.

James Adomian

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: Conan, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

The Premise: James Adomian is about as close to an impersonation expert as one can get, so it’s easy to envision a series where the comedian has encounters with celebrities and politicians, as played by Adomian himself. Honestly, it could just be a series of conversations between the comic’s spot-on versions of George W. Bush and Jesse Ventura, and I don’t think anyone would complain. America needs a proper contemporary for Australia’s Chris Lilley, and James Adomian is it.

Chelsea Peretti

Where You Know Her Outside of Stand-Up: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Kroll Show

The Premise: Standing opposite all the darkness that haunts stand-up's corners is Chelsea Peretti’s genial positivity, which follows her from the stage to Twitter and back. It’d be admirable enough even if she wasn’t constantly amusing, and her presence on television could be just the bright spot that audiences need at the end of a long day. Is the show just her putting sunglasses on dogs? Cleaning out her closet? Choosing fruit in a grocery store? Peretti will make it interesting.

Doug Stanhope

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: That one Louie episode

The Premise: Doug Stanhope is one of the most outspoken comics on the planet, turning booze-and-smoke-filled rooms into churches of frank honesty and no holds barred depravity. Much of his material takes an antagonistic stance towards religion, government and human behavior, so a series where Stanhope tries to run for mayor of a small town could work a lot of his favorite topics into a narrative with progress at its center. That said, Stanhope may never dumb himself down for television, so someone else would probably have to step in and impersonate him. Adomian?

Megan Ganz

Where You Know Her Outside of Stand-Up: writer for The Onion, Modern Family, Community

The Premise: Sure, we’ve seen both ends of the "writing a sketch comedy series" spectrum with the cartoonish 30 Rock and the more serious Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. But Megan Ganz, who has made amusing podcast rounds in recent years, could easily anchor a show about a sitcom writers' room. Assuming the series would stick to personal relationships and keep the in-show network interference to a minimum, there is potential for huge jokes-per-minute totals. Writers are always the funniest people in the room, right? Right?

Kumail Nanjiani

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: Silicon Valley, Portlandia

The Premise: Born in Pakistan, Kumail Nanjiani approaches comedy from an observationally geeky standpoint, and his often silly wit could work on TV on several levels. On one hand, he could team up with wife (and The Indoor Kids video game podcast co-host) Emily V. Gordon for a contemporary sitcom about a perfectly balanced marriage in the world of comedy. Or, more predictably, some network could team him up with fellow hot comic Aparna Nancherla for a show that involves white people not being able to pronounce their names properly.

Maria Bamford

Where You Know Her Outside of Stand-Up: Arrested Development, The Comedians of Comedy

The Premise: Bamford has been entertaining audiences for years with stories about her life, her family, and her Minnesota upbringing, often taking on the roles of the other people in her life with hilarious results. The world seems ready for a sitcom involving the comedian having to move back to Minnesota for one reason or another, rebuilding relationships with those who have never left her hometown. Bamford is public about her bi-polar disorder, which could easily play a big part in the story, considering the affliction rarely gets serious attention in TV series.

Jason Mantzoukas

Where You Know Them Outside of Stand-Up: The League, Enlightened, the How Did This Get Made? podcast

The Premise: If you see Jason Mantzoukas on something and he doesn’t make you think about a vagina in a new and disturbing way, then something is clearly wrong. The darkly perverted and hilarious comic desperately needs a series that involves him going out on a series of horrendous dates, and then sharing the results with his comedian friends in the most illicit ways possible, perhaps through charades or Win, Lose or Draw. Seeing the Zouk’s genuine attempts to get laid is a pleasure that American audiences have earned.

Moshe Kasher

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: his book Kasher in the Rye, @midnight

The Premise: Using a structure that flips back and forth between the present and the past, someone needs to make a series out of Moshe Kasher’s 2012 memoir Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16. Kasher, the son of deaf Hasidic Jews, had quite the troublesome childhood, going from mental institution to mental institution and spending a bulk of his early teens on drugs. Now clean, Kasher is a consistently funny comic and podcaster whose wide-ranging stories would make perfect TV episodes. For that extra comedic push, Kasher could play himself as a teenager.

Jon Daly

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Betas, Kroll Show

The Premise: Jon Daly has about a zillion ways of making people laugh with his highly improvisational comedy and musical skills, but arguably his most memorable bit has been playing the Jelloet Laureate Bill Cosby Bukowski for a series of Funny or Die videos. While this over-the-top impersonation would undoubtedly stretch beyond its expiration date if it went to a full-length sitcom, I’m perfectly willing to suffer it to see what Bukowski does in his free time when he isn’t creating his signature Jelloems. Perhaps Daly could play himself as Bukowski’s best friend on the poet's trek to stardom. I'd say "mmm-mmm" to that.

Howard Kremer

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: the Who Charted? podcast, Austin Stories

The Premise: A comic mixes his sex-fueled rapper alter ego Dragon Boy Suede into his acts, Howard Kremer has for years used tours and themed albums to spread his love for the sunniest season of the year with the mantra “Have a Summah!” It’s only natural that Kremer should get a series in which he plays a summah supahhero who must frequently break from his comedy-and-partying lifestyle in order to stop the detestable Wintah from trying to take over the world. It helps if you’re as high as this concept is.

