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Ramy Youssef: ‘Ricky Gervais talks about God so much, he might be Muslim!’

The US comic on his acclaimed series Ramy, why fiction is the best place to explore sin and his encounter with comedy’s most famous atheist at the Golden Globes

It is 8.45am in Los Angeles and Ramy Youssef is at his freshest on what will be a long day full of press interviews. “This is just one of those days of like 30 questions in a row of ‘How is real-life Ramy different from TV Ramy?’” he laughs.

Nuanced, funny and humanising, Youssef’s eponymous TV show, Ramy, gets under the skin of his internal struggles as a young, second-generation Egyptian American, as he navigates what it means to be a good person and a good Muslim. It calls to mind series such as Dave, I May Destroy You or Fleabag – shows based on flawed but likable protagonists, addressing questions of morality for a millennial audience with humour and darkness. As it’s currently tricky to stream in the UK (it is available on Amazon’s StarzPlay channel here), you may not have heard of it. But, with a Golden Globe win earlier this year and season two guest-starring Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, momentum is building round both the man and the show.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2WXvEmb
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