Deli Boys Season 2 Is Richer, Funnier, and Run by Women

Some spoilers below.

With Deli Boys season 2 out now on Hulu, the boys are officially back in town: Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh return as Mir and Raj, ready to (hilariously) fumble through their newfound roles as leaders of their late father’s cocaine business. But they soon understand that they’re anything but in control. Their real leader is Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan), the aunty with an ice-cold heart, five-inch heels, and a strong Tony Soprano streak. (As Ann Richards once famously said, “Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” In Deli Boys, our Ginger Rogers is Aunty Lucky, and she’s more than comfortable pulling off a murder in uncomfortable shoes.)

Season 2 shifts the focus to Lucky while maintaining the magical ensemble chemistry shared among Ali, Shaikh, and Jagannathan’s trio. Often, it seems shows in their sophomore chapter face growing pains—but not Deli Boys. This time, the second season is stronger, tighter, wittier, and more multifaceted than the first, the physical comedy brought to new levels. Leading the charge for this second-round effort are Jagannathan herself, showrunner Michelle Nader, and executive producer Jenni Konner, who each sat down with ELLE to discuss the next chapter of the Abdullah Saeed-created comedy, which lets the boys think they’re in charge while the matriarchy rules on-screen and off.

Jagannathan, known for her work in Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever, Big Little Lies, and Ramy, calls Lucky “the most powerful woman I’ve [ever] played. All the characters I’ve played are super smart—though I’d love to play a dumb bitch,” she adds, laughing. “But there’s a physical prowess to [Lucky] that no other character of mine has ever had.”

Nader, recognized for comedies such as Dollface and 2 Broke Girls—as well as the upcoming TV adaptation of 831 Stories romance novel Big Fan—was similarly impressed by Lucky, way back when she first read the pilot script for Deli Boys. “I thought it was the best female character I’d seen in a long time,” Nader says, “and then [the writers] said it was Poorna [playing her]. It just blew my mind. She embodies this kind of crazy power, but also this grace. [Jagannathan is] exactly that in real life. She doesn’t break bones or kill people, but she’s a very strong, fierce warrior woman, in this elegant, chic form. I love the juxtaposition of that.”

Konner, herself no stranger to this mentality while writing, producing, and creating shows such as Girls and Nobody Wants This, similarly lights up when talking about Jagannathan. “The great news about doing Deli Boys with Poorna, she’s outrageously talented and funny,” Konner says. “This is such a showcase for her. I had never seen her before this, being so sexy and chic, so violent and bad-ass—a warm aunty without any sweetness. Her love language is ‘I would kill someone for you,’ and she does.”

She adds, “Maybe Poorna doesn’t think [of herself as] a leader, but we all do. She’s a true aunty to Saagar and Asif. She has so much more experience. They soak it up. She helps them, she nurtures them, and she cares for them, and teaches them so much. They’re lucky to have her. They know it, and they tell her every single day. We all do.” (Konner teases that she enjoyed working with Jagannathan in Deli Boys so much that she opted to “steal” the actress for a role in Nobody Wants This, “to do a part that she probably wouldn’t normally have done,” Konner says. “She’s playing a cynical, dry publisher, who knows the print world is dead. And she’s over it, she’s over our characters—it’s really fun.”)

Deli Boys season 1 found brothers Mir and Raj mourning the death of their father (after he took an errant golf ball to the head), later learning he was a cocaine kingpin—and that their “Aunty” Lucky was his stone-cold partner. Lucky spends most of the season trying to keep the boys alive by…well, murdering everyone else. By the end of the first season, Mir, Raj, and Lucky come into a substantial financial windfall, courtesy of the cocaine business, and discover it was Uncle Ahmad (Brian George) who orchestrated their father’s murder. Season 2 opens with Raj hellbent on revenge, searching for Ahmad, while Mir works to keep the business running, and Lucky works to keep them all in the land of the living.

Jagannathan gives ELLE the lowdown: In season 2, “we’re rich now; we have this other problem that we didn’t think we’d ever have.” (As The Notorious B.I.G. once sang, “Mo money, mo problems.”) “There’s a love interest for my character, and this distraction gets in the way and takes our focus off what’s important,” the actress continues. “But you see Lucky choose the role she’s in versus it being foisted on her. She’s exactly where she wants to be.”

