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Danny Pudi Biography From Wikipedia
Born - Chicago, Illinois
Occupation - Actor
Years active - 2006–present
Danny Pudi is an American actor. He plays Abed in the NBC comedy series Community.
Biography
Early life
Pudi, who is of Indian and Polish descent[1], was born and raised in Chicago and grew up speaking Polish.[2] He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduating with a degree in Communications in 2001.[3]
Acting career
Pudi has appeared in multiple television advertisements including McDonald's, Pokemon and portrays Abed Nahir in the US series Community.[4]
Movie
Pudi potrayed Arash in the comedy film Road Trip: Beer Pong[5] and starred in the Thriller film Knights of Badassdom.[6]
Filmography
Year Film Credited as
Actor Role
2007 Cop Show Yes Saffa
The Untitled Rob Roy Thomas Project Yes
2008 Giants of Radio Yes Teddy
2009 Road Trip: Beer Pong Yes Arash
Nilam Auntie: An International Treasure Yes Melvin the online surfer
2010 Blowout Sale Yes Glen
The Knights of Badassdom Yes Live Action Role Player
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2006 ER Mahir Kardatay Co-Guest Star - 3 episodes
Gilmore Girls Raj Guest Star - 4 episodes
The West Wing Santos Aide Guest Star - 1 episode
2007–2008 Greek Sanjay Co-Guest Star - 4 episodes
2008 The Bill Engvall Show Josh Guest Star - 1 episode
2009-2011 Community Abed Nadir Main Cast
References
1. ^ "Desis on Cable: Reshma Shetty and Danny Pudi": Interview in India Currents magazine by Ranjit Souri, November 2009
2. ^ The Bonnie Hunt Show, 9 October 2009.
3. ^ http://www.marquette.edu/magazine/recent.php?subaction=showfull&id=1263573720&archive=
4. ^ Community Member Becomes One of the Knights of Badassdom!
5. ^ Trailer for Road Trip: Beer Pong announcement
6. ^ 'Community' Funnyman Grabs His Sword for 'Knights of Badassdom'!
Danny Pudi Interview
10 things you don’t know about Danny Pudi
A conversation with Danny Pudi can be just as random as with his character, Abed. So here are 10 random facts about this Marquette alum and Community star.
1) The son of immigrants, Pudi is half-Indian, half-Polish. He used to speak Polish with his grandmother and recently did an impromptu Polish dance on The Bonnie Hunt Show.
2) He got the Community role on his birthday. “We were out to dinner and I got the call, and I was, like, shaking. I think I dropped the phone in my chili. I wanted the role so badly. ... Maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone that it was my birthday, though. I’m trying to keep my age a secret. I’m trying to pretend I’m 15. Ha!”
3) He might look 15, but he considers himself “an old soul.” “I eat oatmeal every morning. I like to watch birds out my window for a really long time. Like, I’ll sit there, and I’ll be watching a squirrel and a bird and I’ll look at my watch and think: ‘I just watched that bird for 20 minutes. Wow, what has my life come to?’”
4) He doesn’t know if his character has Asperger’s Syndrome, and he doesn’t care. (Speculation about whether Abed has the autism spectrum disorder started after co-star Joel McHale’s character made an Asperger’s reference to Abed.) “We’ve never said yes or no, and I don’t know that the show wants to take a stand on that. Whenever I read the script, I just try to look at what Abed says, where he’s coming from and how he looks at the world. I’m just trying to play the character as real and honest as I can.”
5) Media interviews — including this one with Marquette Magazine — still kind of weird him out. “I’m not used to any of this. … I’m used to interviews where I’m the witness to the scene of a crime or something like that. Like, ‘Did you see the bear fall through the window?’”
6) He’s a true Fanatic. “At Marquette, a lot of the performance I did wasn’t on the stage. I was always at every basketball game. I loved getting on the Jumbotron — I think I have the record for most times on the Jumbroton at Marquette games at the Bradley Center. I’m a huge, huge sports fan, and Marquette basketball is my No. 1 thing.”
