Stars excited about Asian representation on series

Actress Sarayu Blue says she’s excited to be a part of South Asian representation in the TV comedy world with the new series “I Feel Bad.” The show on Global and NBC stars Blue as a storyboard artist at a Los Angeles video game company struggling to juggle her job, motherhood and her relationship with her husband, played by Paul Adelstein.

Comedy star Amy Poehler is an executive producer on the show, which moves to its regular Thursday night timeslot on Oct. 4

“I think it’s really exciting to see an interracial relationship, to see biracial children, to see a South Asian family,” Blue, who was born in Wisconsin and is of Indian heritage, said in an interview.

“It’s brought a specificity to the script that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.”

At the same time, the show maintains a broad relatability, she added.

“It’s not like it’s just for one audience, and that’s what’s exciting — to really see that shift in the industry, that people are starting to recognize you can cast in a very specific way and still maintain an incredible amount of relatability,” said Blue, who recently starred in the film “Blockers.”

“We’ve seen that with a lot of shows like ‘Black-ish’ and ‘Fresh Off the Boat.’ There are a lot of shows out there that do this.”

Adelstein noted “I Feel Bad” doesn’t focus on a culture clash, either.

“It is a mixture of people that look different, that all live in the same place and that they are all, in this case, Americans, and there are differences that they have and there are generational differences,” said the former “Private Practice” and “Prison Break” star.

“But it’s not a, ‘Oh, watch these South Asian people try to become American’ or anything like that. This is a typical American family.”

And it’s a solid family unit, despite the couple’s neuroses as they raise three children, say the stars.

Together for 15 years, the husbandand-wife duo in the show are supportive of each other and maintain a sense of humour as they split childcare duties and live near her parents who are constantly visiting them.