Ramy Youssef won a Golden Globe and a Peabody for creating and starring in the Hulu series Ramy, a show about the American Muslim experience in the wake of 9/11. Now, the comedian and actor lends his creativity (and his voice) to the new Amazon Prime Video animated series #1 Happy Family USA. The new show centers many of the same poignant topics as Youssef’s acclaimed live action work.
Youssef voices the characters of Hussein Hussein, an Egyptian-American husband, and Rumi, his son. The edgy comedy introduces us to a New Jersey family as they navigate being Muslim in the midst of their many white neighbors. Youssef chats with NPR’s Eric Deggans about his interest in exploring the Muslim experience after 9/11, which has also been central to his standup and his storytelling via Ramy. “I realized I had so many stories from that era and how that entire time … has been mainly captured through one lens, maybe two,” Youssef says. “And for me, there's a real draw to touching on some of this, because it does end up where a lot of people feel really seen from a totally different angle.”
Youssef also opens up about his experience of working in animation for the first time, and learning from the show’s co-creator Pam Brady (one of the minds behind South Park). Youssef admits to knowing very little about how animated shows are made, and tells us how much he relied on Brady’s expertise to craft #1 Happy Family USA. “I didn't think that I would make an animated show. I kind of found myself with a series of ideas that felt like they could only be an animated show in order to cut the way that I hoped they would,” Youssef explains. “It really was very iterative for me to be with [Brady], because it reminded me of a lot of early sketch comedy stuff that I used to do with my buddies growing up in Jersey.”
“#1 Happy Family USA,” series still image. Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Content Services LLC.
