Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef is making his comeback to small screens through the release of a new animated show, titled #1 Happy Family USA. Co-created with Pam Brady of South Park: Bigger, Hamlet 2 and Team America: World Police, the original series, which will drop exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on April 17, will run across eight-episodes packed together in one debut season.
The sitcom’s plot, as described by American film review and database side IMDB, revolves around “a Muslim-American family that must learn how to code-switch as they navigate the early 2000s.” In a recent interview with UAE-based news outlet The National, Youssef explained that, from his perspective, the early naughts are an “an exciting time to look,” referring to the shift in the Arab experience abroad many had to face and most importantly endure in the years following the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001.
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As usual, to tackle this sensitive, though ultimately important topic, Youssef and Brady use satire and humor to address many of the complexities of post-9/11 identity, cultural integration, and the challenges faced by Muslim-American families striving to survive in quite socially-hostile environments across the Western World.
To help bring the project to life, the duo tapped into a pool of rising stars and established talent. From what we know, the duo called on British-Iraqi illustrator Mona Chalabi to produce the show, Canadian stand-upper Salma Hindy to voice the household’s mother, writer Randa Jarrar as the grandmother, Youssef himself as the 12-year-old son Rumi, as well as the father, Hussein, a former surgeon who now runs a halal cart.
“Much of it (the series’ inspiraiton) is spilling over from my stand-up and my own inner stuff, but this is very much a comedy collective,” Youssef told the publication. “For me, this cartoon is a great collection of people that I’ve been wanting to work with for the last few years coming together– some of my favorite emerging comedians and writers’ fingerprints are on it,” he added.
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#1 Happy Family USA will mark Youssef’s second major release of 2025. After co-writing the second season of hit Netflix series Mo, which premiered in January to widespread acclaim, it has been revealed that the 33-year-old also has another project in the works, titled Golf. The show is expected to premiere exclusively on Netflix, though details such as the release date, cast members, and other specifics are still under wraps.
