Comedy kingmaker Judd Apatow will fully finance L.A. comedian Kumail Nanjiani’s first feature film, Big Sick, Deadline reported today. Nanjiani co-wrote the film with his wife, writer Emily V. Gordon, and it will be directed by Michael Showalter, who helmed 2015’s Hello, My Name Is Doris. The only information available about the script so far is that it’s based on true events from Nanjiani and Gordon’s lives.
Local comedy nerds need no introduction to Nanjiani and Gordon. Along with comic Jonah Ray, the duo launched The Meltdown at West Hollywood’s Meltdown Comics in 2010, a weekly show whose audience has grown into a cult-like following. Tickets sell out every week; the show has featured performers including Louis CK, Maria Bamford, and Zach Galifianakis; and earlier this year, Gordon—who produces the live event—told Vulture that “We have a specific animal stamp that we do, and one guy got a tattoo of it on his wrist.” Tech nerds will also recognize Nanjiani from HBO’s Silicon Valley, in which he plays programmer Dinesh Chugtai. And The Meltdown was turned into a TV show on Comedy Central in 2014. Barry Mendel will co-produce Big Sick along with Apatow.