7) His Marquette nickname was Study Poison. “When I showed up at Memorial Union or at Cudahy or wherever to study, they’d be like, ‘Here he comes, here comes Study Poison.’ Because I’d rather get together with a group of friends, hang out, drink Coca-Cola, watch movies, play games or whatever than sit there and look at textbooks.”
8) Marquette flashbacks are common when he’s on the set. “It’s almost impossible not to. … I think they do such a nice job of making the set so specific and rich. You see all the billboards with flyers about study groups or people looking for roommates or events on campus. It’s hard not to think about Marquette as I walk from my classroom (on the set) and see the chalk on the ground saying there’s a rugby game this weekend or come to the AMU for this speaker.”
9) He and co-star Donald Glover come from improv backgrounds and often improvise the last scenes of each episode — random scenes that have ranged from rapping in Spanish to cramming pencils into each other’s mouths to seizing control of the community college’s announcement system. “It’s a fun thing for us to do little bits like that that are very character-driven. It’s not necessarily part of the story, but it’s just a little peek into the world that these characters live in.”
10) Working with Chevy Chase is a trip. “The other day Chevy Chase threw a cherry tomato, and it hit me in the crotch. We were doing a party scene, and I suddenly feel this thing hit my groin. I look across the room and see Chevy Chase waving at me and giggling. ... I keep telling Chevy when he’s ready for a vacation to let me know. I don’t know what it would be, a road trip vacation, maybe? Me and Chevy on a Vespa or something. ... I think that would be hilarious.”
Danny Pudi Interview
How has your year been? You started it as the butt dialer and quickly became everybody's favorite college student.
Danny Pudi: I think that says it all. I mean, I don't really know what's happened this year. The last eight to nine months of my life have been bizarre
and incredible. I was on a flight not too long ago, and the flight attendant came up to me, grabbed me by both of my shoulders, looked me in the eyes,
got really close, and yelled "Asperger's!" right in my face. She then proceeded to bring me two drinks that were pretty much pure vodka, sprayed
some Binaca in her mouth, kissed me on the lips, and said, "That was for Joel McHale."
So, these are the scenarios that happen now that wouldn't have happened before -- especially since eight months ago, I probably would have been considered a potentially dangerous person on a flight, and now people come up to me and say nice things to me. It's a crazy thing when you look at your refrigerator and you see a Christmas card with Chevy Chase, right next to a Christmas card with Matt O'Grady, right next to a Christmas card with Joel McHale. And last year it would have just been Matt O'Grady and possibly my sister and my cousin. That's a weird thing to accept as real person, and not as a stalker. I didn't steal them!
What's it like working on a show with such a big slate of comedians?
Danny Pudi: Well, there are a lot of comedians on this show, but what's great about it is that the writing is so rich and balanced, and our ensemble is
full of really excellent actors. I think people have overlooked the range that some of these people have; Gillian Jacobs, for instance, has done a lot
of drama. When I first met her, I had actually seen her in a movie that was pretty dark, and to be able to see her in the role of Britta is a real testament
to the range that people have. And Alison's working on Mad Men this week! These people are incredibly just able to shift from doing comedy to drama, and
I think because of that, we're able to adapt and move together as a funny amoeba.
Are you as knowledgeable about pop culture as Abed is?
Danny Pudi: Absolutely not. Abed's an encyclopedia. He's kind of a genius. I mean, I grew up with a lot of the same movies and music and stuff; even with
Star-Burns: El Star Prince [Abed's video project in the webisode], the minute we started working, I just was having flashbacks to Starman back in the day,
both the Jeff Bridges movies and the TV show. So a lot of these things I did grow up with, but Abed is a type of guy who didn't just grow up with it, but
he also remembers word-for-word every scene/character and what they worked on prior to that/cinematographer/key grip. And not only that, he's also able
to apply it to everyday world situations, see where similar situations are taking place, and learn from it.
