Apple TV+ Original ‘Little America’ Explores The Immigrant Experience From Kumail Nanjiani
Of the many original Apple streaming content announcements that came out of the Apple Event at Apple Park, one of the most meaningful and culturally relevant has to be Kumail Nanjiani’s anthology series Little America. The show, co-produced by Nanjiani’s wife Emily V. Gordon, will feature various immigrant experiences within America, as featured in the stories from Epic Magazine.
Kumail Nanjiani is a Pakistani actor co-starring in the hit HBO show Silicon Valley. The actor and writer has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Big Sick, a movie highlighting the cultural clash between a Pakistani Muslim man and an American woman, which is exasperated when the woman falls into a coma. The film was co-written by and is based on Nanjiani’s relationship with Gordon. Glancing at his IMDb page, it’s apparent that Nanjiani very much leans into playing characters that are of his own culture, and much of his stand up comedy routines pull from that experience as well. So it’s no wonder that he would be behind Little America, which tells every day, mundane stories of many different immigrants within America, thereby telling the story of America itself.
Nanjiani announced the series in his own comedic way, by first making jokes about his own experiences in America.
Little America will also be produced by co-creator of Master Of None, Alan Yang. Yang is an Asian American who also borrowed from his own experiences when depicting those stories with co-creator Aziz Ansari in their Netflix series, as reported by Deadline. Little America seems like it will be incredibly socially conscious and relevant to the climate within America today.
When announcing the series as the Apple event, Nanjiani spoke about exactly what the focus will be, and how the show will stand out from other content about immigrants in America, as covered by Cult Of Mac.
“We wanted to focus on everyday stuff. These are human stories that feature immigrants. When you see their struggles, they will stop being ‘the other. You will see yourself. Ultimately, we are all looking for the same thing – food, home, meaning, and love.”
Little America will also be produced by Lee Eisenberg of The Office fame, as well as Joshuah Bearman and Joshua Davis form Epic Magazine, from where the stories that Little America is based on has been featured.
No release or premiere date for Little America has been set, but the show will presumably premier after the launch of Apple TV+ this fall.
