Born on February 23, 1983 in Columbia, South Carolina, Aziz Ansari is an actor and comedian best known for starring in the critically acclaimed sketch comedy series Human Giant on MTV, where he also writes. More recently, Ansari was cast in the 2009 NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He graduated from South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, eventually finishing marketing from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Ansari started off his career via his very own stand-up comedy in New York City while attending college at NYU. In 2005, he broke in the scene as Rolling Stone included him int heir annual “hot List” as their choice for the “Hot Standup.” The following year, he won the Jury Award for “Best Standup” at HBO’s US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. He still occasionally tours colleges and music festivals and in fact has toured with the Flight of the Conchors. In 2005, he also started a collaboration with fellow comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer to make short films, with the first one portraying Huebel and Ansari as cutthroat child talent agents. MTV greenlit a sketch series which debuted April 5, 2007. His other credits include the HBO series Flight of the Conchords and the films Observe and Repot opposite Seth Rogen. He also appeared in the film Funny People with Adam Sandler and Rogen. He also joined the cast of the ABC series Crubs as a new intern in the show’s eighth season.