New Hollywood Podcast: Tiya Sircar Talks ‘Good Sam’, ‘The Good Place’ And South Asian Representation In Hollywood
Actress Tiya Sircar stars in the new Netflix film Good Sam and also appears in the NBC comedy The Good Place. Needless to say, there is plenty of “good” in her life. A Texas native and the daughter of Indian immigrants, Sircar’s journey to Hollywood was very, as she puts it, “pragmatic”.
Many children of immigrants (of a certain generation) are expected to go into a more stable field of work like medicine, law, or engineering. Going into acting or the arts is something that is a no-no for many children of immigrants. It’s slowly changing, but still common. For Sircar, she majored in Business and Theater — but her parents were supportive of her either way. After graduating and creating a “nest egg” (per her father’s advice), she came to Hollywood and eventually landed a role on the wildly irreverent and funny NBC series The Good Place, starred in Alex, Inc. and served as the lead in the Netflix rom-com Good Sam as a news reporter whose life gets turns upside down when she sets out to discover a mysterious good Samaritan who is leaving $100,000 cash on seemingly random doorsteps.
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Sircar stopped by the New Hollywood Podcast to talk about being in a rom-com led by a woman of color as well as the problematic representation of South Asians in film and TV and the progress being made. We also talked about her level of Star Wars geekdom (she voices Sabine Wren on Star Wars Rebels) and she shares stories from when she filmed 17 Again with Zac Efron. In addition, we try our hardest to get her to give us details about the upcoming season of The Good Place. Listen to the episode below.
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