In season 2, Lucky is indeed running the show—in more ways than one. Jagannathan says that the character is, in part, inspired by showrunner Nader herself. (She even jokes that Lucky is Nader in disguise, and that she’s actually starring in Nader’s biopic.) “The best part of working with Michelle is she’s not joking about being a gangster,” Jagannathan says. “You don’t mess with her.” The actress points out that there’s a Netflix documentary about mobsters in Philadelphia, which includes people Nader once knew.

Nader laughs when she hears Jagannathan’s “biopic” quip. “She says that because it’s kind of partly true, because of my background [growing up in Philadelphia], dating a mobster,” Nader says. “She watched a Netflix documentary about my ex-boyfriend. She was chilled to the core.”

Konner confirms this fact, joking, “Yeah, we’re all scared of her.” She continues, “I’ve known Michelle socially for 1 million years. I’ve tried to work with her for all of those. This was really kismet that we got her [for Deli Boys], and there’s no one more perfect. She’s Philly through and through. She’s one of the best showrunners in the business. We say it every day: She is Lucky. Lucky’s a more extreme version of her.” (Konner concludes, “If I can get her to quit her other jobs, I’ll make 10 more shows with her.”)

And in season 2, Aunty Lucky’s getting…lucky. A lot. Fred Armisen plays Max Sugar, a cutthroat casino kingpin who takes an immediate liking to Lucky, while Kumail Nanjiani plays Danyal, the lawyer Sugar hires, who has his own romantic history with Lucky. Nanjiani and Armisen go head-to-head and battle for Lucky’s heart in a Marty Supreme-meets-Challengers ping-pong match. (More men should work out their differences this way. Less war, more ping-pong!) Why they battle this way is a surprise, but the scene was Nanjiani’s only request when he came on board.

Nor are Armisen and Nanjiani the only guest stars this season joining in the gangster madness: Andrew Rannells plays Andrew Chadwater, a district attorney who’s running for mayor; Lilly Singh plays Aisha, the wife of a mobster; and Robin Thede plays Dr. Iverson, a couples therapist. And Tan France returns as Zubair, the British-Pakistani gang leader.

Asked what dream cameos they’d love to see in a potential season 3, Nader, Konner, and Jagannathan were all quick to supply answers:

“Riz Ahmed in a heartbeat,” Konner says.

Adds Nader, “I’m dying to have Ben Kingsley on this show. I’m obsessed with him in Wonder Man.”

Without skipping a beat, Jagannathan continues, “Shah Rukh Khan, Imran Khan, Ben Kingsley.” And which actor would she want to play a character she’d get to murder on screen? “Bradley Cooper. He’d be fun. I’d love to work with Mariska Hargitay from SVU.” Jagannathan then goes back to Kingsley as her ideal murder mayhem co-star. But would Aunty Lucky have an affair with him? “Fingers crossed, always,” Jagannathan teases.

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Given Nader’s mobster-dating background, how does she navigate conflict on the Deli Boys set? Unlike Tony Soprano, “I’m a de-escalator,” Nader says. “I’m not gonna get into who’s right, who’s wrong, what’s better, what’s worse. I never take sides. The only thing I have said is, ‘I’m the showrunner. I’m loyal to the show. I want the best show.’ So let’s stay focused on that.” But her background is helpful, she admits. “Maybe the [cast and crew] say, ‘What would happen if she got mad? What would happen if she didn’t de-escalate, and she escalated? Would she make a call?’” Nader laughs. “Maybe that’s what they all fear.”

Nader says she and Konner both learned how to manage a set as one of, maybe, a handful of women “in the room” as their careers began. “There was such a lack of working with other women that were peers,” she says. “We’re still in our honeymoon period. Now, we get to determine how we want to work. Women have a more humane way of approaching work. I work 24/7, but have a more civilized way of being. I’ve learned from the worst, and I don’t want to emulate that.”

