The “Deli Boys” cast strike a pose — and get seriously funny about season 2

How do you up the ante after Deli Boys season 1?

“We didn’t want to do the same thing because they were scrappy and they were fish out of water, and so we had to figure out how are we going to just up the stakes on this,” Michelle Nader, executive producer and showrunner of the Hulu on Disney+ comedy, said during a conversation moderated by Entertainment Weekly at the Pacific Design Center, “and that’s when we thought about the casino and them being successful and what success does to a family.”

After the panel, guests attended a reception celebrating the series, which won star Poorna Jagannathan a Gotham Award following season 1. Check out her posing with Nader, EP Jenni Konner, and costars Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, and season 2 newcomer Fred Armisen.

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Fred Armisen

Fred Armisen
Credit: Max Hemphill

“I was a fan of the show already, and to put it even more realistically, I was a fan of the billboards. I saw them and I was like, ‘What is this show?’ It’s very intriguing right away, especially because of the chemistry of these three,” Armisen said of his new castmates. “There’s something about them together that really, really is moving and funny and mysterious. So when I was approached to do something on the show, I was on board right away.”

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Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh

“It’s fun for us specifically that we both have brothers, so it’s pretty easy,” Ali says of his on-screen dynamic with Shaikh.

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Poorna Jagannathan

“I think all three of us, we get along really well and we care for each other and we’re each other’s safety nets,” Jagannathan says of the season 1 trio. “However, we are so, so, so dedicated and protective of the show and the script, and we work so hard, all of us, to make it as culturally specific and universal and funny as humanly possible.”

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Asif Ali

“It was really exciting to go from being like fish out of water — where were like trying to figure out our place in the world — versus now we’re like making money, and what do we do with all of this success? And then how do we navigate each other and our goals for kind of our Baba’s vision for what this business would be,” Ali says of season 2. “And how we navigate achieving that, and then also bringing in new people? Like, how do we deal, do we trust new people or not?”

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