Master of None

It could have been just another TV comedy about a 30-something guy and his buddies in Manhattan. But actor-comedian Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation) instead turned his Netflix series Master of None into a treatise on life as a millennial-age child of immigrants in New York, disguising its incisive vision with snappy patter and pop-culture savvy. Ansari cast himself as Dev Shah, who’s 30, still figuring out what to do with his life, and presently pursuing an acting career. One minute, the show pokes fun at Americanized kids oblivious to the struggles their parents endured to reach the United States, and the next it’s taking on white actors playing Indians by wearing “brown face” makeup. Working with co-creator Alan Yang, Ansari sets his stories in a New York more diverse than viewers have seen in most sitcoms. And as a bonus, Ansari’s real-life mom and dad, in their acting debuts, offer sidesplitting turns as his character’s parents. For its perceptive, sharply humorous take, both unique and universal, on millennials and second-generation immigrants, Master of None receives a Peabody Award.