Nimesh Patel


Nimesh Patel is an American comedian and television writer. In 2017, he became the first Indian American writer on Saturday Night Live.

Early life

Patel was born in Parsippany, New Jersey. His grandfather immigrated to the United States from India in the 1970s and worked as a cashier at Macy's. Patel attended New York University where he started out as a pre-med student. He graduated from the Stern School of Business with a degree in finance in 2008.

Career

After graduating, Patel began working during the day and performing standup at The Stress Factory by night. In 2016, he was a finalist in Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud Network Pitch Panel at Just for Laughs ComedyPRO.
In 2015, he was doing standup in Greenpoint when he was discovered by Chris Rock. Patel then joined Rock's writing team for the 88th Academy Awards ceremony. He also wrote material for Hasan Minhaj's 2017 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner appearance. In 2017, Patel began working as a full-time writer for Saturday Night Live, mainly writing jokes for Weekend Update. In 2018, Patel was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for his work on SNL.
Patel has appeared on @midnight, Comedy Knockout and Late Night with Seth Meyers. He has also featured as a comedy and politics panelist at the Foreign Affairs Symposium at Johns Hopkins University.
On November 30, 2018, roughly 30 minutes into a comedy set, Patel was removed by organizers from the cultureSHOCK: Reclaim, an event for Asian representation.

Influences

Patel's main comedic influences are Chris Rock, Larry David and Patrice O’Neal.

Awards and honors