On June 4, the IndieWire Honors Spring 2026 awards ceremony will honor the creators and stars behind the year's best television series. Selected by IndieWire's editorial team, the IndieWire Honors are a celebration of the creators, artists, and performers behind acclaimed shows. Ahead of the Los Angeles event, IndieWire is highlighting their work with new interviews and tributes from fellow creators.
When actor Saagar Sheikh first heard about the film "Deli Boys," he was represented by an agency that kept sending him auditions for inappropriate roles, like "45-year-old father of three with an accent" (he's in his thirties and doesn't have an accent). The actor, best known at the time for his supporting role in the Disney+ series "Ms. Marvel," instantly fell in love with the script—a gritty yet comedic crime series about a pair of spoiled Pakistani-American heirs to a food conglomerate who, after their father's death, discover that their wealth came largely from a secret drug empire operating behind the scenes.
A few weeks later, after leaving his agency, Sheikh signed with Gersh, where he pitched the show to his agent, who represented creator Abdullah Saeed. She set up a meeting, and the two quickly became friends. Sheikh initially auditioned for the role of Mir, the hard-working and more responsible brother, while Saeed himself was slated to play the party-going, pot-smoking brother, Raj.
Finally, they called him and told him that they had cast another actor for the role of Mir, but two hours later they called again They informed him that Saeed would no longer be playing Raj and asked him to audition. He passed, and a few weeks later, he was testing for compatibility with the new actor playing Mir, Asif Ali—a stand-up comedian who was also best known at the time for a small supporting role in a Marvel series (in his case, WandaVision). On the day of the audition, Ali was in Chicago, and after a flight delay, he found a quiet hallway and auditioned over Zoom with several potential candidates for the role of Raj, including Sheikh.
«"I read the script with Saagar, and deep down, I couldn't pick who would be cast, but I thought it would be a nice atmosphere, you know?" Ali told IndieWire. "It's a great place to hang out, we complement each other so well, it's almost like speed dating, a compatibility test, and on Zoom, we were working at a high level of complexity.".
Starring Mira and Raja, Ali and Sheikh form the comedic heart of "Deli Boys," a witty, gory, and hilarious series that draws a wealth of Pakistani-inspired humor from its characters' backgrounds without ever reducing them to that background. Following the premiere of its first season last year, the second season debuted on Hulu on May 28, and on June 4, Ali and Sheikh will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award at the IndieWire Honors ceremony, which celebrates television. The award seems fitting for both actors, who weren't breakout stars of any series before "Deli Boys.".
Asif Ali and Saagar Sheikh in "Delhi Boys" Elizabeth Sisson/Disney
«"I think we, as a community, are really worn down by rejection," Shaikh told IndieWire. "A lot of the people we meet in the industry now go to events we wouldn't otherwise be invited to, but for them, it's become a routine. Asif and I look at each other and realize we weren't meant to be here. We live our own lives. We're so used to rejection, to being co-stars, guest stars, or doing commercials. But the opportunity to do this as our full-time job, to go to events where people we've seen on TV for years go, and just interact with them? We're just trying to make the most of it.".
«"The real breakthrough is stable employment," Ali added.
A rare Hollywood project with a predominantly South Asian cast, Delhi Boys portrays this community not as typical stereotypes or supporting characters—"doctors," "lawyers," or "engineers," as Sheikh puts it—but as complex and imperfect people. The main characters, the sheltered offspring of a powerful CEO, are a bit like the Roy siblings from Succession transplanted into The Sopranos. South Asian culture is seamlessly woven into the series: in the first season, humor emerges from wedding customs, relations between India and Pakistan, the characters' Muslim religious backgrounds, and their dealings with mafias, from Italian to Vietnamese.
Both Ali and Sheikh were drawn to the specificity of the South Asian characters created by the show's script when they first read the pilot; Sheikh says he rarely encounters a work with more than one South Asian character he can identify with. While the show's humor draws on their culture, it never portrays this community as a monolith, but as a group encompassing all extremes.
«"As an artist, you always want to push the envelope because it's a comedy drama, 30 minutes of, 'Come on! We're in crazy town, let's go crazy!' and it's that specificity that makes the show so much more interesting. Taking into account the specificity of all these people, especially in comedy, allows for better satire," Ali said. "And it's nice for artists to be a part of something like that, especially since our show is such a collaborative environment, to be a part of a project and create something where you know that even if I wasn't involved at all, I'd still be such a fan and be so excited about it.".
«Disney's Delhi Boys
While Sheikh and Ali are undoubtedly the main characters, equally crucial to the success of Delhi Boys is its diverse cast, which includes many familiar South Asian actors, such as Brian George, who plays British mobster Ahmad, and Iqbal Theba, who plays the late Baba, the brothers' brother. Chief among them is Poorna Jagannathan, who effectively fulfills the role of the series' third central figure, playing the loving but ruthless Aunt Lucky, Mir and Raj's right-hand woman, who takes over the business after their father's death. Both actors are effusive in their praise: Sheikh calls her a "legend" and a "Mother with a capital M," while Ali describes her as an actress who helps them raise the bar for their own work.
«"Just watching her was a masterclass in like, 'Hey, man, I know you think you're getting too caught up in the details, but there's actually a whole other level of depth that makes everything so much better,'" Ali said. "For me, as someone who almost exclusively does comedy, the opportunity to watch an actress like Poorna, let alone perform with her, was just amazing, and I think that's what makes the show so much more entertaining. She's so professional, so talented, she just has it all. Whatever it is, she's got it.".
«"She asks how we're doing and asks, 'Are you okay?'" Sheikh said. "She's just the kind of person who, if you're feeling down, will bring you soup. And to be that person and play a character like Lucky, who can be both compassionate and stern at the same time? That's a real talent.".
Ali called it a great blessing that the duo was able to work alongside seasoned professionals from the South Asian community and receive their mentorship and support. Regarding the reaction of South Asian fans of the show, he noted that they often admit to being wary of watching it, fearing disappointment. The fact that the show Not What was a disappointment turned out to be a great success gives him hope that it can inspire future projects that will further explore the complexity of this community.
«"That's how you know you're doing something interesting, because a lot of times people come up to you and say, 'Hey, man, I was really nervous because we've been let down before,'" Ali said.
«"This reaffirms that we must be excellent, we must be undisputed, to be recognized," Sheikh said. "We don't have the luxury of mediocrity. We have to work twice as hard to achieve even half of what most people in the industry achieve, and we're meeting that challenge, and so far, we've done well, and I hope to continue in the same vein for another 10 years.".
The second season of Delhi Boys is now available to watch on Hulu.
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