So the fun, challenging thing about this role is that I'm often given scripts with references that I don't necessarily remember or get, and just to make sure I know what I'm talking about, I google My Bodyguard or go to Blockbuster and rent all these movies. And then there's certain ones I definitely know. For example, I knew the Goodfellas reference [in "Contemporary American Poultry"], as it's definitely one of my favorite movies. Or when we referenced Indiana Jones [in "Social Psychology"]; Indiana Jones is probably one of my top five movies that, no matter where it's on, I have to watch it... even if I'm at Best Buy or Radio Shack and it's playing on a sample TV, I'll sit there and stand until it's over. There's a little bit of Abed in me. But I think he's a more of an encyclopedia.
We know Abed loves directing, but do you have any interest in being behind the camera?
Danny Pudi: Yeah, I think someday. The more I work on the show, the more I'm fascinated and also just kind of blown away by everyone's talents. I think
the really cool thing that people don't realize about a TV show is that they're not all directed by the same person. And so the pilot, and many of the
other episodes, were directed by the Russo brothers who are amazing. They did Arrested Development, among other things. And beyond that, we've worked with
Justin Lin a few times, who directed Fast and the Furious. And Gail Mancuso and Tristram Shapeero, who directed last week's chicken fingers episode. We've
worked just a handful of amazing directors. To be able to work closely with all these people and seeing how they operate differently and how they work
with actors as well as their shot composition and that kind of thing, is all new to me because I didn't go to film school. You know, I'm strictly an actor
and comedian, but my appreciation for it is growing, and I would love to get into that down the road.
How do you think Abed has evolved as a person over the course of the season?
Danny Pudi: I think I'm very fortunate, because the writers have given me so much rich, rich stuff to work on and expand on. You never know in a comedy
how things are going to roll out in terms of being a side character, but I'm technically one of the ensemble now. And if you look at Abed on the surface,
it's easy to think he's just a pop culture bum, but the thing about him is that he uses all these references and in terms of how he views the world. It
comes from a real place; it's how he connects things. They're not just gratuitous references for the sake of references; it's because Abed's piecing together
something that he's noticed going on around him.
And I think "Contemporary American Poultry" was a great example of that in terms of it being a parody of Goodfellas and other mob movies, but at the end, there was that very heartfelt scene with Joel. It was actually one of my favorite scenes that I've done this season. It's that scene that typifies what's special about our show, because it really gives you a very brief glimpse of what makes these characters tick, and they're very honest about it -- and then we go right back to a Sixteen Candles moment -- but there was something very genuine and sweet about that type of scene, where it's fun for me to be able to play this character who has such a good time in the world. It's very much a video game, in some ways, but he's also a real person on the inside, who's challenged and trying to connect with people. And I think that really resonates, so it makes the comedy that much better.
Where would you like to see your character go in the future?
Danny Pudi: I don't know, I feel already challenged and fortunate in terms of what I've been given and I'm just thankful that my character is not just
a one dimensional character. There's a lot to him, you know. I think times have changed a lot from the days of back in the early '90s, when I was growing
up and you had Dhalsim in Street Fighter, Apu on The Simpsons, or magic rocks protecting Indian villages in Indiana Jones. The fact that I get to play
a character that's really well rounded and kind of odd and quirky and exploring the world, is just so wonderful. There's a lot of that on NBC right now
-- I think each one of the shows on Thursday night has a brown-skin member, and what's great about it is that we're not all playing one dimensional characters.
We're playing very interesting roles and, you know, we just happen to be brown which I love. I always feel like every week is going to be a fun, new adventure.
I'm excited to see what happens.
Danny Pudi (dannypudi) on Twitter - twitter.com/dannypudi
Danny Pudi | Facebook - www.facebook.com/pages/Danny-Pudi/114382756768
Danny Pudi Quotes