Aziz Ansari Reminds Everyone to Appreciate Their Parents

Since Aziz Ansari’s Master of None premiered on Netflix, viewers have had an overwhelmingly positive response to Ansari’s decision to cast his own mom and dad as his character’s parents. After the 32-year-old actor and his father, Dr. Shoukath Ansari, appeared on Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Aziz took to Instagram to post about how much he appreciates everything his dad has done for him.

“My dad took off most of his vacation time for the year to act in Master of None. So I’m really relieved this all worked out,” he wrote. “Tonight after we did Colbert together he said: ‘This is all fun and I liked acting in the show, but I really just did it so I could spend more time with you.’ I almost instantly collapsed into tears at the thought of how much this person cares about me and took care of me and gave me everything to give me the amazing life I have.”

He also spoke about how working on the show with his mom and dad, specifically on the “parents episode,” has improved his relationship with them. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the Parents episode of our show. What’s strange is doing that episode and working with my parents has increased the quality of my relationship to my parents IN MY REAL LIFE. In reality, I haven’t always had the best, most open relationship with my parents because we are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes. But we are getting better,” Aziz said.

He ended the post by reminding everyone to be grateful for the time they have with their parents: “[T]hese are special people in your life and I get terrified when my dad tells me about friends of his, people close to his age, that are having serious health issues, etc. Enjoy and love these people while you can.”

 

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.