It’s not often the hiring of a writer on a TV show makes headlines, but that’s exactly what Nimesh Patel did.
Why Saturday Night Live’s Most Intriguing New Hire Is Behind the Camera screamed the headline in Vanity Fair.
Patel fills a void that has long hung over SNL’s legacy, the lack of voices from people of color, especially Asian Americans.
Patel wrote the speech Daily Show Correspondent Hasan Minhaj gave at the annual high profile White House Correspondent’s Dinner in April.
The bit proved Patel can write the kind of biting, political comedy that has become the trademark of SNL. The election of Donald Trump has given the Saturday late night program plenty of material and is responsible for some of its highest ratings in decades.
Patel however was disappointed another Republican candidate didn’t win.
“I wanted Bobby Jindal to win. . .he’s the Indian guy,” Patel once joked. “Not because I believe in his politics but because I want a career on S.N.L. and that’s the only way that was going to happen.”
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Vanity Fair Calls Indian American Writer SNL’s “Most Intriguing New Hire”
