Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for Deli Boys, Season 1

Summary

Deli Boys is co-created by a diverse team of industry veterans, each with unique backgrounds.

In an interview with Collider, creator Abdullah Saeed, Jenni Konner and Michelle Nader talk about the series, which follows Pakistani-American brothers navigating the Philly underworld.

Deli Boys embraces dark humor, showcases unique characters, and hints at exciting prospects for a second season.

The creators of Hulu’s Deli Boys come from very different corners of the entertainment industry. Jenni Konner is best known for being a showrunner on the acclaimed series Girls, while Michelle Nader has written stacks of scripts, producing shows like 2 Broke Girls and Dollface. Abdullah Saeed, on the other hand, cut his teeth as a music journalist as well as producing and hosting shows for Vice before leaving the company in protest. Now, this special blend of artists is coming together for one of the most exciting, darkly comical, and gory new series of the year.
Deli Boys follows a pair of Pakistani-American brothers, Mir and Raj Dar (played respectively by Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh), after their convenience store tycoon father “Baba” Dar (Iqbal Theba) passes away suddenly. As their lives flip upside-down, losing everything, the brothers are forced to confront Baba’s secret life of crime, continuing their own violent journeys through the Philadelphia underworld.
Saeed, Nader, and Konner were kind enough to sit down with Collider’s own Tania Hussain to talk about all things Deli Boys. Together they discussed crafting the character of fan-favorite Lucky (memorably played by Lanterns’ Poorna Jagannathan), pushing the limits of their special brand of dark humor, and what special something-something they’d bring to liven up a party with the Dar family. Spoiler alert, it’s chai.
Party With The ‘Deli Boys’ Family

COLLIDER: I love the show. I have to say, I binged it twice now, even before the premiere, and it is such a great show. It is such an important show. It’s so funny, and I do want to start with something a little fun. The show uses food as both comfort and chaos. If you had to survive a family meeting with this crew, what dish would you bring to keep the peace or stir the pot?
MICHELLE NADER: I would bring chai. I would bring that chai. We had this guy when we filmed a wedding at…
ABDULLAH SAEED: Shalimar Banquets.
NADER: Did you have that chai? It’s still in my system. I’m still caffeinated from it.
JENNI KONNER: I got the lavender one.
SAEED: Yeah, that was popular. There was like, a cashew chai, also, that everyone was nuts for. But I would bring saag paneer, or daal is, I feel like, the communal food, so if you gotta break bread with them, dal and rice would be the thing. How about you?
KONNER: I would bring cocaine.
It’s always a party when there’s coke there.
KONNER: Exactly. I mean, for this group, I think it would be a hit.
NADER: I think that’s a nice party right there — chai and cocaine and some daal.
SAEED: Although, you do cocaine, and then you lose your appetite.
KONNER: Time it correctly. Eat and then do the cocaine.
Michelle Nader’s Unique Ownership Of Lucky

“I have a mob background—we can get into that later.”

Image via Hulu

Michelle, my first question is for you. Lucky’s arc feels like one of the biggest power shifts in the show. What was so important to you when laying out her position in the family business?
NADER: Yes, you nailed it. When I read the script, and I read Lucky, that’s when I was like, “If I don’t get involved in this, I’m going to lose my mind.” I’ve never really related to a character more.
KONNER: She’s the Lucky of the show beyond.
SAEED: We’re reverse Deli Boys, by the way. You notice that, right? There’s one of me and two of them. [Laughs]
NADER: The character was already written, and she was incredible and a badass, but I think that I really took to this character because I’m from Philadelphia, I have a mob background—we can get into that later.
KONNER: I was like, “That’s unspecific.”
SAEED: She just glossed over that.