Rowan Atkinson

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: Mr. Bean, Black Adder

The Premise: Rowan Atkinson has proved himself a comedic genius time and again over the last 35 years, with a physical presence that can rarely be matched. But beyond theatrical imports like the terrible Johnny English movies, Atkinson hasn’t really tried to jumpstart an Americanized leg of his career, and we've never really gotten to know the actor behind the iconic roles of Mr. Bean and Black Adder. So what better way to do all that than with a new series that chronicles his attempts to jumpstart the Americanized leg of his career in the most complicated ways possible? Did somebody say Hugh Laurie?

Bill Hicks

Where You Know Him Outside of Stand-Up: Bill Hicks was stand-up.

The Premise: If there is any comic legitimately badass enough to come back from the dead to entertain audiences anew, it’s the extremely intelligent and pointed Bill Hicks. (He died of pancreatic cancer in 1994.) This might not be a show so much as just Hicks sitting on a golden throne, existing again, but I’d give up every other idea on this list (as well as 99% of current television and also my left foot) for this to actually happen.

As the above promo suggests, Aziz Ansari's new comedy special is coming to a bag of Bugles near you, via flash drive! No, sorry, that's not right. It's not coming to Toaster Strudel either, though those are two reasonable ways to promote a comedy special. And we have Seth Rogen to credit for such creative ideas. Alas, Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive is coming to Netflix at the start of November. The promo eventually gets to that, until Seth Rogen brings it back to Bugles. Anyone else craving Bugles?

As the above description mentions, Ansari's previous stand-up performances are already available on Netflix. That includes Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening and Aziz Ansari: Dangerously Delicious. And if you're a Parks and Recreation fan you can catch Aziz in his scripted role as the super-swag having Tom in the NBC comedy, the first four seasons of which are also on Netflix. So it seems Netflix already has a sizable catalog of Ansari's recent work, which makes the streaming video service the perfect home for his next comedy special. And this is yet another indication that Netflix is continuing to expand on its original programming.

In addition to the above promo, Netflix has also released this new key art, which shows the comedian and actor staring 30 down like a deer in the headlights. Literally.

"30 comes at you fast."

Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive is set to debut on Netflix on November 1. Netflix may offer a preview or two of the actual special between now and then. In the meantime, here's a clip from his Dangerously Delicious special.

It’s Friday. It is so, so close to the weekend (it may even be the weekend where you are) that it is definitely time for some more light-hearted fare. To preface and to be fair, almost all fan-generated content -- revamped trailers, mash-ups, memes, infographics, whatever -- is garbage. It really shows you why some people get paid to do these artistic complements and why others are doing them at home, alone, in their parents' basements. However, if you are going to create fan-art, at least pick a show that everyone loves…better yet, pick two.

That’s exactly what The Smart Sandwich decided to do. Very much like our previously covered love for the Arrested Westeros website, it rubs us just the right way. The two shows in question are not at all similar, but that is what gives these poster mash-ups their charm. Despite the very different tones and subject matter, Parks and Recreation and Game of Thrones actually go together like pickles and gravy…wait. Peanut butter and jelly then. I love these two shows, and to make GoT "house banners" for the characters in P&R is simply genius and hilarious.

The artist behind these banners, posters, or whatever you want to call them included all of our favorite Pawneeans and came up with matching slogans for the houses. My favorite? A tie. Swanson’s eggs-and-bacon-themed look with the motto "Rectangle. America. Megaphone. Monday. Butthole." And the sleek and simple House Haverford’s DJ Roomba graphic with "Treat yo self" as his motto. They are all great. Here are four, and you can jump over to The Smart Sandwich to see the rest! Winter is coming to Pawnee.

Parks and Recreation airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC. It stars Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, and Rob Lowe. Game of Thrones will return to HBO on evenings Sundays in April 2012. It stars (those who remain) Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Kit Harington (and many more). It is based on George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series and was adapted for television for D.B. Weiss and David Benioff.

Coming off a third season in which every single episode seemed like a grade-A winner, the Parks & Recreation cast is finally back on set to get the fourth season started. A few weeks ago, while talking to him about his new movie 30 Minutes or Less (you can watch that part of the interview here), I also had to get in a few questions about Parks & Recreation. Since the new season hadn't started yet there wasn't really anything to learn in terms of plot spoilers, but I asked him about the way he's embraced some of the more popular internet memes about the show on his Tumblr, how he came up with some of his epic food nicknames, and how he and Ben Schwartz, who plays Jean-Ralphio, help come up with even dumber ways for their characters to greet each other.

Take a look at the five-minute chunk of our interview below, and join me in counting down the days until Parks & Recreation returns on September 22. Oh, but first, revisit this epic Ron Swanson dancing GIF, which Aziz mentions in the interview as one of his favorite fan creations.

Aziz Ansari was doing his first full-fledged press junket a few weeks ago, hitting the road and sitting on a lot of hotel couches to promote 30 Minutes or Less, the comedy in which he plays the best friend to Jesse Eisenberg's character, a hapless pizza delivery guy with a bomb strapped to him and instructions to rob a bank before the bomb explodes. Ansari, who spent the summer doing a stand-up tour while on hiatus from Parks & Recreation, said he knew the basic gist of the junket tour, which led me to toss off a reference to the scene in Notting Hill in which Hugh Grant visits Julia Roberts at her press junket-- which led to him saying he'd never seen the movie. Which led to me explaining the entire plot, beat for beat, of Notting Hill. Which led to him asking if I had also snuck into this junket to confess my love to him.

