Beautiful People 2010: Kumail Nanjiani

"I never lie on stage," says comedian Kumail Nanjiani, whose most popular YouTube video begins with a bit about riding Coney Island's rickety rollercoaster, The Cyclone. "Most terrifying experience of my life," Nanjiani quips. "And I'm from fucking Pakistan." Cue explosive laughter. "A lot of comedians tell made-up anecdotes, but I only tell stories that really happened," Nanjiani explains.

Opening up publicly didn't come naturally to the now-Brooklynite. He was so shy as a kid he could hardly talk to shopkeepers in his hometown of Karachi. After immigrating to Iowa, Nanjiani enrolled in a performance workshop at Grinnell College to overcome his diffidence. There he could "be a star-alien, as opposed to lost among the fray of a big city." He's since made the leap to the New York scene, where he's become a force to reckon with on the stand-up circuit. He has subsequently stepped into the prime-time limelight with appearances on Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Colbert Report, as well as landing an NBC sitcom deal and a staff-writer spot on the cult Comedy Central series Michael and Michael Have Issues.

The trademark balance of baffled wit and addled vulnerability that's earned Nanjiani a snowballing following has also invited mayhem. John Mayer crashed Nanjiani's Slipper Room set and heckled him so hard the crooner apologized, giving excuses like "I go in and I smash things with my big, dumb Hulk hands." Which definitely doesn't explain Mayer's referring to Kumail as "Kabul." Cue racist fanatics in the crowd. After one particularly "off " show, Nanjiani asked a fellow comedian for feedback. He replied, "Didn't you hear the crazy man in the back threatening to shoot you?" Aloof to dunderheads and death threats, Nanjiani remains steeped in the key principle of honesty. "I want an audience to laugh and get a sense of me as a person," he says. "I stick to the belief that whatever's exciting to me is what's convincing." Provided he survives the perils of lunatics, Cyclones and brutish heartthrobs, Nanjiani is a majorly compelling comedic hero to believe in.

Kumail wears a vintage cardigan, shirt by Levi's, tie by Alexander Olch, pants by Michael Bastian and shoes by Florsheim by Duckie Brown.

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