With Aziz Ansari’s Netflix comedy series Master of None garnering near-universal acclaim in its first weekend, the comedian — as well as his parents, who act in the show, as his parents — have plenty of reason to be celebrating. But instead of solely reflecting on this current goliath success, following an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ansari took to Facebook this morning to write a long post about sacrifices parents make, and the difficulties of balancing ambition and family life.
In the post, he notes that his father, Dr. Shoukath Ansari, used his vacation time (from his work as a gastroenterologist) to act in the show, and after their Colbert appearance, his father had told him, “I really just did it so I could spend more time with you.” The comedian writes that he “almost instantly collapsed into tears at the thought of how much this person cares about [him]” and “gave [him] everything.”
He continues:
What’s strange is doing [the Parents] episode and working with my parents has increased the quality of my relationship to my parents IN MY REAL LIFE. In reality, I haven’t always had the best, most open relationship with my parents because we are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes. But we are getting better. And if you have something like that with your family – I urge you to work at it and get better because these are special people in your life and I get terrified when my dad tells me about friends of his, people close to his age, that are having serious health issues, etc. Enjoy and love these people while you can.
Watch Ansari and his father appear with his father on The Late Show here.