The thing is, I still don't know if he really meant that he'd never seen the movie-- and that willingness to run with a joke, while also being utterly friendly and lovely to talk to, is what makes Ansari's brand of comedy both hilarious and impossible to pin down. We talked for a while about Parks & Recreation, my favorite show on television, and that part of the conversation will be up on Monday. Below you can see our conversation about 30 Minutes or Less, about his failed attempts to ask Jason Statham for advice about his fight scene, about how to survive shooting a car chase, and about what he's learned from Jesse Eisenberg about both acting and how to manage an awesome movie career. Check out the video below, and see 30 Minutes or Less in theaters this weekend.

I don't know about you but over the course of their third season, Parks and Recreation, quickly became my favorite half-hour comedy on network TV (sorry Community, I still love you... just not as much as P&R). It has everything you could possibly want in a sitcom (or mockumentary), most importantly endearing and hilarious characters played by a talented crew of actor/comedians.

The actors/characters always make or break a show. You don't believe me? Try reading the Seinfeld scripts without the intonations and physicality brought to the screen by the likes of Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards. Not as funny on paper are they? Well, Parks and Rec has created it's own wonderful group of characters, among which one man reigns supreme... Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman).

At the end of the Season 3, SPOILERS, they hinted at (well, not so much hinted at as directly mentioned) that we would soon get our first taste of Ron's first wife, Tammy One (Tammy Two is played hilariously by Offerman's real wife Megan Mullally). Her appearance in the finale was limited to a Dr. Claw (yes, Inspector Gadget people) like shot of only her arm through Ron's office window. So, we're left to wonder just who will fill the already big-shoes and step into the role of Tammy One? Well, Ron, sorry Nick Offerman, has his own ideas.

The Huffington Post caught up with Offerman who had this to say, "We're trying to start a campaign to get Oprah to play Tammy One. I think Oprah would be the only, she's the only person we can think of that might be intimidating to Megan Mullally. It would be so good." Can't really argue with that and since she did make an appearance on 30 Rock, maybe it's not even outside the realm of possibility. The 'campaign' was furthered by co-star Aziz Ansari retweeting the Huff Post article in hopes to generating some more buzz.

Will this grassroots effort to snag a cameo from one of the biggest media moguls pan out? I guess we'll have to wait for Season 4 (or more likely a story on some blog by some writer spoiling the whole thing... like me).

When Jeremy Renner was cast as the lead in The Bourne Legacy last week, I was surprised not only because it will be his third on-going franchise, but because I learned that he is 40 years old. Not only could he pass for being in his late 20s-early 30s, but it's amazing that it's taken this long for him to get the notice he deserves. As a result, it's understandable that he would want to start taking on as many projects as he can. Fortunately, this one only requires him to stand in a sound booth for a few hours.

THR reports that Renner, Jennifer Lopez, Wanda Sykes, Keke Palmer, Aziz Ansari And hip-hop star Drake have all been added to the cast of Ice Age: Continental Drift, the third sequel in the long running series. The story also says Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott and Josh Peck will all be back to reprise their roles from the previous films. While character details have not been released for all of the new actors, Renner will be playing " Gutt, a self-styled master of the high seas" (it doesn't say what kind of animal), while Lopez will play Shira, a sabretooth tiger who will serve as a romantic interest for Diego, Leary's character. The film is scheduled to be released on July 13, 2012.

Much like the Shrek franchise before it, the Ice Age movies have been getting worse and worse with each sequel, so I wonder if this is the one that finally drives it straight into the ground. Considering that it seems as though they're adding six new characters to an over-crowded cast, I'd say that it's a safe bet.

It's a bit presumptuous to say when we're only five days in, but 2011 may end up being a really great year for movies. Browsing through our 2011 preview, there's an endless number of titles with high potential to keep us entertained for the next twelve months. Today we are lucky enough to have images and first looks from three of those titles.

Sony has sent over official stills from three of their upcoming films, including Ruben Fleischer's 30 Minutes or Less, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride; Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel; and Roland Emmerich's Anonymous, starring Rhys Ifans, Joely Richardson, and Vanessa Redgrave. You can check out all three images below. Click on the image to see it full size and then hit the link underneath each one to read all about the movies in our Blend Film Database.

For more info on 30 Minutes or Less, click here

For more info on Bad Teacher, click here

For more info on Anonymous, click here

Trying to define the term “A-lister” with any sort of consistency is like trying to describe why ninety-five percent of the population seems to think Jennifer Aniston is sexier than Kate Winslet. If you were listing their features on paper, I’m not sure you’d have ninety-five tally marks next to Aniston. Kate Winslet has stunning eyes, a beautiful smile, a nice figure, but she’s more classically beautiful, which, oddly, works against her on the sexy scale. Jennifer Aniston just is sexier. And using that full-proof logic, let me now bring forth the rambling, semi-coherent definition which we’ll be using for the purposes of this piece of ordered deliciousness.

An A-lister is the person Hollywood goes to when they want a sure thing. Their name goes on the poster along with their face. Everyone else ends up somewhere in the background. They’ll carry at least a strong portion of the running time (though sometimes less than half), and ultimately, the success or failure of the film will affect their earning power more than anyone else’s. They’ll have an uncanny knack for getting their ideal projects greenlit and it wouldn’t seem weird if you heard two different tables at the same restaurant having a conversation about said person. They don’t necessarily need to be on a Julia Roberts level, but they do need to be better known for their acting than Jeff Daniels. He’s the cut off point. My mom knows who Jeff Daniels is, and has seen some of the stuff he's been in, but I guarantee I will never in my life hear her ask when his next movie is coming out.

