Netflix says Aziz Ansari is welcome back after sexual misconduct allegation

Aziz Ansari, who helped
write and also stars in Netflix series “Master of
None.”
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty
Images

• Aziz Ansari has been laying low since he was accused of
  sexual misconduct by a woman he went on a date with.
• A long, first-person piece published by Babe.net
  described a date in which had sex with her despite ignoring
  what she called “cues” that she wanted him to stop.
• The article sparked intense debate, with many people
  defending Ansari after he defended himself to call the
  encounter “consensual.”
• A senior Netflix executive has since said that Ansari
  is welcome to resume his show — “Master of None” — whenever he
  is ready.

Netflix has said that it is “ready” for Aziz Ansari to go back to
making shows for it, after the comedian has spent months laying
low after being accused of sexual misconduct.

Ansari has not produced any new content for his award-winning
show “Master of None” since an anonymous woman who went on a date
with Ansari said he forced himself on her during despite numerous
“cues” that she “wasn’t interested.”

The article, published on
millennial women’s site Babe.net, sparked an online
firestorm, with many people questioning whether the situation the
woman described really amounted to anything abusive.

Ansari has largely laid low since the article,
which he responded to with a statement that everything between
the two of them had been “consensual.”

On Sunday, Netflix programming executive Cindy Holland said: “We
would be happy to make another season of Master of None when Aziz
is ready.”

She made comment during the Television Critics Association’s
press tour in Beverly Hills.

The Netflix show “Master of None” deals with the
personal life of Dev, an actor in New York played by
Ansari.
Netflix

An interview with “Master of None” co-creator Lena Waithe

in UK newspaper The Independent in March
2018 suggested that Ansari is the reluctant party when
it comes to producing more seasons of the show.

“I mean, I talk to Aziz…but it’s the last thing that ever
comes up in our conversations,” Waithe said.

Netflix did not cancel the show or remove Ansari from the
project in response to the article.

Ansari is a creator of the show as well as playing its main
character. He won a Golden Globe in 2018 for the role in
the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series –
Musical or Comedy category. He also won an Emmy for the show in
2016 for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

Ansari previously released a statement about the accusation.
Ansari said that sexual activity had occurred but that he
thought it was “completely consensual.” He said the broader
#MeToo movement, in which people share their experience with
sexual assault, was “long overdue,” but did not consider this
encounter an example of it.

Ansari used the statement to outline what he thought had
happened on the date: “The next day, I got a text from her saying
that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection,
she felt uncomfortable.

“It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I
heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and
concerned.

“I took her words to heart and responded privately after
taking the time to process what she had said,” he said.