Actor Ramy Youssef was in fifth grade and living in New Jersey when the Twin Towers fell in the Sept. 11 attacks. He remembers feeling sad in the wake of the tragedy — and also acutely aware of his family's Egyptian ethnicity and their Muslim faith amid an atmosphere of Islamophobia.
"It's incredibly confusing. It's incredibly disorienting," Youssef says. "And I think within my family, we were always proud of who we were and where we come from, and at the same time, you kind of don't want to rock the boat."
Youssef explores the subject in his new animated Amazon Prime series, #1 Happy Family USA. Set just before and after Sept. 11, the show focuses on the Husseins, an Egyptian American family living in New Jersey. The parents and grandparents are immigrants; and the children were born in the U.S.
Each member of the family must navigate rampant Islamophobia after the terrorist attacks. Rumi, voiced by Youssef, is in fifth grade, and wears a hat to hide his curly hair. His father goes out on the lawn and sings a song about how they're "#1 Happy Family USA."
"The part that I always tend to hone in on is, well, what is the person doing to themselves amidst all that pressure?" Youssef says.
To highlight the pressure to assimilate, the series uses a different animation style when the family is inside versus outside the home. When an FBI agent moves in across the street, the situation gets even more stressful for Rumi, as concerns about security blend with typical middle school worries.
"It's very much, 'OK, is Courtney, the popular girl, talking about me behind my back, and are the phones tapped?' " Youssef says. "And usually people just have to deal with the Courtney part, and now this kid has both of them, and that's where the series lives."
Youssef got his start as a stand-up comic before creating and starring in the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series Ramy on Hulu. That show focused on a 20-something Egyptian American Muslim trying to make sense of how his life fit with his commitment to Islam.
Interview highlights
On pivoting to comedy after studying political science in college
In middle school and high school, I was fascinated with cameras and I was always making things. And then in the back of my head, I said, "This is what I love doing the most, but there's no way I'm going to be able to actually live doing this." And I didn't see a path to it being a career because I didn't know anyone who had ever done that. So I just thought I had to go to school and become a lawyer, because that was kind of the only thing I could imagine myself doing. Even if I had no real connection to the law, I just said, "Well, I know how to talk and it seems like those guys talk and then they're able to feed their families by talking." …
Then this comedy thing comes up and you go, "Oh, well, you could talk here too." And this is way more in line with what I love about art and filmmaking. It just became inevitable at a certain point.
On fitting prayer in five times a day
In terms of fitting it in in certain places, this is where I actually think an artistic lifestyle is so interesting. So my father worked managing hotels, always on his feet, always dealing with people. "Hey, where do I pray? Like the broom closet?" … And then when you're an artist, it's like everyone assumes you're gonna be 20 minutes late. … I'm surrounded by spiritual people, whether they are part of any sort of practicing thing or not. Because Hollywood is basically, "Hey, I have this 130-page thing. And I know you don't see it yet, but I see it. I believe in the unseen of these words on this page. Come with me and let's all believe in it together and make it." It's such a spiritual place. Everyone is tapping into the unseen.
On his guest appearance in the comedy series The Studio
What they get at so well is why [Hollywood film and television is] called "The Business," and why it is called "The Industry," because it feels almost industrial. It's like, this is where you're gonna show up, and this is what you're gonna do. And these are the people you need to talk to. … You have to be incredibly sensitive in order to tap into yourself to make something artistic that will resonate with people.
Immediately when you are done with this really sensitive process, it's almost like you need to harden everything about yourself that made you able to make that thing, to then put up with a barrage of the criticism that's going to come about the project.
On hosting SNL during Ramadan
I did fast that whole week. In a way, SNL's hours are a bit Ramadan-friendly. It's like they could all do Ramadan all the time because they leave the office at, like, 3:00 in the morning and then they sleep in until, like, noon or whatever. They work really hard. … But it was certainly a strain because you can't have that coffee to start the day. And I felt like I probably had a more calm week because I was fasting, because stuff would be going down and I'd go, "This is probably just Ramadan brain and it's not actually a big deal." And so I got to lean into that, but I'm pretty sure if I had just been eating, I would have been like, "This is crazy. This is so nuts." But I had so much fun.
Lauren Krenzel and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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