Nimesh Patel

Nimesh S. Patel (born 1986) is an American comedian and television writer. In 2017, he became the first Indian-American writer on Saturday Night Live.

Early life Nimesh Patel was born in Parsippany–Troy Hills in the Morris County of New Jersey in 1986 into an immigrant Indian Gujarati Hindu family. His parents immigrated to the United States from India in the 1970s. His father first came to Newark, New Jersey as a 17 year old and worked as a cashier at a Macy's. He eventually opened a liquor store in a troubled neighborhood with heavy African-American organized crime and gang culture in Irvington, Essex County, often being robbed and also shot at.

Patel graduated from Parsippany Hills High School in 2004

Career After graduating, Patel began working during the day and performing standup at The Stress Factory by night.

Patel also wrote material for Hasan Minhaj's 2017 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner appearance. In 2017, he began working as a full-time writer for Saturday Night Live, mainly writing jokes for Weekend Update. In 2018, Patel was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for his work on SNL.

Patel has appeared on @midnight, Comedy Knockout and Late Night with Seth Meyers. He has also featured as a comedy and politics panelist at the Foreign Affairs Symposium at Johns Hopkins University.

On November 30, 2018, mid-way into a comedy set hosted by the Asian American Alliance student organization at Columbia University, Patel was interrupted and asked to leave by the organizers.

Patel was scheduled to participate in the 2025 Riyadh Comedy Festival, which received negative attention from organizations such as Human Rights Watch; Patel pulled before the start of the festival after "having a change of heart". Later that year, he provided the voice of Galen in the video game Dispatch.

Influences Patel's main comedic influences are Dave Chappelle, Mitch Hedberg, Chris Rock, Larry David and Patrice O’Neal.

Personal life Patel is a non practicing Hindu.

He used to live in Hell's Kitchen in New York City but now resides in Brooklyn. He is a regular comic at the Comedy Cellar, a comedy club in Greenwich Village in New York City.

He married Amy Havel in 2020.

Awards and honors 2017 - Nominated for Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy/Variety (Music, Awards, Tributes) – Specials for the 88th Academy Awards 2018 - Nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for Saturday Night Live