Posted in: Peacock, TV | Tagged: Poker Face
Poker Face Guest Star Kumail Nanjiani Surprised by Season 2 Role
At a PaleyFest LA 2025 panel, Poker Face Season 2 guest star Kumail Nanjiani shared why he was surprised by the role that he was offered.
Article Summary
- Kumail Nanjiani joins Poker Face Season 2 as a Florida sheriff named Gator Joe.
- Inspired by Columbo, Poker Face reveals the killer early, focusing on the process of catching them.
- Nanjiani was surprised by his role, thinking, "Did you send this one to me by mistake?"
- Poker Face Season 2 premieres May 8th on Peacock TV, continuing Charlie's (Natasha Lyonne) crime-solving adventures.
Lots of famous faces are going to show up as guests in season two of Poker Face, including Kamail Nanjiani, who will eventually appear in every TV show in the US. The procedural crime comedy series is inspired by Columbo, where we see who the killer is at the beginning of every episode, almost always the famous guest star, and then the hero spends the rest of the episode getting on their nerves until they're exposed and caught. CBS' Elsbeth follows the same format, though set in New York City for the sake of social satire, while Poker Face follows the 1970s "hero on the run" format where Natasha Lyonne's Charlie is on the road going from place to place and always stumbling on a murder, then her genius IQ and compulsive nature drives her to solve the murder. Nanjiani plays a tattooed Florida sheriff in season two. He's probably the bad guy, and the character was one of the last types of people he expected to play.
At a PaleyFest LA panel about Poker Face on Saturday at Hollywood's Dolby Theater, Nanjiani talked about how quickly guest stars could be added to an episode when Lyonne texted him on a Friday. You were like, 'Hey, do you want to be in Poker Face on Thursday?' And I was like, 'How long can I wait so that it doesn't seem too desperate? It was this cop in the Florida panhandle with tattoos and frosted hair, and his name was Gator Joe, and his best friend is an alligator. I was like, 'Did you send this one to me by mistake?' People don't see me and go, 'Hey, that looks like a Florida cop. I love playing Gator Joe. I love this guy. I had to shave my arms and legs to get tattoos on and then I just walked around with all these tattoos. People were scared of me."
Poker Face is on Peacock TV. Season two premieres on May 8th.
