18 to 35 is a quirky new workplace comedy about second chances. The series is centred on Misha Patel (Natalia Gracious), a high-achieving former Wall Street executive who, after losing her job and visa, is forced to return to her hometown of London, Ontario, where her father (Ali Hassan) immediately leaves for India and hands her the reins of his dilapidated youth hostel, The Crown Jewel.
The hostel’s clientele consists of international travellers who have mistakenly booked tickets to London, Ontario, believing they were headed to London, England. Misha must contend with a chaotic environment – marked with leaky roofs and health code violations – and an eccentric staff, including Harriet (Jean Yoon), the unflappable facilities manager, and Dani (Carlos Albornoz), the sweet but overly optimistic chef.
As Misha navigates the daily disasters, from surprise inspections to wild guests – that include Seán Cullen’s Buck Mustang, she begins to realize that she has more in common with her directionless guests than she thought.
The TV Watercooler had the opportunity to speak with 18 to 35 co-creator and showrunner Rahul Chaturvedi about the show’s casting process, the challenges of writing a shorter-form series, the importance of South Asian representation, and the impact of his work on the show Late Bloomer.
Chaturvedi is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Writers’ Lab and a former software engineer and was a long-time fan of workplace comedies like The Superstore and The Office. He wanted to create his own version but realized he couldn’t “outdo” The Office’s setting so he decided to set this series in a youth hostel, a place he was very familiar with during his twenties and early thirties (before he was “aged out”) as he found them to be “fascinating place’ full of inherent comedy and “a natural environment for diversity and multiculturalism.”
Chaturvedi, who moved to Canada at 17, developed the series with two other first-generation immigrants – Luisa Alvarez Restrepo (who also served as a writer on Chaturvedi’s 2018 short Forbidden Tikka Masala) and Charlie Whalley (Ginny & Georgia) – a shared experience that connected them to the story’s theme.
Their concept was refined thanks to the London Forest City Film Festival, which gave way to the series’ hook of having the setting take place at a hostel in London, Ontario, and all the international guests arrive there mistakenly believing that they’d flown to London, England.
The main push-and-pull of the first season is the main character Misha’s adjustment to life and being “in between capitalism and community.” They decided that the hostel itself is the main character, “and Misha’s journey is the lens through which the world is seen.”
London, Ontario, was new to Chaturvedi, but he was “delighted and surprised by the warmth of the community” there. The production used an old restaurant space for their set, and he discovered unique local cultural elements, like HoCo (Homecoming) rivalry between Queen’s and Western, which was written into the show.
It was also a “happy accident” that the show’s lead is played by London-native Natalia Gracious. “We put a call out for people with ties to the area, and we were surprised by how many people from the London area ended up in the arts in Toronto.”
Gracious had primarily done stage work before 18 to 35, and “her inexperience on camera was seen as a positive, as it matches the character of Misha, who feels unsure about returning to her hometown.” “She just popped off on screen,” and embodied the character of Misha.
The casting process was extensive and attracted a lot of talent, including veteran Canadian comedians like Jean Yoon (Kim’s Convenience) and Seán Cullen (Just for Laughs). Andrew Phung’s (Run the Burbs) attachment as an executive producer “lent credibility to the small show.” For Yoon, the team wanted to show that comedians have “a wider range beyond typecast roles.”
Carlos Albornoz, who plays Dani, is a Latino person, which Chaturvedi believes makes him one of the first Latino people to be a lead in a Canadian sitcom.
We note that 18 to 35 is the first workplace comedy series since The Mindy Project to feature a South Asian lead. “Surprisingly, the show premiered over 10 years ago, and despite South Asians being the largest visible minority in Canada (and one of the largest in the U.S.), more shows with South Asian leads haven’t been empowered by the industry.” “Our stories can be universal and don’t always need to be dramatic. 18 to 35 is an example of a universal story that brings in cultural elements.”
For his next workplace comedy, Chaturvedi jokes about developing a motel series, “The Patel Motel,” riffing on The White Lotus and the common experience of South Asian families owning motels.
Chaturvedi also served as a writer on Jasmeet Raina’s Late Bloomer (streaming on Crave) and had a hand in the second season’s sixth episode, “New Canadian,” which focused on the life of an exploited international student working as a good delivery driver. He wrote the episode from an “extremely angry place,” recalling his own experience as a newcomer in Canada twenty years ago, working hard jobs like at Taco Bell and being treated poorly. He drew parallels between his friends who started out working in gas stations and motels and their later success as a software architect and CEO.
“I’ve witnessed the struggles of many international students, who pay high tuition but are often treated poorly.” He notes that he received a lot of positive feedback about the episode, including from his own circle of friends, as the episode humanized essential service workers. Chaturvedi shared a powerful anecdote about a viewer who, after watching the episode, helped a delivery driver complete their route after noticing their bike was out of commission. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly gratifying and has made those individuals more visible to society.”
Chaturvedi’s next project is his adaptation of chef Vikas Khanna’s novel Imaginary Rain into a feature film. The project’s beginnings trace back to a chance encounter with Khanna in New York following a screening of Chaturvedi’s short film Forbidden Tikka Massala. “Imaginary Rain will be a culinary journey spanning the U.S. and India, following a woman who loses her small restaurant in the U.S., rediscovers her roots in India, and her love for cooking.”
The film will star veteran Indian actress Shabana Azmi (Fire, What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) and will feature music by the legendary A.R. Rahman (Dil Se, Taal, Slumdog Millionaire).
With successful series like Late Bloomer and Bollywed under his belt and an upcoming feature with eminent talent attached, Chaturvedi’s second career is a great parallel that 18 to 35’s Misha will find herself towards the end of the first season – the best journeys often start when a previous chapter ends.
18 to 35 is available on Bell Fibe TV1.
