SPOTLIGHT
ABCD: AMERICAN BORN CHATTY DESIS
ABCD is an attempt at normalizing the second-generation desi experience while navigating everyday life in a light-hearted comedic format.
The DesiQuest stars have teamed up for a live Twitch show to normalize the second-generation Southeast Asian experience while navigating everyday life in a light-hearted comedic format.
EffinFunny’s Sandeep Parikh and actor/filmmaker Omar Najam were in the news for the success of their crowdfunded upcoming series, DesiQuest. Now, the pair is teaming up on a live show to expand on Desi Quest’s mission to broaden Southeast Asian storytelling in the United States.
The show was named for an often-belittling slur, ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) in order to reclaim and redefine the term. ABCD: American Born Chatty Desis features popular internet personalities Parikh and Najam as they navigate headlines, check in with their chakras, and close with a ridiculous game. According to their logline, viewers will “come for the light-hearted commentary and stay for the deep insights into life from the second-generation (desi) point of view”.
The show airs Sundays at 7:30 pm PST Live on twitch.tv/effinfunny.
EffinFunny creates, develops and produces content for partners including Comedy Central, FX, TBS, Red Hour, and ABC digital. Its projects have garnered over 500 million views around the world and multiple Webby, Streamy and Telly Awards. Their pioneering Comedy Central web series Legend of Neil broke 10 million views and blazed a trail for the web series format. The award-winning series That Moment When broke ground with its comedic treatment of emerging interactive media formats.
EffinFunny’s DesiQuest was inspired by the popular tabletop role playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, but draws from South Asian myths and traditions. Produced by Sandeep Parikh and Jasmine Bhullar, with a completely South Asian cast, the show received media attention for their popularity on Kickstarter. Audiences fully funded the project within a few hours, and ultimately exceeded the funding goal by 300 per cent.
Sandeep Parikh (left) and Omar Najam.
Sandeep Parikh is a multidisciplinary entertainer and filmmaker. As an actor he’s appeared in popular shows like The Guild, New Girl, Californication and Community. He’s also writer and director of several digital series including the award winning interactive comedy That Moment When, Comedy Central’s The Legend of Neil, and most recently, the interactive comedy Wizard School Dropout. He’s founder and Chief Creative Officer of diversity-focused comedy house EffinFunny.
Omar Najam is a writer, director, TTRPG player and coffee nerd. He was the GM behind the comedy TTRPG podcast Thank You For Questing!, and has had the pleasure of rolling dice on shows such as QueueTimes’s Power Play, Pixel Circus’s The Borros Saga: Banesbreak and Dimension 20’s A Court of Fey and Flowers. His focus is on characters and character relationships, as well as using improv chops to find the comedy in the drama and the drama in the comedy. Fun fact: He is in the background of a Lifetime movie as Partier #4.