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NADER: So I just really loved the idea that this woman wanted to be the boss of bosses, and she is. She has the power to do it.
KONNER: It was one of those times when you’re working when the most magical thing happens, which is you bring in the right actor, and it’s beyond your wildest expectations. It’s so, so exciting, and she brought so much to the part. She really influenced the part.
SAEED: She did.
She is perfect casting. I love Poorna on this. I always laugh so hard at the first scene when [Hamsa] gets shot, and she’s telling Mir and Raj, “Don’t worry about it. Just be calm” The way she’s cleaning his mouth feels like such a maternal thing, and it’s so funny.
SAEED: That was her.
KONNER: She really got that she had to be loving and brutal at the same time. She did that.
‘Deli Boys’ Pushes the Limits of Comedy

Image via Hulu

Was there ever a moment when you guys thought, “Okay, this might be taking things too far?” Because there is very dark humor, but it’s done so well that you can’t really see it as being offensive or even just irreverent comedy.
KONNER: We weren’t taking it far enough!
SAEED: I was trying to think of something so fucked up that we didn’t put it in, but I think the most fun was the vomiting, all the various stabbings and shootings.
KONNER: All of it happening at a wedding.
NADER: No. [Laughs]
KONNER: The answer is no. Wait until you see the second season.
I am so excited about a second season.
KONNER: We don’t have an order.
NADER: We’re just manifesting.
This is me saying, Inshallah, we get a second.
NADER: Exactly.
Embracing the Family Business

“Mir just thinks he’s taking care of his family.”

Jenni and Abdullah, I want to ask you about Mir finally embracing the family business by the end. I love the Godfather sort of vibes that we’re getting. Is he really leaning into the darkness or is he still clinging to the family legacy for good? Because his moral compass is very skewed right now.
SAEED: When we think about morality, Mir also was sort of a tacit cog in Baba’s criminal machine. I think him taking over also begs the question, is he a better person for taking ownership of this fucked up business, or is he a worse person for that very same thing? I think that at the end of the season, the real question between the boys is who is going to stick around and what’s their role going to be. Raj is obviously now fixated on revenge, having discovered the guy who betrayed their family, and Mir, I feel like he balances his brother out. We start to realize they’re not themselves because they’re resisting each other. It’s like because of the other guy that you take that shape.
NADER: We have this mantra that criminals don’t think they’re criminals. So Mir just thinks he’s taking care of his family. He really doesn’t think what he’s doing is bad. So, that is his moral compass.
KONNER: By the way, she came into our first meeting with that, and I was like, “I’m in love with you.”
NADER: Well, I’m in love with you, too.
KONNER: But one of the things I always liked about Mir that starts in the pilot is he has to reckon with the fact that he had a pretend job and he was treated like a dummy, and the dad said he was doing it to protect him. But I think he also, in his heart, thinks he wasn’t good enough to be part of it. And Abdullah put that in the pilot. It was there when we got it. I think that’s part of his reckoning of the season and his desire to show he can do the job.
NADER: That’s true.
Will There Be ‘Deli Boys’ Season 2?

“Lucky and Gigi, we think will have a big, strong influence”

Image via Hulu

I would love to know what you guys want to see for Season 2.
KONNER: A pick-up!
SAEED: Ten episodes.
KONNER: Ten or 12.
I would love to see more characters. Are we going to maybe see them traveling? What do you guys hope to see for this?
KONNER: We’d like to talk about other cultures in Philly, and I think we touched upon so many other immigrant cultures, and that was really, really fun for us to be able to bring. He started the show with it’s not about the immigrant experience, it’s about seeing their experience through a Muslim lens, so why not go for a bunch of other cultures?
NADER: And Lucky and Gigi, we think will have a big, strong influence in Season 2.
SAEED: And I think, so far, it’s funny we haven’t seen the boys’ friends or cousins, so I feel like meeting those people, like the extended family, too. Obviously, you’re supposed to have a big family. Also, there’s some mystery around: Who’s their mom? Nobody talks about their mom. What’s the story there? So, I think Baba’s pit of secrets will just keep getting deeper.
KONNER: I love that. See? I haven’t even heard this yet. It’s great. I’m all in.
Deli Boys is now streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and worldwide on Disney+.

Deli Boys

Release Date

March 6, 2025

Network

Hulu

Writers

Michelle Nader