Actors Ashwin Sakthivel and Nicholas Hamilton can barely contain their excitement about visiting Pittsburgh for the first time to attend a Penguins game.
“We’ll be riding the Zamboni,” Sakhtivel says with a giddy smile.
The duo will also be shouting into a microphone, “It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh!” to kick off the game.
“We’ll be wearing our jerseys and rooting for the Penguins,” Hamilton adds.
Sakthivel, 13, and Hamilton, 24, are two of the stars of the Amazon Prime sitcom The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh.
The show follows the Pradeep family and the humorous, sometimes tumultuous events that befall them upon moving to Pittsburgh. The Office of Immigration and Natural Service are investigating some strange happenings (like an illegal incident in Ohio and a mysterious house fire), and interviewing the Pradeeps for more information as the risk of deportation looms over the eight episode season. Sakthivel plays the youngest Pradeep, Vinod — an eternal idealist whose mom calls him an “optimistic doofus.” He navigates life in Pittsburgh, along with his parents, older sister Bhanu, and older brother Kamal.
Fictional father Mahesh Pradeep moves his family to the ‘Burgh because he gets a contract with SpaceX to make a rocket part. His workspace, oddly, is a former sex toy factory, so one can imagine the hilarity that ensues from those scenes.
Hamilton plays Stu Mills, a character he calls “the brain-dead, dumbass white trash neighbor” of the Pradeeps. Stu falls in love with Bhanu and they go on some wild adventures together.
“I think the biggest objective for me was to provide some layers to what could be a one-dimensional character,” Hamilton tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “I think the most fun part of it was you’d expect [Stu] to be the bad influence on Bhanu, but in a lot of storylines it’s the opposite.”
Hamilton calls the show unique in that it’s not like the live audience sitcoms of the past like Full House, where “really kooky neighbors [like Kimmy Gibbler] blast in and are the comedic relief.”
“I think that because the main characters are so funny and they’re such a huge part of the show’s identity, my gig was essentially to not take too much away from that but try to create as much of a human as possible,” Hamilton says.
The show was shot in Toronto, but showrunner Vijal Patel based the series on his personal experience immigrating to the U.S. from India and growing up in Pittsburgh. Patel’s writing and producing credits include black-ish and The Middle.
“It’s crazy to be in a show called The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh and have never been to Pittsburgh,” Hamilton says, “but I think [the hockey game] is giving us a good excuse to go.”
Sakthivel, who hails from England, is eager to see his first professional hockey game. Australian Hamilton already has a couple under his belt.
“I love it, I think it’s one of the best sports to watch live in the stadium,” Hamilton says. “Most other sports are fun to watch live and on TV, but hockey in the actual stadium on the ice is great.”
Beyond PPG Paints Arena, Sakthivel was equally as excited to try “chips in the sandwich” (aka Primanti’s).
You can watch The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh with an Amazon Prime subscription.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2024.
