'Ramy': Egyptian-American comedian Ramy Youssef to star in new Hulu show

The 10-episode comedy series explores being a practising Muslim and relaxed millennial in the United States

Egyptian-American stand-up comedian Ramy Youssef gets his own show on Hulu. Instagram / @ramy

Egyptian-American comedian Ramy Youssef, who is based in America, will star in a Hulu series called Ramy, which is due to air in April.

Ten half-hour episodes will see the 27-year-old play a young man who is attempting to navigate being a modern, practising Muslim in a millennial generation while living in a politically divided New Jersey neighbourhood.

The series was co-created by Youssef, along with Ryan Welch and Ari Katcher, and produced by Jerrod Carmichael and Bridget Bedard.

A new trailer dropped yesterday, giving us a glimpse of the kind of dry humour we should expect.

Youssef has revealed he's not sure what the response will be to the show, which tackles a number of issues in its series arc.

"I want to walk this tightrope. I want to really push this line, but also make it clear that it's coming from a thoughtful place," the comedian told Vanity Fair in a new profile. "You don't wanna make something just to be sensational. You want it to have integrity. You want it to have heart. You want it to have a reason why you're doing those things."

Who is Ramy Youssef?

As a relatively unknown stand-up comedian in America, Ramy Youssef first gained attention on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2017. A clip of his set, titled Ramy Youssef Is Expecting a Hogwarts Letter from ISIS, has nearly one million views on YouTube.

While the title of the show may give the impression it's all about Ramy, the episode plots actually shed light on a cast of other characters, too. This includes the protagonist's shy mother (Hiam Abbass), his restless sister (May Calamawy, who was born in Bahrain) and Uncle Naseem (Laith Nakli). The series will also star Mohammed Amer, Amr Waked, Dave Merheje, Shadi Alfons, and Poorna Jagannathan, among others.

Ramy recently had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. Variety wrote in its review: "While the show does depict the grueling, blatant racism that Ramy and families like his face every day [...] it devotes far more time to them just existing together, trading complaints about annoying family members and their mosque's latest gossip."

All 10 episodes will premiere on April 19 on Hulu.