None of the actors and actresses on this list are more known for their acting skills than Jeff Daniels is, but we, the visionaries here at Cinema Blend, believe someday they will be. We believe someday our moms will be asking when their next films will be out, and three, perhaps even four, separate restaurant tables will be espousing some sort of opinion on which of their movies they like best. We believe they will leave us with an amazing collection of brilliant movies and quite a few we’d rather forget. We believe someday we’ll be able to say things like “That wasn’t as good as Aaron Paul’s last movie” without getting blank stares. We believe there’s a Tom Cruise in here, a few Vince Vaughn’s and maybe even a Lauren Bacall. We believe these things because we can’t help ourselves and because one of us is one-sixteenth Gypsy. Here’s a look at twenty up and coming actors who will one day lead big-budget event films and Oscar-worthy dramas. Their mere interest in a film will inspire rewrites and the removal of studio tape, and by their forties, we’ll be playing Sporcle quizzes trying to remember all their acting credits.

Amber Heard

Amber Heard is one of the most devastatingly beautiful girls in a town full of devastatingly beautiful girls. Her A-list looks have helped get her this far, and odds are that alone won't be enough to get her farther. Still, I'm betting Amber has something bigger and better than early-life hotness in her. Not because she can act necessarily, the jury's still out on that, but because she seems willing to try. See Amber could very easily sit back and be another Blake Lively, but she hasn't done that. Her career so far makes one thing very clear: She's a gamer. She's good looking, yes, but she keeps getting work because she's pretty much up for anything. Got a weird indie-movie where she'll be engaged in a naked threesome? Count her in and forget the body double. Nic Cage doing some crazy, hell-themed, car-revenge movie and you need someone to play his badass chick sidekick? Sign her up. Need a babe to play Seth Rogen's underage girlfriend in a stoner-action comedy? Amber Heard is there. Amber Heard's approach is no-holds barred, an actress who's actually there because she seems more interested in acting than being a brand. She doesn't have a list of things she won't do in her contract and because of that I think her big break will happen at any minute. I'm betting it'll be as frequently naked muse Chenault in The Rum Diary, if that long since finished Johnny Depp movie ever released. But even if it isn't, she'll be big some day anyway, because Amber Heard is up for anything.

Anton Yelchin

Remember that scene in Step Brothers where Rob Riggle tells Will Ferrell he wants to punch him in the face? Not for any particular reason, of course, there's just something about that suck hole that needs punching. That's how I feel about Anton Yelchin's passive-aggressive, one hundred and eight pound frame at the start of every movie. There's just something about him that bothers me, makes me want to yell “man up” during random intervals until he feels self-conscious and changes, but as the movie goes on, I always start to hate these Anton Yelchin characters a little less. Then by the end, I'm cheering as they go skinny dipping with Amanda Seyfried and make out with Kat Dennings. I don't know why it happens, perhaps it's because Anton Yelchin's emaciated frame is Oliver Twisty, but more than likely, it's because these characters are supposed to come off as effeminate douches until they slowly start to figure it out. Such is the power of Anton Yelchin that he could convince me to hate him, the bastard.

Donald Glover

Donald Glover is the next Tina Fey. I mean that. He's a creator as much as he is a performer, a guy who when he wants to do something is willing to simply step up and make it happen himself. He's prolific. A fountain of creative genius. He already starred in, co-wrote, and produced one of the funniest movies of the decade. It's not Donald Glover's fault that people weren't smart enough to see it. You really should run out and buy a copy of Mystery Team. On Community he's one half of the funniest comedic duos since Larry and Balki, but he's destined for bigger things than Bronson Pinchot. People were half-joking when they started a grass roots campaign to convince Sony to make Donald the next Spider-Man, but would anyone have minded if they'd taken the internet seriously and actually cast him? Probably not. He's too talented, too likable, for just about anything (even something as ill-conceived as Sony's Spider-Man reboot) he does to suck. He'll be huge, he'll do it all on his own, his way, through talent, hard work, and sheer likability. No, he's not related to Danny Glover.

Emma Stone

Emma Stone has proven she can be a charming-ish love interest (Superbad), a solid supporting actress who can occasionally carry a scene (Zombieland), and now, with last month's release of the enjoyable Easy A, she's proven she can topline an above-average comedy that actually makes its budget back. That leaves her with a choice. She can either attempt to become Anna Faris, a not really worthwhile goal she will fail at, or she can try to be the next Jennifer Aniston, a more reasonable use of her talents she can definitely succeed at. It'll all come down to genre choices. I can't tell you how many reviews of Easy A I've read that have called Emma Stone a funnywoman. She's not. Gilda Radner was a funnywoman. Emma Stone is a good actress with excellent comedic timing. She's more than capable of servicing comedic material, but trying to force laughs on her own will ultimately prove a different story. Here's to hoping she goes the Jennifer Aniston route, and in doing so, takes a few more Office Space's than Along Came Polly's.

Terry Crews

I'm voting for Camacho. That needs to be on a bumper sticker, somewhere. Terry Crews is heading into his mid-forties and he's been working non-stop in film and television for more than a decade on more than forty different projects. You might think that at his age, after so much work, if he was going to make it big it would have happened by now. But Samuel L. Jackson was forty-six before Quentin Tarantino recognized what he could do, and made him a mega-star by casting him in Pulp Fiction. That's where I see Terry Crews. He's the kind of actor who only really gets big late in life, the kind of guy whose talent doesn't really mature until he's long past his sexual prime. Terry Crews is just getting going. He's becoming that guy that everybody recognizes from somewhere, and would probably like to vote for in a dystopian future where everyone's dumb and our president is a retired wrestler. He can play the warm and caring father, or kill with comedic timing. He can flex his muscles and hold his own with the likes of Stallone and Rourke. Everything, whether it's an Old Spice ad or a gun battle, is a little bit better with Terry Crews in it. It's just taking the world a little while to figure it out and now it's only a matter of time before he hooks up with the right filmmaker and gets his own Royal with Cheese.

