TV Star Spotlight: Aziz Ansari

I know we just posted about last night's season finale of Saturday Night Live, but we didn't actually watching it yet (don't worry, we DVRed it.  No spoilers!).  That's because last night, we had tickets to see standup from the one and only Aziz Ansari!  Currently, Aziz stars on the NBC comedy Parks & Recreation, but he has actually been on many other TV shows in the past.  So let's take a look back at some of our favorite Aziz appearances.

Aziz Ansari's first major TV appearance was as one of the three creators and stars of the MTV sketch comedy show Human Giant.   Co-created with Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel, the show ran for 2 seasons on MTV, and featured the trio appearing in various sketches (many of them recurring throughout episodes), along with some pretty great guest stars.  This first sketch is from a recurring sketch called "Shutterbugs", which features Aziz and Rob Huebel as managers of a child talent agency.  Special guest appearance by Bobb'e J. Thomas (Role Models, Tracy Jr. on 30 Rock).

Here's another recurring sketch from Human Giant called "Illusionators", a parody of Criss Angel's Mindfreak, featuring a guest appearance from Rob Riggle (SNL, Daily Show).

After Human Giant, Aziz took on many guest starring roles on TV shows, such as his recurring role as Ed the Intern in season 8 of Scrubs.  Here's a little compilation of some of his best scenes:

Aziz also had a memorable appearance on the HBO comedy Flight of the Conchords as a racist fruit vendor.

And now, Aziz stars on the hit NBC comedy Parks and Recreation as Tom Haverford:

But Aziz has done much more than just television.  He has appeared in many movies, such as I Love You Man, The Rocker, Get Him to the Greek, Funny People (as alter ego RAAAAAAAANDY), and his first starring role in last summer's 30 Minutes or Less.  

But in addition to acting, Aziz is also a great stand-up (hence we got tickets to see him).  In his signature style, he has talked about a wide range of topics, such as marriage and children, stories about Kanye West and R Kelly, making fun of his cousins Harris and Darwish, thread counts on luxery linens, and buying ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. Aziz released his first Comedy Central special Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening in 2010.  Here's the cleanest clip we could find from the special: (other clips are funnier, but we try to keep this site relatively clean.  You can check out tons of other Aziz standup clips on YouTube)

Aziz's second special, Dangerously Delicious, will make its TV debut tonight (May 20) at 10:00pm on Comedy Central.  But, for just $5 you can download the extended, uncensored version on Aziz's website. We bought it, and it was hysterical. Well worth the $5!

And last night, we were in attendance for Aziz's 3rd comedy show, Buried Alive.  It was a really funny show, and great to finally get to see Aziz live.  If you want to catch him on tour, check out his tour dates!  Highly recommended!