Nasim Pedrad

Nasim Pedrad (Persian: نسیم پدراد‎; born November 18, 1981)[1] is an American actress and comedian best known for her five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2009 to 2014. She has since gone on to co-star in sitcoms such as Mulaney, People of Earth, and New Girl, and the live-action remake of Aladdin. She also starred in the slasher series Scream Queens.

Nasim Pedrad
Pedrad in 2014
Born (1981-11-18) November 18, 1981
Tehran, Iran
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
OccupationActress, comedian
Years active2005–present

Early life

Pedrad was born in Tehran, Iran. Her parents are Arasteh Amani and Parviz Pedrad. Although her father was able to migrate to the United States, Pedrad and her mother had to stay in Germany, reuniting with her father when she was 3 years old.[2][3] Her sister, Nina, is a comedy writer.[4] They are both fluent in Persian,[3] were raised in Irvine, California,[5] and graduated from University High School.[6] Nasim graduated from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 2003.[5] She was a member of the UCLA Spring Sing Company.[7]

Career

Early work

Pedrad was a performer with the Sunday Company at The Groundlings.[5] She frequently performed her one-woman show Me, Myself & Iran at the Los Angeles divisions of ImprovOlympic and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. The show was selected for the 2007 HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. She received an LA Weekly Best Comedic Performance of the Year Award as the lead in the comedic spoof After School Special.[5]

Pedrad made her first television appearance on an episode of Gilmore Girls. In 2007, she made a guest appearance on The Winner. She had a recurring role on ER as Nurse Suri.[5] In 2009, she had a guest appearance on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.[8]

Saturday Night Live

Pedrad joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2009 as part of the 35th (2009–2010) season. Pedrad is one of a handful of cast members born outside North America (joining Italian-born Tony Rosato, New Zealand-born Pamela Stephenson, English-born Morwenna Banks, Chilean-born Horatio Sanz, and Australian-born Bowen Yang). Pedrad became a repertory player in the 2011–12 season after two years of being a featured player. Pedrad left SNL in 2014 to work on Mulaney.[9]

Other work

In 2011, she was a recurring voice on the Fox animated series Allen Gregory. She appeared with a small role in the 2011 film No Strings Attached. In 2012, she had a supporting voice role in the animated feature film The Lorax and a small appearance in The Dictator. In 2013, Pedrad had another supporting voice role in Despicable Me 2. In the autumn of 2014, she left Saturday Night Live to star in a new Fox sitcom, Mulaney.[9] On October 18, 2014, Fox shut down production of the series by reducing the 16-episode order by three episodes. Filming for the thirteenth episode had just been completed prior to the order reduction, and the fourteenth episode was about to enter production.[10]

From 2015 to 2018, Pedrad has a recurring guest role as LAPD officer Aly Nelson on the Fox sitcom New Girl.[11] She portrayed Gigi Caldwell in season one of Fox horror-comedy Scream Queens.[12]

In 2016, she appeared in a commercial for Old Navy alongside comedian Kumail Nanjiani and other SNL cast members Cecily Strong and Jay Pharoah.

In 2017, she joined the cast of season two of the TBS comedy series People of Earth. Later that same year, she also made guest appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

In 2020, she starred as Wesley in the Netflix film Desperados.

Filmography
Nasim Pedrad film work
Year Title Role Notes
2005 The 73 Virgins Zahra Short film
2008 A Thousand Words The Photographer Short film
2011 No Strings Attached Writer
2012 The Dictator Female GMW Host
2012 The Lorax Isabella Once-ler Voice
2013 Despicable Me 2 Jillian Voice
2014 Cooties Rebekkah
2019 Corporate Animals Suzy
2019 Aladdin Dalia
2020 Desperados Wesley
Nasim Pedrad television work
Year Title Role Notes
2006 Gilmore Girls Waitress Episode: "Bridesmaids Revisited"
2007 The Winner Waitress Episode: "What Happens in Albany, Stays in Albany"
2007–09 ER Nurse Suri 9 episodes
2009 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Lucy Episode: "The Waitress Is Getting Married"
2009–14, 2018 Saturday Night Live Cast member, cameo 109 episodes
2011 Allen Gregory Val, Brinique (voice) 7 episodes
2013 The Awesomes Various voices 5 episodes
2014–15 TripTank Various voices 9 episodes
2014–15 Mulaney Jane Parvana Starring role; 13 episodes[13]
2015–18 New Girl Aly Nelson Recurring role, 28 episodes[14]
2015 Scream Queens Gigi Caldwell 10 episodes
2016 The Mindy Project Dr. Yasmin Maloof Episode: "Nurses' Strike"
2017 People of Earth Special Agent Alex Foster 10 episodes
2017 Big Mouth Fatima (voice) Episode: "Girls Are Horny Too"
2017 Curb Your Enthusiasm Numa Episode: "Foisted!"
2018 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Kate Peralta Episode: "DFW"[15]
2018 No Activity Episode: "Honesty & Action"
2019 Chad Chad

References
  1. "Nasim Pedrad". TVGuide.com. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
  2. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5xhAcOCJVzw
  3. Nasri, Grace (January 28, 2010). "Saturday Night Live Hires First Iranian-Born Cast Member". Iran Times. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
  4. Evans, Bradford (December 5, 2013). "'30 Rock', 'Parks and Rec', and All the Other Shows You'd Expect Get WGA Nominations". Splitsider. Archived from the original on May 31, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  5. "Los Angeles - Performers - Nasim Pedrad". ucbtheatre.com. Archived from the original on March 19, 2008.
  6. "Irvine Native Nasim Pedrad Bids Goodbye to "New Girl" and Hello to "Aladdin."". May 3, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  7. "Nasim Pedrad |". alumni.ucla.edu. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
  8. Seidman, Robert (November 6, 2009). "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League up over 50% without World Series". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  9. Stanhope, Kate (July 20, 2014). "Nasim Pedrad Talks Departing SNL for Mulaney: "At Some Point You Have to Leave"". TVGuide.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  10. Nellie Andreeva (October 18, 2014). "'Mulaney' Order Trimmed To 13 Episodes". Deadline.
  11. Bibel, Sara (January 8, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: No Adjustments to 'Agent Carter', 'Person of Interest' or 'Forever'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  12. "Nasim Pedrad Joins Scream Queens - Dread Central". www.dreadcentral.com. March 11, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  13. "Nasim Pedrad Talks Departing SNL for Mulaney: "At Some Point You Have to Leave" - TV Guide". July 20, 2014. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  14. "'New Girl' Season 7 Spoilers: What Will Happen To Nasim Pedrad's Aly In Final 8 Episodes?". May 25, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  15. "'Super Troopers 2' Star to Guest on Fox's 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' (Exclusive)". March 22, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
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