Kumail Nanjiani has been many things, a stand-up comedian, actor, podcast host, voice for a couple of cartoons, but now he is doing something a little different. Now, he is a Marvel Superhero in the upcoming Eternals movie coming out November 6, 2020 along side with Angelina Jolie, Kit Harriton, and Salma Hayek. Here are Kumail Nanjiani’s five best & five worst roles, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Worst: The Late Bloomer (20%)
The Late Boomer is a movie that came out in 2016 written by Joe Nussbaum, Gary Rosen, Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, Kyle Cooper, and Austyn Jeffs and directed by Kevin Pollak. The movie stares Johnny Simmons, Maria Bello, J. K. Simmons, Brittany Snow, Jane Lynch, Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Wesley, and Beck Bennett.
Dr. Peter Newmans is a sex therapist who has a thing for his neighbor, Michelle. Peter is known for writing a book about how sex is not necessary for a relationship. He goes on trying to figure things out about himself and how he views sex. Kumail plays one of Peter’s friends in this movie.
Best: Community (88%)
Community is a show created by Dan Harmon that was on NBC. Community starred Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Chevy Chase, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong, and Jim Rash. This show ran from 2009 to 2015 with a two year gap between seasons.
This show follows a bunch of different people with multiple different backgrounds going to a local community college. They meet up to study and end up becoming a ragtag group of friends. Kumail is only in two episodes, in which he plays a custodian named Lapari.
Worst: A Happening of Monumental Proportions (18%)
A Happening of Monumental Proportions is a dramedy written by Gary Lundy and directed by Judy Greer. The movie stars Common, Katie Holms, Jennifer Garner, and Allison Janney.
This movie is about Daniel, a man on his way to career day at his his child’s school even–though he just got fired by his awful boss. This movie has multiple different story-lines. One story-line follows a school principal trying to hide the body of a gardener. Kumail plays an HR Rep named Perry.
Best: Bob’s Burgers (91%)
Bob’s Burgers is a adult animated TV show that airs on Fox. The show began in 2011 and is still running with their 10th season. Bob’s Burgers is about a family-owned burger shop with each episode being about a different sticky situation.
Kumail plays Skip Marooch, who only has shown up in two different episodes. Skip is a famous restaurateur and author of his own cook books. The first episode he was in was “Best Burger” where Skip, Bob, and Jimmy Pesto take part in a burger making competition.
Worst: Sex Tape (16%)
Sex Tape is a comedy that came out in 2014 with Jason Segal and Cameron Diaz as the leads. Sex Tape was directed by Jake Kasden and written by Jason Segal, Kate Angelo, and Nicholas Stoller.
Sex Tape is about a couple with two kids that decide to spice up their sex life by making a sex tape. When they accidentally upload it to the Cloud, they go on a mission to retrieve all the iPads they gave as gifts. Kumail plays Punit, a father of twins.
Best: Veep (93%)
Veep is a political comedy that stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays Selina Meyer, Vice President of the United States. This HBO series was created by Armando Iannucci and ran from April 22, 2012, to May 12, 2019.
This show mostly follows Selina Meyer who goes from being Vice President to becoming the President of the United States. Kumail played a small role in an episode called “Midterms.” He played a character just called Statistician. Needless to say, the role wasn’t his biggest.
Worst: Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (13%)
Another bad movie on this list is the 2015 Hot Tub Time Machine 2, directed by Steve Pink and written by Josh Heald. HTTM 2 brought back the original cast and also introduced a few new characters.
This movie takes place five years in the future where Lou Dorchen ends up dying from a shot to the groin. Kumail played Brad, a Lougle employee that invented nitrotrinadium, the key ingredient to the time machine itself.
Best: Silicon Valley (92%)
One of the best TV shows Kumail has been in is, of course, Silicon Valley. It is an HBO show that came out in 2014 and ran until 2019. Silicon Valley was created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky. Kumail played Dinesh Chugtai, a programmer that was especially good at Java.
Silicon Valley is about five guys who try to come up with their own start-up in Silicon Valley called Pied Piper. The series is chock-full with the ups and downs of running a company and trying to stay on top.
Worst: Hell & Back (0%)
Hell and Back is a stop motion animated film that came out in 2015 written by Hugh Sterbakov, Tom Gianas, and Zeb Wells and directed by Tom Gianas and Ross Shuman. Kumail played a small part as Dave the Demon.
This movie is about three guys who work at a dying carnival by a pier. When the carnival finally does go out of business, Remy, the carnival baker, goes to a fortune teller on a boat and gets a book of spells. He hopes to use it to save the carnival and his friends from financial despair.
Best: The Big Sick (98%)
The best thing Kumail Ali Nanjiani has ever been in, according to Rotten Tomatoes, is 2017’s The Big Sick. This was a romantic comedy written by Kumail and his wife Emily Gordon and was based on the beginning of their real life relationship.
The Big Sick begins with Kumail, an uber driver, trying to make it as a stand up comedian. The film follows Kumail’s trials and tribulations as he struggles with his Pakistani parents’ approval of dating a white woman. As if things weren’t hard enough already, she falls into a coma due to a rare illness and Kumail spends the following days with his love interest’s parents he’s never met.
