Nik Dodani

Actor, comedian, and writer Nik Dodani is one of the most-watched emerging talents in the entertainment industry today.

Dodani co-founded The Salon, a forum for South Asian artists and executives in entertainment to accelerate the creative development of South Asian-Americans in TV and film through community organizing. Earlier this year, Dodani, along with Reena Singh and Rishi Rajani, announced the inaugural Salon Mentorship Program, a year-long program that will connect aspiring South Asian talent to established members of the entertainment industry. The 23 individuals participating in The Salon Mentorship Program were selected from a nationwide pool of over 850 candidates recruited through an open application and robust review process led by Dodani. The finalists were paired with a mentor in one of five tracks -- writing, acting, producing, directing, or executive leadership -- and will work closely with their respective mentors over the course of 2021 to identify areas of growth, discuss strategy, and expand opportunities. Mentees will also have exclusive access to monthly educational programming.

Throughout last year, Dodani was also active in organizing the South Asian community in support of the Biden/Harris presidential campaign. To kick off the election season, Dodani teamed up with Meena Harris to design and release the iconic "Vote for Aunty" merchandise campaign that celebrated Kamala Harris' South Asian heritage and raised money for Biden/Harris.

Dodani further rallied South Asians from film and TV for a NowThis video to celebrate Kamala Harris' ground-breaking candidacy and to discuss the power of voting, specifically in the South Asian community. Dodani, who wrote, directed, and produced the video, was joined by other Hollywood heavyweights, boosting the video to become one of the most-watched political spots of the cycle.

Following the success of his first video, Dodani re-teamed with Maya and Meena Harris (Kamala Harris' sister and niece) to produce and star in a follow-up video to help motivate the South Asian community for the Georgia runoff elections. The video was the first in a series of Georgia voting videos from IMPACT, the Indian American Impact Fund. In addition to directing, Dodani co-wrote the video alongside Meena Harris.

Last year, Dodani also rallied fellow entertainers in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, joining efforts to oust former LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey and co-organized a Netflix town hall in support of the #BlackAutisticLivesMatter movement.

Dodani can be seen in Universal’s forthcoming feature adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen, based on the Tony Award-winning original stage musical. He stars as the quirky and charismatic Zahid on Netflix's Atypical and recurred in season two of Netflix's Trinkets. Prior to this, Dodani wrapped a

series regular role on CBS' continuation of the award-winning iconic series Murphy Brown. On the film front, Dodani had a starring role in Columbia Picture's horror Escape Room and Netflix's Alex Strangelove. At the start of 2020, Dodani wrapped director Hannah Marks’ sophomore feature, Mark, Mary & Some Other People, which will be premiering at Tribeca Film Festival.