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Comedian Aasif Mandvi on Why He First Said No to The Daily Show

Thursday March 28 2024 • 7:23am - 7:23am ET

Comedian and actor Aasif Mandvi is best known as The Daily Show‘s resident “Senior Muslim Correspondent,” but he’s also a skilled stage actor with credits including the critically acclaimed play “Disgraced” and the 2002 Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!”

Mandvi recently sat down in The Greene Space with On the Media host and managing editor Brooke Gladstone to talk comedy, Broadway and the challenges that South Asian actors face in finding roles that don’t aim to typecast them. (“Can you put on this turban, sit on this carpet and pretend you’re flying?” he quipped.)

Watch as he tells Gladstone why he initially declined an audition at The Daily Show, what his first day there was like and what Bruce Springsteen had to do with it.

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