Kumail Nanjiani is opening up about how some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names reacted to the HBO comedy that poked fun at their world.
The actor, best known for playing Dinesh Chugtai on Silicon Valley, recently joined comedian Mike Birbiglia on his Working It Out podcast, where he revealed that Elon Musk wasn’t exactly a fan.
Nanjiani recalled meeting the Tesla CEO, who immediately made it clear he didn’t like the show.
Musk, 54, apparently took issue with the very first scene of the series, where Kid Rock performs at a tech party while “seven nerdy dudes” stand around, barely paying attention.
“Elon was upset,” Nanjiani said. “He was like, ‘Well, the parties I go to are much cooler than these parties.’ ”
Nanjiani laughed at the memory, adding, “Yeah, man. You’re one of the richest people in the world. We’re like losers on the show. Of course, your parties are better than my parties. What are you talking about?”
The actor also shared another story from his time on the series, this one involving Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Around the show’s third or fourth year, Nanjiani and co-star Martin Starr presented at the Breakthrough Awards, an event Zuckerberg co-founded in 2016.
The pair decided to tweak their prepared script and instead made a callback to a risqué moment from the show’s first season finale. The room didn’t respond the way they hoped.
“He was like, ‘What the f— was that?’” Nanjiani recalled of Zuckerberg’s reaction. Looking back, Nanjiani admitted, “And truly in that moment he was right.”
Silicon Valley premiered in 2014 and ran for six seasons, becoming a sharp satire of the tech industry and startup culture. Over its run, the series earned 40 Emmy nominations, including five consecutive nods for Outstanding Comedy Series, and won twice, for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Art Direction for a Contemporary Program (Half hour or less).
Alongside Nanjiani and Starr, the acclaimed ensemble included Thomas Middleditch, Zach Woods, Josh Brener, and T.J. Miller.
For Nanjiani, the stories behind the scenes now serve as funny reminders of how the fictional world of Pied Piper sometimes clashed with the real titans of Silicon Valley.