To be a Maverick is to be spectacularly unique in whatever lane you’ve chosen to claim.
In the Season 3 premiere of Mavericks, Maverick Carter sits down with multi-hyphenate comedian Hasan Minhaj for a candid conversation about the challenges and rewards of a comedic career, navigating the complexities of cultural identity, and the necessity of investing in fresh narratives.
The rising comedian was hired as a correspondent on The Daily Show, then hosted by Stewart, in 2014. Minhaj landed the role after an audition tape sketch in which he skewered a recent debate about Islam between Bill Maher and Ben Affleck, and became popular as a correspondent alongside the likes of Samantha Bee, Jordan Klepper and Jessica Williams in large part because of his sharp cultural commentary on Muslim and Asian American issues.
Minhaj’s profile was further elevated when he was tapped as the featured performer at the 2017 White House Correspondents Dinner. “Only in America can a first-generation, Indian American Muslim kid get on the stage and make fun of the president,” Minhaj said of Donald Trump, whom he labeled the “liar in chief.”
In 2015, he premiered his one-man off-Broadway show Homecoming King, heavily based on the eccentricities of growing up second-generation Indian Muslim in America, which he later evolved into a 2017 Netflix special of the same name. Minhaj left The Daily Show in 2018 when he scored his own political satire series on Netflix, Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, which aired 40 episodes before it was canceled in 2020.