Tom Felton

I'm not convinced, but if interviews and Youtube videos are any indication, Tom Felton sucks. Which doesn't mean he's a terrible actor—the opposite in fact is true. While his cameo in Get Him To The Greek gains him more street cred with me, his incredible performances in the Harry Potter franchise are what gains him street cred with 95% of everyone else. Which is sort of funny, because Tom Felton/Draco Malfoy only accounts for like 7% of Harry Potter references. Outside of Harry Potter, Felton's been writhing in the muck of a bunch of gritty indie flicks that only like 3% of the population has seen (.5% accounted for by Felton's family members) —case in point, you ever heard of 13 Hours or The Disappeared? This equivocating has caused Mr. Felton to be about as popular as banana peppers on a Subway sandwich. Of course, Vegas odds says there's like a 4% chance of him somehow ending up on the A-List. Because I'm a risk taker, and because I'm pretty sure Felton might just be an acting genius, I'd take the over in a second (22% of you should be smart enough to, too).

Anna Kendrick

On the surface Anna Kendrick seems eternally suited to be pigeonholed in the thankless role of best friend to whoever it is they've hired to play the movie's lead. The girl she's playing best friend to will have better hair, and Anna Kendrick would be doomed to spend her character actress life in a world revolving around the part someone else is playing. But Kendrick's better than that and while she may not have the best hair in whatever movie she's in, no matter how she's used there's always the sense that she's that girl you know, and will probably meet again. She seems real, in a way so few others have, and when given the opportunity to do something other than play the best friend, she knocked it out of the park. Maybe she'll keep playing the supporting role for a few more years, but when you watch Anna Kendrick there's the sense that she has something pretty great inside her somewhere. She seems real, in a way too few Hollywood actresses do. She's more than just the lead character's best friend, she's your best friend too, and too rare to leave her stranded at fourth billing in someone else's film.

Kieran Culkin

Eighty percent as cute and every bit as talented as his more famous older brother Macaulay, Kieran Culkin took a seven year hiatus from Hollywood after his Golden Globe-nominated lead performance in Igby Goes Down, only to recently return in a few juicy supporting roles including off-beat man whore Wallace Wells in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Brooding, angsty and always delightfully eccentric, Kieran Culkin usually comes off like that kid in Honors Math who ditches out the side door to chain smoke and read Phillip K. Dick novels. In all honesty, it's probably bad for society that we romanticize those underachievers, the Will Hunting's of the world, but how could we not when people like Kieran Culkin tinge their middle fingers with infectious rebellion and at-all-costs individuality.

Chloe Moretz

We stopped being amazed by child actors who actually seemed good at their job, some time not long after Haley Joel Osment proved it was possible for kids not to suck on screen in The Sixth Sense. Haley Joel was a big deal, and every kid actor that came after him, no matter how good, is not. But Chloe Moretz is at least as good as Osment and as a bonus, she has parents who don't really seem to care about traumatizing her all that much. It's probably not good for her eternal soul and I worry that all that time she spent covered in sticky red entrails during the filming of Kick-Ass may have turned her into Dexter, but if she can avoid the massive drug problems of similarly treated child actors then Chloe Moretz could grow up to be something pretty good. Or even if she does turn into a coked out party kid as she gets older, there's still the chance she'll end up turning into Drew Barrymore, hopefully minus a starring role in Poison Ivy 7.

Gillian Jacobs

Gillian Jacobs is the kind of woman who looks like she doesn't need to wear makeup, the kind of girl who you feel certain rolls out of bed looking that way, and only looks cuter when her hair is messed up. She's one of the most underrated components of NBC's Community, going toe to toe with Joel McHale as the empowered female who secretly would rather be the girl next door. Gillian has wicked comedic timing and she's versatile too. Whether she's playing a day-shift stripper in Choke or a British party crasher in Helena at the Wedding every scene sparkles just a little more when she's in it. One look at her and she just seems like she's destined for something bigger, like she should be replacing Julia Roberts as the new queen of rom-coms, or at the least providing a less uptight, judgement-free alternative to the ones starring Katherine Heigl. At some point Jacobs is going to hook up with Judd Apatow and blow the world away, until then enjoy her on TV and plan for the day when your wife will own all of her movies on DVD.

Clark Duke

The first time I saw Sex Drive, I turned to my roommate and said, “Hey, that's the kid at the party in Superbad.” “No,” he said, “That's the kid from Greek.” Such is the it factor of Clark Duke, that his second feature film and first major supporting role would immediately remind me of his only other film, a one-off bit part he's not even credited for, and remind my roommate of a show on ABC Family. There's just something about his mannerisms that is really funny, like if a 1976 Chevy Chase took two years off to eat excessively and somehow grow more sure of himself. Clark Duke is a throwback. He's the chubby, cocksure, loud idiot for the internet generation. God only knows if he'll reach the lofty heights of Belushi, but I'm pretty sure he'll smash a few guitars along the way.

