Brotherly love can take many forms but teaming up to take control of your father's crime organization is definitely the most extreme case! Hulu's latest comedy series Deli Boys is officially premiering all 10 episodes of season 1 on the streamer. Alongside premiering at the Sundance Film Festival 2025, a teaser trailer announcing the series dropped signaling its entry into a unique time for diverse stories being told for TV!
Deli Boys is centered around two privleged Pakistani-American brothers in Philadelphia who not only lose everything but realize they have to deal with their convenience store-magnate father's secret life of crime who owns the company DarCo. Created by former Vice music journalist Abdullah Saeed, the show takes shape as a series with not just loss and rebuilding, but heart, humor, and themes of humility while featuring some fun characters.
Deli Boys stars Asif Ali as Mir Dar, the hardworking half of the Dar brother duo, Saagar Shaikh as Raj Dar, the stoner and irresponsible other half of the Dar brothers, Poorna Jagannathan as Lucky, Alfie Fuller as Prairie, Raj's girlfriend, andBrian George as Ahmad, who is seeking thetop spot at DarCo. Iqbal Theba portrays Baba, the head of a criminal enterprise that is left to Mir and Raj. Guest stars include Geoffrey Arend as Ralph, who oversees DarCo's cocaine production, Azhar Usman as Feraz, and Tan France (Queer Eye) as Zubair, a South London gang leader.
Saeed developed Deli Boys in collaboration with executive producers Jenni Konner (Girls, Single Drunk Female, Welcome to Chippendales), and Nora Silver. Showrunner Michelle Nader (Dollface, Shifting Gears) is an executive producer via Shaky Gun Productions, Nisha Ganatra via Ladies' Car Productions, Shaky Gun Productions, and Konner via Jenni Konner Productions, alongside Onyx Collective and 20th Television.
Culturess had the privilege of sitting down with EPs Michelle Nader and Jenni Konner, as well as cast members Poorna Jagannathan and Alfie Fuller, to get a look into how Deli Boys stands out within the current TV landscape and what makes these characters so easy to resonate with as lead characters lives begin to change and evolve before our very eyes! Ready to know more? Read on for the interviews with
As Deli Boys explores the life of these two Pakistan-American brothers, how is it working with Abdullah to bring this show to Hulu?
Jenni Konner: It's great. He has this very specific, hilarious, rare, fresh voice. He makes our jobs really easy. Our job is supporting him and surrounding him with good people and keeping his voice protected.
It is a fresh take on portraying the immigrant experience and feels so authentic. In the development process and getting together, how did you put your heads together to make sure that this was ready for the TV landscape?
MN: The premise about this show was like, 'It's time for a show that is about immigrants, but not being about the immigrant experience,' Just through the lens of being an immigrant and being a Muslim. So it wasn't about that. It just informs everything.
Balancing humor with crime makes Deli Boys so fun. When the brothers' lives are turned upside down, I think about previous series where they have to balance tone. Were there any challenges when it came to that for each episode, or was it more like, "Let it rip. We love to see this."?
MN: We are really on the same page in terms of the tone. We love [Quentin] Tarantino. We love shows [and movies] that can balance those two: crime and comedy. I love doing that and just making these right turns. In the midst of a really intense conversation, character conversation, something crazy can happen, and that's always what we strove for. Is strove a word?
We're going to say 'strove' is a word.
MN: It is now!
For people who are may be unfamiliar with shows that deal with cultural clashes, what do you hope they take away from this?
MN: Jenny had found this script of Abdullah's. What I think we both gravitated to was it being about the human experience. It's about a family who is grieving. They are estranged, these brothers. They're coming together because because they have to survive. They do it through crime, which is the funny... That's where the comedy comes from, but it's [really] about a family coming together.
JK: We think that part is very relatable. Everyone fights with their siblings. Everyone's parents have some secrets they're not telling you. These are the more extreme versions, but we think people will understand the nature of their relationships.
Is there a specific character that you guys both resonate with in this show?
