Maulik Pancholy

Recognizable from his roles on shows such as 30 Rock, Weeds, Whitney, Phineas and Ferb, and Sanjay and Craig, Maulik Pancholy is an award-winning actor, author and activist whose career has spanned hit television shows, animated series, the Broadway stage, and films.

Maulik’s debut middle-grade novel, The Best at It, is a Stonewall Honor Award winner, a Junior Library Guild Selection, included in Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books of 2019, and was listed as one of Evanston Public Library’s 101 Great Books for Kids. It has received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist. Drawn from his own experience, The Best at It is about a twelve-year-old, gay, Indian American boy coming into his own. It has been called, at once, “exuberant and heart-wrenching.” Released in 2022, his second novel, Nikhil Out Loud, is a 2023 Lambda Literary Award winner and was named one of Kirkus’ Best Books of the Year.

Maulik was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014 to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). As a Commissioner, he co-founded the anti-bullying campaign, acttochange.org, which he continues to Chair today.

For his advocacy on behalf of the AAPI and LGBTQIA+ communities, he has received an Asian American Arts Alliance Award, the Human Rights Campaign’s Visibility Award, and was named to Out Magazine’s Top 100 list. He delivers keynote addresses on the topics of diversity and inclusion – and the importance of telling our own stories – in corporate settings as well as at universities and schools across the country.