Michael Pitt

I've known Michael Pitt was going to be famous for the last ten years. Remember Finding Forrester? He's the kid who can't come up with Coleridge, even though his last name is Coleridge. I remember watching the nervous sweat pool around his cheeks and thinking this kid's got it. Then, the next year he showed up in Bully, playing a stoner that impulsively joins a murder plot because he wants to have sex with one of the girls involved. Again, awesome. Same thing in Hedwig And The Angry Inch and The Dreamers and Funny Games. Now, Michael Pitt is the second lead on Boardwalk Empire, Scorsese's new HBO Prohibition drama. Do I really even need to tell you he's awesome in it? This kid has literally been the best thing about almost every film he's been in, the only thing holding him back has been his penchant for taking obscure indie films most people don't see. There's a way to be groundbreaking and at least partly mainstream. Someday Michael Pitt will mark his territory in that place and at that point, he'll have turned into his generation's Gary Oldman.

Mia Wasikowska

In the space of a single year, this year, Mia Wasikowska has managed to play the lead in one of Hollywood's most financially successful blockbusters while at the same time tackling a pivotal supporting role in one of the year's most critically acclaimed indies. And still, almost no one seems to know her name, let alone how to spell it. That won't last long. She has too much range. She does quietly complex almost unlike any other young actress you've seen lately on screen, and she has a knack for channeling that into bravery and strength when it's needed. Mia has a kind of ethereal grace, the kind you'd get from Grace Kelly, combined with an inexplicable layer of Christina Ricci oddity. She's beautiful, without looking exactly like anyone else you've already seen on screen. Maybe she'll get caught up in corset dramas, that seems to be where she's most comfortable, but expect to see more of her.

Aziz Ansari

A good comedy needs three things: a funny premise, talent and momentum. Sometimes that momentum can come from a flawless script, but more often than not, it channels from the main actor either through energy or cleverness. Jim Carrey, Chris Farley, these guys are house of energy comedians, they come at you with all they've got, hoping to infect you with their determination. Woody Allen, Christopher Guest, these guys are clever, improving and subtly bouncing off what's given with a relentless wit that builds throughout a film. At twenty-seven years old, I've seen Aziz Ansari do both. From the brilliant Funny People Randy spin-off to the low-energy retorts of Tom Haverford on Parks And Recreation, Aziz Ansari is quietly one of the most talented comedians we've seen in years. He can carry the show like at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards or he can steal a scene here or there like in Observe And Report. It's like young Bill Murray and old Bill Murray fucked and had a dark-skinned baby. Good God, people would not pay money for that sex tape.

Joel McHale

Now nearly 40, you have to think with a hit TV show like Community under his belt that Joel McHale is more interested in putting a new pool in his backyard than getting even more famous, but it's probably going to happen to him anyway. His eerily perfect combination of easygoing charm and biting, sarcastic wit in a Hollywood ready body is too much for anyone, let alone a studio exec sure to see dollar signs, to resist. The current incarnation of Saturday Night Live isn't going to crank out any more new movie stars any time soon and we have to find the next Adam Sandler somewhere. Maybe it'll be Joel McHale, who probably believes he's far more likely to end up mirroring Rodney Dangerfield's career path than Billy Madison's, but you never know when he'll hallucinate a girlfriend stealing penguin. He did a good job in Soderbergh's otherwise blah The Informant! last year. It's only a matter of time before the movie world starts to notice, and craves more of his lanky, cynical talents.

Ben Foster

Ben Foster has played a psychotic prisoner in My Name is Earl, a learning disabled teen in Freaks and Geeks, and a confused and sexually frustrated artist in Six Feet Under… and this eclectic bibliography only accounts for his early television work. Whether he's playing a psychotic, erotic cowboy in 3:10 to Yuma or a panicked yet determined brother in Alpha Dog, Foster always keeps his audience in rapt attention. Maybe it's the nuance of crystal eyes. Maybe it's that dreamy/scary effect he shrugs out like its nothing (somewhere there's a girl all ready to change him). All I know, is back in the day Foster and fellow coworker Jewel Staite (of Stargate: Atlantis fame) were on this show that nobody remembers, with a title everyone knows (Flash Forward). It was about two kids, one a class clown, one a girl who tried to act grown-up, trying to make it through the ups and downs of middle school together. When Foster's teenage self entered that set, he walked on-screen like he was some Ellis Island immigrant knowing he had arrived. He may make famous for his off-kilter good looks, he should make famous for his acting skills, but I think he could make it on charisma alone.

Aaron Paul

Aaron Paul is a brilliant actor, but perhaps more importantly, he's handsome and creepy and depending on how he's dressed and how his face looks, either an intellectual member of high society or a learning-disabled product of inbreeding. He easily waffles between extremes with the slightest alterations. Johnny Depp can do that too, one minute a conquering hero, a merciless villain the next, all while never saying a word. It's all in the face, that handsome, yet up to no good smirk, the one that won Aaron Paul an Emmy for his work on Breaking Bad. Do yourself a favor and check out the remake of The Last House On The Left or his turn as Sarah's ex-Mormon boyfriend Scott on HBO's Big Love. I haven't the slightest idea where Aaron Paul will end up in ten years, but I can promise you the path to get there will be littered with a lot of strange films.

Jaden Smith

Jaden Smith is going to be a massive movie star, whether you like it or not, and whether he deserves it or not. His dad is Will Smith, one of the only big Hollywood box office draws left on the planet, and Will has sort of made it his mission to turn Jaden into his heir apparent. It's happening, you can't stop it. The good news is that Jaden might not actually be bad at it. The Karate Kid remake was one of the few movies worth seeing this summer and while most of the credit goes to the brilliant work of Jackie Chan, Jaden wasn't half-bad for a 12-year-old. He has a famous Dad, he probably doesn't have to try that hard, but he seems to be trying hard anyway. Maybe Jaden has inherited enough of his father drive, determination, and flat out talent that we won't mind all that much when he's shoved down our collective throats. At least he hasn't tried to become the next Jonas Brother, he could have done that you know, and it would have worked. The kid, for now at least, seems genuinely interested in acting. He'll be a star and maybe this is one case when nepotism isn't such a bad thing.