MN and JK: You want to guess? Have you seen us? [laughs]
MN: It's Lucky! She is our avatar. There's no one like her, and Abdullah would say the same thing. She really embodies both of us because we've been in show business for a really long time, and it takes you having to be [acting] like a criminal.
JK: To be a woman growing up in this business, it's really tough, but we're also very nurturing. It's like lucky shoot someone in one second and then is wiping the blood off their face in the next. That's us.
Poorna, what makes playing Lucky different from your other portrayals?
Poorna Jagannathan: I've played characters that have been internally strong and strong-willed and determined. Lucky just manifests all that power physically as well. If she's killed 10 people before she's had her morning coffee. When she's pissed off, it's like she'll just slap these two boys across the face in a second. So it's a physical manifestation of power and of fierceness and of aggression. She's a gangster so it's in her actions. It's not only her spirit, it's also what she does. It's very intense.
The show deals with a lot of complexities in family dynamics. Can you speak to how your character interacts with the boys and their relationship?
PJ: She's forced into this maternal role. I don't think she has a maternal bone in her body, and yet she loves these boys. They're her only family, and she's grieving Baba along with the boys, but she knows she has to keep it together to have the family move forward and the business stay intact and power in her control. The dynamic with the boys, it's delicate. She has to be both nurturing and in some way lean into the maternal, but she has to really get them prepared super fast to take over this business These two just couldn't be dumber. She's just dealing with just these two spoiled brats who just don't know how to navigate life at all.
With that, what is it like working opposite Asif and Sager?
PJ: Oh, they're fantastic! It's not that they're dumb in the show, but they're just portrayed as not totally 'with it'. In real life, it's two smartest men ever. Our chemistry is the chemistry you'll see on set, it's the chemistry off-set as well. We had it from day one of us meeting. It's just easy, it's relaxed, it's comfortable, we trust each other, we love each other. Somehow all of us, even the guest stars and the crew, just everyone feels like one big family. It's easy and beautiful.
What do you hope audiences will take away from your character's specific journey throughout this series?
PJ: It's pretty special to be able to play a woman this powerful. Again, I think there's not many women in this world, and Lucky knows it. She'll enter rooms which are just with men, and that's it. That's why Lucky meeting Gigi [Lozano], played by Sofia Black D'elia, is so refreshing. She's a woman in this very male world, but you have to have a very particular compass to navigate. I always feel like my character is based on Michelle Nader and Jenni Konner, Nora Silver, the creators and showrunners. They are women who are in male-dominated spaces all the time. There's a particular togetherness you have to keep and an armor you have to have. Portraying that woman has been complete privilege.
Alfie, Prairie, is described as an 'Afrofuturist hipster'. How much research did you do to get into this character?
Alfie Fuller: The more I act and I progress in my career, I tend to think less and less about the description of a character because I now understand that a character changes and grows. What's initially said about a character may not be the same by the end of the series. She's absolutely a hippie, but some of the Afrofuturism maybe got set aside [to highlight[ other characteristics of Prairie along the way.!
I love it! It sounds like what excited you about becoming Prairie is working with a character who is eccentric, in a way.
AF: The kookier characters are always the most fun to play and she definitely doesn't jef about what anyone thinks about her, which is also very fun and freeing. She gets to be funny, even though she's just the girlfriend [to Raj]. She gets to be funny, she gets to be weird, she gets to be quirky so that all drew me to her.
What was it like working opposite met Sager to develop this relationship?
AF: The first time I met Sager, we clicked. We had chemistry. We were like, 'Oh, we're besties!' It was so easy to work opposite him. He's such a generous actor. The characters really are in love—A strange love that maybe not everyone understands, but they really do care for each other. That just bled into real life. We also really care for each other so it was really seamless and easy.
Was there a moment on set that you will never forget?
AF: Many! The one that's coming to my mind right now is the last day of filming. People who had been wrapped for days decided not to fly home; Flew home later because we all wanted to be there together for that last day. It was just such a celebration and many tears and smiles. It was really very magical.
Before you stream the episodes, check out the official trailer on Hulu's official YouTube channel:
What'd you think of the trailer? Deli Boys is available to watch on Hulu now!