Nik Dodani

Nik Dodani (born December 19, 1993) is an American actor, writer, and comedian known for his roles as Zahid in the Netflix comedy-drama series Atypical, and Pat Patel in the revival of the popular CBS sitcom Murphy Brown.

Career Acting Nik Dodani began his acting career in Phoenix-area community theater, his first notable role being Zero in a staged production of Holes based on the novel by Louis Sachar. Netflix's Trinkets, TBS's Angie Tribeca, Comedy Central's Idiotsitter, Freeform's Kevin from Work, and NBC's The Player, among others.

In film, Dodani has appeared in Netflix's Alex Strangelove, Joshua Leonard's independent film Dark Was the Night opposite Marisa Tomei and Charlie Plummer, the Sony Pictures thriller Escape Room, Hannah Marks' feature film Mark, Mary & Some Other People, and Stephen Chbosky's film adaptation of Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen as Jared, who was re-conceived as "Jared Kalwani" to celebrate Dodani's casting. In July 2024, he appeared in Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters, a follow up to the 1996 film Twister.

In March 2022, it was announced he would lead the New Line Cinema comedy The Parenting, opposite Brandon Flynn, Lisa Kudrow and Brian Cox. The film released on Max on March 13, 2025.

Dodani has voiced characters on numerous animated programs, including Nickelodeon's Big Nate, Disney's The Owl House and Hailey's On It!, and Disney Junior's Mira, Royal Detective. Dodani also voiced a character in the 2022 Disney animated film Strange World.

He made his Broadway debut as Ogie in Waitress from October 19 to November 27, 2021.

Stand-up comedy Dodani began performing stand-up comedy in 2015 and made his late-night stand-up comedy debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on September 28, 2018.

Writing and producing In October 2018, it was announced that Dodani would write the screenplay for the film adaptation of Rakesh Satyal's novel Blue Boy. In March 2022, Dodani launched his own production banner, Cosmic Pomegranate, with creative partner Joey Long.

In 2023, Dodani served as a co-producer of Life of Pi on Broadway, a play written by Lolita Chakrabarti as an adaptation of the novel by Yann Martel. Dodani served as an architect of The Power of Pi Project, "a first-of-its-kind effort from a Broadway production to connect with the AAPI community in New York and beyond."

Advocacy During the 2016 presidential election, Dodani was a producer for MoveOn, where he organized a political comedy tour called Laughter Trumps Hate. He previously worked as a communications consultant at RALLY, an issue advocacy firm based in Hollywood, and as a graphic designer and student organizer on Elizabeth Warren's 2012 Senate campaign.

In 2019, Dodani co-founded The Salon along with Bash Naran and Vinny Chhibber. The Salon is a forum for South Asian creatives in western creative arts. Dodani told The Hindu in 2021, "Our vision is to help the next generation of South Asian talent."

Dodani was active in organizing the South Asian community in support of the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign and in support of Kamala Harris. He also played an active role in organizing other entertainers for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Personal life Dodani is of Indian Sindhi descent and openly gay. He graduated from BASIS Scottsdale in 2011 and studied politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Filmography +Key Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Television