John Francis Daley

John Francis Daley is either going to be huge, or he's going to be exactly as big as he is now for several years to come before fizzling out. I really can't make up my mind. You see, common sense tells me his time has passed. Even though he's barely twenty-five years old, the last half-decade has been dominated by hyper-intelligent, socially-awkward, shyly cute nerds like Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg. John Francis Daley is nothing, if not that character. He's been playing that character since he was called Sam Weir on Freaks & Geeks. Hell, he's still playing that character (now named Dr. Lance Sweets) on an above-average crime show on network television. He's like the bizarre-o Matthew Grey Gubler. For the love of God, those two should be churning out scientist double date comedies like Harvard-educated Cheech and Chong's, but alas, the two crime crushers have yet to connect. I think maybe John Francis Daley might headline a few thinking man's Rom Coms at some point, but maybe that's only because I've learned what the likes of Seth Rogen, James Franco, Linda Cardellini and Busy Phillips had to teach me: being associated with Judd Apatow gets you a couple of Scooby Doo flicks and an invitation to the Hanks Family Thanksgiving, at worst.

Justin Timberlake

Like Michael Vick, John Travolta and Disney's non-Pixar animation department, Justin Timberlake has been written off an almost uncountable number of times. He went from Star Search to The Mickey Mouse Club to N Sync to pop superstardom, all of which involved handsomeness, likeability and singing. Then, out of nowhere, he went from Saturday Night Live guest host to Alpha Dog to Black Snake Moan and now to The Social Network, literally crushing every performance like acting was his primary skill. And the sick thing about it is, it just well may be, all while ignorant purists keep writing him off. I can't tell you how many times before The Social Network came out people told me, "Yeah, it sounds great, but it's got Justin Timberlake." We need to face facts, people. Justin Timberlake is not only handsome beyond words, he's an excellent actor who throws himself into the work. If you gave me three possible outcomes for JT's future: fading away, continuing on as an above-average supporting performer or achieving Hollywood success beyond his musical achievements, I would undoubtedly put it all on the latter, even if he did start his career as a Mouskateer.

This poll is no longer available.

Suggest candidates of your own in the comments section below.

Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride are currently up in Grand Rapids, MI filming 30 Minutes or Less with director Ruben Fliesher, but it will not be the last film the two work together on. Speaking with MTV on the set, McBride revealed that he and Ansari will work together again in Olympic Size Asshole. As described by the actor, the film will be about an "Olympic athlete who comes back to his hometown and he bangs [McBride] and Aziz's girlfriends. So [they] go on this mission to destroy his Olympic life." The film is being produced by Rough House, which is the company co-owned by McBride, David Gordon Green and Jody Hill.

Ansari and McBride are easily two of the funniest actors working today and the idea of them teaming up for revenge sounds like a dream. The script is being written by Parks and Recreation writer Harris Wittels, but I have to wonder if he's even going to bother writing dialogue for the film. I have little doubt that any improvisation McBride and Ansari would wipe the floor with anything Wittels can come up with (that's not an insult- that's a fact). Too bad that the title has to go, though. It's probably going to be replaced with Olympic-Sized Schmuck or something equally lame.

Everyone knows the awards don't matter but, more often than not, the presentation's so fun that you won't care. The MTV Movie Awards are the anti-oscars. It's not so much about whether you win but how you win. Wacky hijinks are a bonus, long, drawn-out, serious speeches are to be reviled (and will be, with energy). I'll be here all night to help you find your way through MTV's 2010 awards presentation and best of all, to participate you don't even have to dress up.

Jump into our Live Blog below to watch, interact, and find your way through the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. But, if you’re not interested in my blather you can skip over that right to our live updated list of the winners by clicking here for an auto-scroll to the live updated nominees list. Winners will be red and in bold. Get video highlights from the night's hijinks here.

In the meantime, here we go. This is what’s happening with 2010 MTV Movie Awards right now!

After nabbing Aziz Ansari to star in his upcoming buddy comedy 30 Minutes or Less, director Ruben Fleischer is moving on to the second half of the duo. Fleischer is thinking smart and making a move for his Zombieland star, Jesse Eisenberg. As reported by The Playlist, the current issue of Production Weekly reveals that Eisenberg is in talks to play Will, the buddy of Ansari’s character, Chet.

30 Minutes or Less focuses on the two pals who have a falling out when Will admits he’s got a major thing for Chet’s sister. Meanwhile, two bumbling crooks (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) are trying to hatch a plan to make some quick dough. They opt to rob a bank and wind up strapping a bomb to Will and forcing him to do the deed for them.

The initial news of Fleischer uniting with McBride for a caper film was intriguing, but when word got out that Ansari was finally getting his chance to shine in a feature length film, 30 Minutes or Less became a project to watch. Now, with Eisenberg almost on board, this is starting to seem like a guaranteed success. Who better to compliment Ansari’s antics than Eisenberg? Both have a knack for being hilarious without even trying, but in wholly different ways. Better yet, The Playlist has read the script and describes it as “Pineapple Express but with more heart to it.”

