Crackle Blog

Read about Adhir, then watch him tonight at 8:30 on CBS.

Born and raised in South Africa, Adhir Kalyan moved to London to pursue an acting career. Then, American audiences got to know him in the CW's comedy series Aliens in America, in which he played a devout Pakistani Muslim exchange student stuck in Wisconsin. Along with recent appearances in Up in the Air and Paul Blart: Mall Cop, tonight at 8:30PM on CBS you can catch him in the fourth season of Rules of Engagement. But, before you get to know him as Timmy, the put upon assistant to David Spade's character Russell, get to know the real Adhir Kalyan.

Crackle: So, how did you get involved in the show Rules of Engagement?

Adhir Kalyan: This has all come about from a meeting that I almost didn't take. The reason that I almost didn't take it had nothing to do with the producers, or the show itself, I think it was just me questioning if a sitcom was something that I wanted to do at that particular point in time. I ended up taking the meeting, and I was impressed with what Tom Hertz the creator and Doug Robinson the producer of the show had to say.

I said to them, "Well, I am interested at this point, and if you could write me some pages I'd be more than happy to read them, and then make a decision based on that." And literally with in two or three days the pages were sent over to my manager's office. I read them and thought they were incredibly well written and funny, and then began to realize that all my scenes were going to be with David Spade which was a huge draw in itself, having watched him in the films that sort of made him a household name in the mid nineties with his best friend, and then growing up watching him in Just Shoot Me! I thought this would be certainly a great experience for me to work with him.

It was literally a one off episode that paved the way for me to be a reoccurring character. But at that point there was no talk at all of my possibly becoming a regular. I ended up doing, I think, half the episodes of season three. Then at the end of that they came to my team and said, "Look we really feel that you are a strong addition to the show, you've now given David a character to play off of with a degree of consistency, and now instead of two couples and a single man we have sort of three couples and we'd like to keep that going." And I was so incredibly thrilled that this opportunity came from seemingly nothing. And now I'm very happy to be a regular cast member on the show.

Crackle: Is there any overlap between you, the character of "Timmy," and the two of your views on the world?

AK: Ha! I think Timmy is perhaps far more uptight than I actually am. He's not quite as relaxed. I think the one things perhaps we share is an affinity for acerbic wit. But beyond that, no, I don't think there are a lot of similarities. Timmy seem to be a fairly pent up individual with no real outlet to express the great feelings of frustration and rage that he's experiencing, but then again I also don't have a Russell Dunbar (Spade) in my life as a real person, so perhaps that plays into how and why Timmy conducts himself. Though ... from time to time David does sort of "forget" that the relationship we have on the show, is in fact on the show, that I'm not a real life personal assistant. But no, no huge overlap. I think that Timmy's world seems to be very black and white, and he's certainly morally a very strong character, and a genuinely good person, and someone who in spite of the work situation he finds himself in conducts himself with a certain degree of dignity and is proud of the work that he does. I suppose in those qualities we perhaps overlap, but none of his main neurosis and ticks have made their way over to me.

Crackle: So what was it that first influenced you to get into acting?

AK: I think when I was four years old my parents put me in a speech and drama class on Saturday mornings, and I’m still to this day not entirely certain if that was just because they just wanted some quiet times on the weekends, or because they thought that this would be an important outlet for me. But either way the decision turned out to be inspired. I started taking classes at a very early age and I think by the time I got around to age of nine or ten I went through a phase where I wanted to be everything I saw. Be it a sportsman, a lawyer or a doctor, whatever I was seeing on television I thought that that was what I wanted to be. Then I reached a point where I realized the only profession where I could be every other profession in the world was to be an actor.

Crackle: So what is it out there that has influenced you, and why?

AK: I do, I really enjoy watching classic films. In fact there's a theater up here in the Valley that has been showing classic films every Tuesday for the past month or so and I've had a chance to watch Casablanca and East of Eden, and this most recent Tuesday, Cool Hand Luke, all on the big screen and they were all films that were very significant for me to get a chance to see on the big screen, and be affected by them in a way that audiences were originally affected by them. It was something that was quite an interesting experience, and quite a touching experience in a way to share this experience with audiences in the past in a way.

I think one of my seminal moments as someone who is not only an actor, but really as a person who's obsessed with all things film related was when I, in 2006, in London, got a chance to see Taxi Driver on the big screen. It was a different movie on the big screen in the most extraordinary and wonderful way. Scorsese is without question my favorite director, and to see at work Mr. De Niro back in 1976 in a close up on the big screen was something that was incredibly affecting for me I think. I think since then, any opportunity I've had to watch an old film is one that I seize upon.

Crackle: With such refined tastes in classic cinema, you seem like you you be somewhat of a serious person, and yet you are well known for your comedic work. Do you find that you're more into serious stuff, or comedic stuff?

AK: I do have a genuine passion for what it is that I do, and I'm usually drawn to a role more than a genre of work. I don't think that I'm usually drawn to something because it's comedic, or because it's dramatic, there's usually something about the role that I find somewhat intriguing -- but you're quite right the vast majority of the work I've done in my career thus far has been comedic. I really do enjoy doing comedic work and it brings me great satisfaction and reward to bring a smile to someone's face and to be a part of something that makes them laugh.

As a person I think I'm fairly lighthearted, a fairly relaxed individual, and tend not to take myself to seriously. But perhaps over the phone, especially with this rather severe accent that I have, it does come across that I am a serious person. I think that there are definite moments in time, like when I'm discussing classic film for example, when seem more serious then when I'm say ... shooting pool on a Sunday afternoon trying to hustle old people out of their money. With some good fortune, it would be lovely if Rules of Engagement would return for a season five for me to do something serious between now and then, it would be lovely to sort of look back and have a healthy dose of both.

