Kumail Nanjiani’s Halloween Tips
I always appreciate those who sit for my camera, but once in a while someone goes above and beyond, and so it was for comedian Kumail Nanjiani, dressed in “5 non-racist Halloween costumes” for a super-fun GQ feature and video. Shot all in one day at the Forge studio in Los Angeles, utilizing two studios and a team of top photo and video personnel (thank you especially to Suzaine Aguirre for both cinematography and editing).
The shoot curiously was a cross between my humorous celebrity work and my look-alike series “Isn’t,” tapping into both experiences quite nicely. I purposely choose to take a different approach to the stills and the video - a clean studio “fashion” look for the main story, and then a variety of environments for the video vignettes. This served a dual purpose - to give each medium their unique voices, but also to allow the stills and video teams to keep working even when they didn’t have the talent on set.
A big thank you to Jared Schwartz and Krista Prestek of GQ for the opportunity!
Top Image: Kumail Nanjiani as J-Lo, circa 2000 (as she appeared at the MTV Music Awards that year).
Second Image: Kumail Nanjiani as Mystique, from the X-Men series.
Third Image: Kumail Nanjiani as President Barack Obama, on a day off, eating ice cream.
Bottom Image: Chris Buck and Kumail Nanjiani on set, with wardrobe stylist Anna Su fixing the hem of his pants.