Aziz Ansari Plays Kash Patel on Saturday Night Live
FBI director Kash Patel allegedly had episodes of excessive drinking. Aziz Ansari accepted censorship and earned fees at the 2025 Saudi Arabian comedy festival.
May 9, 2026
“I am a trailblazer,” Aziz Ansari said playing the role of Kash Patel, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, on the TV show Saturday Night Live last weekend. “I am the first Indian person to suck at their job. Everyone says Indian people are smart, hardworking, incredibly intelligent. I have proved without a shadow of doubt that we can be just as incapable and incompetent as the Whites.”
Ansari added, “This FBI director has never been drunk or hungover on the job.” This week, The Atlantic reported that Patel gives out 750-milliliter bottles of bourbon engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director”. An FBI spokesperson told the magazine that the gifts of alcohol bottles are “part of a tradition” and that Patel “has followed all applicable ethical guidelines and pays for any personal gift himself.”
Last month, The Atlantic reported that FBI officials were alarmed by what they said was FBI director Patel’s erratic behavior and “episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.” Patel told Fox News Digital, “The Atlantic’s story is a lie…I took this job to protect the American people…” Patel has filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic and its staff writer, Sarah Fitzpatrick, alleging they published ”a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece...” The lawsuit seeks $250 million in “compensatory, special, and punitive damages.”
The FBI has launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on Fitzpatrick, the Atlantic journalist, according to MS NOW. An FBI spokesperson denied the investigation, telling the publication, “This is completely false…the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all.”
Earlier, Kashyap (Kash- he also spells it as Ka$h) Pramod Patel served as the Chief of Staff of Defense Secretary Chris Miller during part of the first Trump Administration, 2016-2020. Patel served as the Deputy Assistant to President Trump and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. He also served as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence.
Before joining the Trump Administration, Patel was the National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Earlier, Patel was a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice and its Liaison Officer to Joint Special Operations Command. He began his career as a public defender, trying cases ranging from murder, to narco-trafficking and financial crimes in jury trials in state and federal courts.
A native of New York, Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond, in Virginia, before earning his law degree from Pace University, New York. Patel was born and raised in Garden City, Long Island, New York. His parents have family ties in Gujarat, India. Patel’s mother is from Tanzania and father from Uganda, NDTV reported. In 1970, his parents immigrated to the U.S. via Canada.
Last year, several comedians and others were upset at Aziz Ansari, Nimesh Patel, Jimmy Carr, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson and other comedians for performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, Saudi Arabia. The organizers reportedly paid the comedians from $375,000 to as much as $1.6 million to perform at the festival held in September and October, 2025.
“The money is coming straight from the Crown Prince (Mohammed bin Salman), who actively executes journalists,” Atsuko Okatsuka, posted on X/Twitter, stating she declined to perform at the festival. The comedians had to “adhere to censorship rules.” She posted a photo of the agreement which participating comedians signed, including agreeing not to perform any material that ridicules the “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” or the Saudi Royal family.
In October, late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel asked Ansari, “I’m curious as to why you decided” to take part in the Riyadh Comedy Festival. The Saudi Arabian regime, led by the Crown Prince, has “done a lot of horrible, horrible things,” Kimmel noted.
“You kind of have to make a choice of whether you’re going to isolate or engage. For me, especially being me and looking the way I do and being from a Muslim background, it felt like something I should be a part of. And I hope it pushes things in a positive direction.” Ansari told Kimmel that he was donating part of the fees he earned in Riyadh to Reporters Without Border and Human Rights Watch.
Ansari started out in television, including the hit comedy Parks and Recreation (2009). He co-starred in the comedy 30 Minutes or Less (2011). He earned a degree, with a business major, from New York University, 2004. He graduated from the South Carolina Governor’s School for Math and Science in Hartsville. Earlier, he attended Marlboro Academy, a private school in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Ansari was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Fatima, a medical office worker, and Shoukath, a gastroenterologist. His parents are from Tamil Nadu, India.
The Saturday Night Live episode, on May 2, with Aziz Ansari playing FBI director Kash Patel was a popular hit. So far, the video of the comedic skit posted on YouTube has gotten more than seven million views.
The FBI has traditionally had a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorized use of alcohol on the job and for its misuse while off duty, The Atlantic notes. Margaret Donovan, lawyer for Steven Jensen who was fired from his job at the FBI in August 2025, told the magazine, that the role of the FBI director “is one of the most serious jobs in the country, not a vehicle for self-promotion and branding.”