Crackle: I may have to get in on that pool hustling gig. But, speaking of one of your past comedic roles, one of the comedies you did that has a real cult following was Aliens in America. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

AK: I was living in London when Aliens in America was being cast, working in a minimum wage earning job. It was a wonderful place for me to work, at a place called Pepper Post Productions, and they were a post house for film and television, and I learned an extraordinary amount there, but at the same time it was a hard existence because I wasn't going out on any acting auditions and it was very much a hand to mouth existence, only minimum wage, and barely making rent at the end of every week. I soon found out that there was this television show called Aliens in America ... I auditioned for it twice actually and really got to a point where they I think were looking to bring three actors over and screen test in the states. But I'm on a South African passport, and couldn't come across with the immediacy that the other two actors could. So I decided that within my own mind that it was a wonderful experience and that whatever would be, would be, and I was just going to let it go and sort of see what happens. Then they came back about a week later saying, "Look there are two people left, it's between you and somebody else. And then finally, they said, you're our first choice we just going to show your tape to the network and the studio, and they're going to make a decision based on that. They ended up feeling that I was the person they were looking for. That was the beginning of a really important part of my life.

We shot the pilot August of 2006, it got picked up May 2007. So it there was a nine months waiting period before we knew. I remember very strongly that the day before the show got picked up, I'd looked at my bank account. I'd moved out here by this point in time and then went to a local cinema and filled out an employment form and said if this show doesn't get picked up tomorrow I'm going to come in and try to get a job here because I have no money left. The next day the show got picked up, and it changed my life completely.

Dan Byrd and Lindsey Shaw who were on the show with me, remain to this day two of my best friends. It was really such an extraordinary experience and literally a case of me every day being just so grateful that I was able to do this, because it was genuinely the first time in my life, when it came to film or television anyway that I was able to wake up and go work on the set. The novelty that never wore down over the course of the season that we shot. I think that critically it was received very, very, well and regardless of the fact that it didn't come back it made such a huge difference to my life, and really gave me the platform to have a career, and cut out a life for myself herein the states. I will always be great full to that show, no matter how my career unfolds, it will be something that at the end of it all is remembered most fondly by me.

Crackle: All this month we'll be featuring blogs and vlogs from your character "Timmy" here on Crackle, and Timmy is well known for his hatred of his job ... so now I'll ask you -- what's one of the worst jobs you've ever had?

AK: I think pretty much since I finished high school, I went into working in the theater and didn't really have to support myself through any unsavory jobs. I will say that one of the most interesting jobs I ever had was my first theatrical production at the age of 18. It was called, "Freddie the Frog's Christmas Bash," and it was a children show that took place in these gardens in my hometown in Durban, South Africa called the Botanic Gardens. I had to dress up as a frog every day, and jump around for an hour with kids, who weren't especially convinced by my frog, I don't think. They really didn't seem to take to him as much as I was hoping. That was certainly an interesting job trying to keep wandering five year old's attention over the course of the hour. They really didn't seem to like me -- at all. It felt "Bat-mannish" in a way because Freddie used to take different journeys every year, and I was the latest addition to the franchise. My version was definitely not the Dark Knight of it all.

Crackle: Well, what's the next job for you?

AK: I had a film come out in early January called Youth in Revolt with Michael Cera and with a really great ensemble including Zach Galifianakis and Justin Long and all the way through to some well established actors like Steve Buscemi, Jean Smart, and Ray Liotta. It was a really wonderful experience. I also recently returned from Sundance, I had a film there called High School that premired with Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, and was coincidentally directed by Oliver Hudson's best friend John Stalberg. I shot that as I was shooting season three last year. So I would make my way from Detroit to Los Angeles and back. Hopefully that film will pick up a distributor. The reviews were pretty promising and sort of equated it to a Fast Times or Dazed and Confused of this generation. It would be nice to return to the stage sometime as well, I haven't been on the stage in something like six years, and that's where I was born and raised so to speak. That would be something I'd be interested to do.

Look. Ultimately the acting is fine for now, but I know my real passion is to be a sports commentator for the European Champions League Soccer, and I think that's my ultimate goal. Failing that, I have no problem if the acting career and the champions league commentating career come to pass, then I'll just spend my time in pool halls reenacting scenes from The Hustler.

Crackle: Since you brought up your love of sports, last question: Baseball or Cricket?

AK: Oooo. That's a ... you must be asking this question with a degree of knowledge that since I've come to the States I've developed a passion for baseball.

Crackle: I may have picked up your love of both baseball and cricket in a few of the interviews you've done, but now's the time for you to choose.

AK: Yes! They were so kind as to include a cricket episode in Rules of Engagement. I was born and raised playing cricket, and I have a great passion for it and I make sure that even here in the States I get all the games that are happening from in and around the world. I'm not one of these people who come from abroad, a foreign culture, and starts judging the culture here because it's different, and I've really taken to baseball, and try to get down to Dodger games and Angels games whenever I can. I also live fairly close to a set of batting cages and literally go probably three or four times a week. The two sports -- not because I'm not willing to commit to an answer -- just because I think they share a lot in terms of the strategy, and the individual battles that happen, but each is a pretty special game. Though many people find them both to be long and tedious and boring, but I find them both to be fascinating. I can't wait for the start of baseball season. While cricket is something that I love, baseball is something that I'm learning.

Crackle: Maybe you have a career commenting on American Sports?

AK: Maybe that's it. Maybe I should record the games this year, not to watch them, but just so I can practice and learn proper commentary.

Crackle: Thanks again! I'll be following you're commentating career closely.

So remember to be on the lookout for Adhir Kalyan at your local ballpark, and tonight at 8:30 on CBS in the season premiere of Rules of Engagement.

CJ - Crackle Blog Editor