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Aziz Ansari wins TV on the internet

Ansari is No. 26 on the Recode 100.

By Rani Molla
Rani Molla is a senior correspondent at Vox and has been focusing her reporting on the future of work. She has covered business and technology for more than a decade — often in charts — including at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
Part of The Recode 100

Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None,” which streams on Netflix, might never have seen the light of day on a traditional TV channel.

This year, the show he created, produced and starred in was nominated for an Outstanding Comedy Emmy and Aziz was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. The comic was awarded an Emmy for Best Comedy Writing, alongside actress and writer Lena Waithe — the first black woman to win that award.

The show diverges from TV conventions, comedic and otherwise. It eschews back-to-back jokes for natural dialogue and quirky plot points. Ansari’s voice is also distinctly contemporary.

“His is perhaps the first generation to think the internet is more important than television and for whom the internet is at the center of everything they do; dating, eating, transportation, self-expression, friendship,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos explained in a Variety article. “Aziz is not concerned with New York versus L.A. or airline food, but don’t get him started on texting protocols and online dating profiles. He talks the language of a generation who lives online.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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