Filming is set to begin in July, with 30 Minutes or Less heading to a August 20th, 2011 release.

Michael Pena made a go at comedy after a decent dramatic career with last spring's Observe & Report, but given that pretty much no one saw it, it may as well have not happened. And Nick Swardson has been a pal of Adam Sandler's for a while, but hasn't been a breakout yet. The two aren't giving up, though, and have boarded one of the most promising comedies of the upcoming year, 30 Minutes or Less.

The caper comedy, directed by Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer, will star Danny McBride as a pizza-delivery guy caught up in a bank robbery, and Aziz Ansari as the junior high history joining him. According to THR Pena will play a "tattooed assassin," probably making him one of the heist orchestrators, while Swardson is McBride's best friend. Swardson will be the odd man out in this foursome, since Ansari and McBride also had tiny roles alongside Pena in Observe & Report-- but really, he should hopefully consider himself lucky just to be part of this comedy that looks hilarious from the plot description alone.

Aziz Ansari is hosting this year's MTV Movie Awards, which greatly increases the likelihood that I or anyone else who doesn't care about the Twilight franchise will actually watch the awards this year. And believe it or not, the nominees have been announced, and New Moon didn't score the highest number of nominations-- that honor goes to The Hangover, which had six. Is the beginning of some new era in which we wrest the MTV Movie Awards away from the bubbleheaded tweens?

Eh, probably not. I mean, the nominations also include Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner up for Best Kiss for Valentine's Day, Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum 2, for Best Comedic Performance, and Zac Efron as Best Male Performance for 17 Again. These awards also take place in a parallel universe in which Amanda Seyfried, of Dear John, is up against actual Oscar winner Sandra Bullock for Best Female Performance. One redeeming factor? Betty White is up for "Best WTF Moment" for molesting Sandra Bullock in The Proposal. Gotta love those crazy kids these days and what they think passes for quality.

Check out the full list of nominees below. The MTV Movie Awards air June 5.

BEST MOVIE

· Alice In Wonderland

· Avatar

· Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

· The Hangover

· The Twilight Saga: New Moon

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE

· Amanda Seyfried – Dear John

· Emma Watson – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

· Kristen Stewart – The Twilight Saga: New Moon

· Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side

· Zoe Saldana – Avatar

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE

· Channing Tatum – Dear John

· Daniel Radcliffe – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

· Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: New Moon

· Taylor Lautner – The Twilight Saga: New Moon

· Zac Efron – 17 Again

BEST BREAKOUT STAR

· Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air

· Chris Pine – Star Trek

· Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

· Logan Lerman – Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

· Quinton Aaron – The Blind Side

· Zach Galifianakis – The Hangover

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE

· Ben Stiller – Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

· Bradley Cooper – The Hangover

· Ryan Reynolds – The Proposal

· Sandra Bullock – The Proposal

· Zach Galifianakis – The Hangover

BEST VILLAIN

· Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

· Helena Bonham Carter – Alice In Wonderland

· Ken Jeong – The Hangover

· Stephen Lang – Avatar

· Tom Felton – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

BEST FIGHT

· Beyoncé Knowles vs. Ali Larter – Obsessed

· Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber vs. Ryan Reynolds – X-Men Origins: Wolverine

· Logan Lerman vs. Jake Abel – Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

· Robert Downey Jr. vs. Mark Strong – Sherlock Holmes

· Sam Worthington vs. Stephen Lang – Avatar

BEST KISS

· Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: New Moon

· Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning – The Runaways

· Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds – The Proposal

· Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner – Valentine’s Day

· Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington – Avatar

BEST WTF MOMENT

· Betty White – The Proposal, Cops a Feel

· Bill Murray – Zombieland , Bill Murray?! A Zombie?!

· Isabel Lucas – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Unexpected Transformation

· Ken Jeong – The Hangover , Naked Trunk Surprise

· Megan Fox – Jennifer’s Body, Vomits a Mysterious Black Ooze

GLOBAL SUPERSTAR

· Robert Pattinson

· Kristen Stewart

· Taylor Lautner

· Johnny Depp

· Daniel Radcliffe

BEST SCARED-AS-SH**T PERFORMANCE (New Category)

· Alison Lohman – Drag Me To Hell

· Amanda Seyfried – Jennifer’s Body

· Jesse Eisenberg – Zombieland

· Katie Featherston – Paranormal Activity

· Sharlto Copley – District 9

BIGGEST BADASS STAR

· Rain

· Angelina Jolie

· Channing Tatum

· Sam Worthington

· Chris Pine

Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride who are pretty good on their own, like Ansari's stand-up career or The Foot Fist Way, which was essentially a one-man show for McBride. They're also good with others, like Ansari's consistently hilarious supporting role on Parks & Recreation or McBride's wild-card pyrotechnics character in Tropic Thunder. But the two of them, together? And in two different movies? Give it up, any other comedy-- this is as good as it's going to get.

McBride and Ansari are already set to co-star in 30 Minutes or Less, as two know-nothing guys caught up by accident in a bank robbery. That film hasn't even started shooting yet, but Deadline Hollywood reports they're already teaming up again, for an untitled comedy based on a pitch by Ansari and 30 Rock writer Matt Hubbard. Harris Wittels, who writes for Parks and Recreation, will put the whole thing together in a screenplay.

No telling when the movie could actually go into production, since Ansari will start shooting the third season of Parks in the fall, and McBride has his own series Eastbound and Down as well. But if 30 Minutes or Less turns out as awesome as it looks, and even if it doesn't, this one would be worth the wait-- even if we have no idea what the hell it will be about.