For her part, Konner has had very public creative partnerships with women, including Lena Dunham on Girls as well as Erin and Sara Foster on Nobody Wants This and, now, Jagannathan, Nader, and others. What have been some of the challenges around those partnerships? “I would say the challenges are that I tend to have deeper relationships with women,” Konner says. “Whether professionally or personally, they’re closer. So when those relationships have problems, it’s more painful. I’ve had a million challenges along the way, and I’ve learned from all of them. Every year of my life, and every job, I get better at communication, better at being a supervisor, and better at ushering new voices forward. I think experience gives you everything.”

And speaking of those deeper relationships, Konner is candid about Dunham’s revealing new memoir, Famesick, which makes frequent mention of Konner and their time on Girls. “I didn’t read Lena’s book,” Konner says. “My experience of Girls was the most positive, beautiful, creative experience. I [still] have a million personal and professional relationships from that time, so I have nothing but positive things to say. Three of the people in my writer’s room [for Deli Boys] are from Girls; Andrew [Rannells] is from Girls, and he’s also coming over Sunday. I talked to [Girls actor] Adam Driver last week.”

Has Konner ever thought about writing a book herself, and if so, what would it be called? “I would never write a book,” she says. “I used to live my life in a very different way, publicly. I would never do that again. I love my privacy. I love just quietly looking at Substack essays. That’s my life now. The book would be called Nobody Reads This.”

As for whether there are cultural challenges when producing a show about South Asian characters, Konner says quickly, “Absolutely. That’s why I have 400 advisers. What’s different about women in power, I have no fear of asking a million questions. I really love to be educated. I don’t know everything. I’m asking for help all day long from anyone who will listen.”

Jagannathan describes the women-run set of Deli Boys in just two words: “Wildly collaborative.” She continues, “[The cast members] were pitching ideas almost every day. The heartbeat of the show is actually its culture. [Executive producer] Nora [Silver], Jenni, and Michelle, they know they’re in the passenger seat when it really comes down to [South Asian] culture. They hear us out, integrate our thoughts. They listen. You have to know when to collaborate and be open. The boys, Asif and Saagar, the writers, and the directors really take charge and lead the culturally specific stuff.”

Nader, Konner, and Jagannathan each share why making a show like Deli Boys is so important at a time in the U.S. when diversity, equity, and inclusion are under threat. According to a UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, in 2024, 91.7 percent of the top scripted streaming series were created by white individuals.

Konner acknowledges this troubling reality. “That’s why Tara Duncan, the head of Onyx [Collective, which produces Deli Boys], has fought so passionately for this show,” she says. “She really had to beg, borrow, and steal to get us six episodes [for season 2]. Numbers are everything. There were people internally who really loved the show. It was really rewarding to know how many people cared so deeply about it.”

Nader weighs in: “What we still need to do is keep that fire burning. That’s why we need to do more shows like this.” And she loves learning about Pakistani culture in the process of making Deli Boys. “It’s been an immersion into the Pakistani world,” she says. “I feel like a cousin of it because I’m Lebanese. This is why a show like this was important to me, even though I’m not Pakistani—I understand what it’s like to be an outsider, not be represented in the world.”

Jagannathan adds on, “When you see someone who looks like you, they will you into existence somehow. That happened to me when I was doing Never Have I Ever. It was almost like my feet landed on the ground. It was a feeling of belonging, finally.”

As a South Asian actress, Jagannathan has often felt “pigeonholed” by the roles offered to her. “After all these years, I just broke the spell,” she says. “This year, I’m doing a comedy, then superheroes, and finally, serial killers.” (She’ll soon be seen in Nobody Wants This, the HBO DC superhero drama Lanterns, and an Apple TV thriller series co-starring Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz.) If she were to write a memoir, what might she name it? And what about Aunty Lucky’s tell-all? Jagannathan thinks for a moment, then drops this banger: “Getting Lucky After 35.” One book title for two great women.

Ultimately, Nader puts the Deli Boys season 2 experience best: “We all have locked arms and really brought this show [forward] through passion and dedication to a larger audience. Every single person, we loved this show so much that we wished it into this bigger existence.”

So, who runs the deli world? Girls! And the Deli Boys themselves wouldn’t have it any other way.