Good Fortune is a 2025 high-concept comedy written, directed by, and starring Aziz Ansari in his feature directorial debut.
Good Fortune is Ansari’s feature directorial debut, but he has directed extensively for television, a skill he learned ding his series, “Master of None.” “I first started directing and writing on my series, and I really enjoyed it,” he notes. “When you write something, you have this version of it in your head, and you have ideas about how it should look and feel. And directing and producing allows you to see that through.” Doing so also means directing himself – and others – in scenes where he is also acting, something he had also done on “Master of None.” “This time, I was doing my lines and thinking about the other person’s performance at the same time. You just keep thinking ahead.”
While Good Fortune is definitely a crowd-pleasing comedy that makes you laugh and feel something, it also makes you think. It’s also a film about accepting your life as it is and being authentic, as each of the characters learns.
“The idea of the film,” says Rogen, “is that your life is your life, and how will you deal with that?”
Notes Reeves, “Gabriel had the impression that he could make a difference. He thought he could find a lost soul, use his power to show a person the future, and then they would suddenly have a sensitivity to his or her life. Instead, he learned, through being a human, that each of us is not alone, that the journey is about our friends and loved ones, and our connections to other people that bring value and authenticity to all of our lives.”
This movie is meant to be experienced with a crowd. It’s the kind of theatrical experience that brings an audience together to laugh and reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.
The film centers on Gabriel (played by Keanu Reeves), a well-meaning but inept angel who intervenes in the lives of Arj (Ansari), a struggling gig worker, and Jeff (Seth Rogen), a wealthy venture capitalist. In an attempt to prove that money doesn’t solve everything, Gabriel swaps their lives—only to have the plan backfire spectacularly, costing him his wings and forcing him to live among humans.
Sometimes, life isn’t fair. Sometimes, life is funny. Lots of times, it’s both
Multi-hyphenate writer-director-actor-producer Aziz Ansari is mainly known to comedy fans for the latter, from his performances for seven years as Tom Haverford on NBC’s “ Parks and Recreation,” to his hit series, “Master of None,” in which he starred, co-created, and co-wrote with “Parks and Rec” producer Alan Yang, and from sold-out stand-up comedy shows at Madison Square Garden.
But that doesn’t mean he has no consciousness of the struggles facing everyday Americans.
“At first, I was writing something a little more serious, but I’d been doing more dramatic work and missed working on comedies. So I challenged myself to take this topic and make it as funny as I could. And what’s interesting is that you watch these older films from the 30s and 40s, films like Sullivan’s Travels or My Man Godfrey – they dealt with all these issues, but they were also hilarious. They frequently deal with class and income disparity comically.”
“I started writing, and it just kept evolving. The basic notion was the angel wants to be like the guy in It’s a Wonderful Life and really change people’s lives, but the just screws it up, and the guy turns it on him. Then I started thinking about, who is the angel? What if he’s an angel in charge of saving people from texting and driving?”
While he considered various versions of the story, some more grounded with less fantastical, supernatural plot twists, he kept returning to the life swap approach as the most effective way to convey his message.
He began writing the script in 2020 during the Covid pandemic, starting with an idea he’d been toying with for years, involving an unlikely friendship between two guys from different ends of the economic spectrum.
To help him understand the latter person’s experience, he began doing research – not only interviewing people delivering food for DoorDash and doing gig jobs for TaskRabbit, but getting out in the field and trying to do the work himself. Though he was unable to do the latter [“I realized I’d be in people’s houses, say, to hang up a TV, and they’d be going, ‘You’re Aziz – are you not doing any more ‘Master of None’ – you’re now hanging TVs??’” he notes], he could go essentially unseen delivering food. “I did a ride-along with a guy, and then did four deliveries myself. You’re just constantly driving around L.A., trying to find parking, and that’s all you’re doing. I actually had to double-park – like we have in the film – to run in and
get the food, and it’s not ready, everybody’s honking. All of this for some measly $1 tip. I just realized, ‘This is horrible.’”
He even ran across food delivery robots, ubiquitous in places like West Hollywood. “They’re so funny, because they have names on them, like ‘Hampton.’ I remember seeing that, and thinking, ‘That’s got to take Jeff’s job!’” an idea he ran by actor Seth Rogen, who would play the wealthy Jeff, who loved it. And, in case you don’t recognize him, that’s Ansari himself, doing the robot’s voice!
Once he had the idea for the two characters, Arj and Jeff, the challenge became how to have them cross paths – “What brings these guys together, and how does the story take off?” the director pondered. He ran the idea by his two favourite creative partners, producer Alan Yang and his brother, executive producer Aniz Adam Ansari. “We wanted these characters to learn more about each other’s lives,” says Yang. “But that was just the jumping off point. From there, we wanted to do a deeper dive into the system that causes the haves and the have-nots to exist.”
Aziz Ansari’s inspiration for Good Fortune stemmed from a blend of personal setbacks, creative ambition, and a desire to reflect the quirks of modern life.
After his previous film Being Mortal was shelved, Ansari sought a theatrical comeback—one that would revive the bold spirit of R-rated comedies and prove they could still pack a punch at the box office.
He conducted interviews with gig workers to capture the lived experience of economic uncertainty, which shaped his lead character, Arj, as a reflection of everyday hustle and burnout.
The concept of life-swapping wasn’t just a comedic device; it was Ansari’s way of confronting the illusion that money can solve emotional and existential woes.
Collaborating with longtime friend Seth Rogen added layers of irreverent humor, while his surprising bond with Keanu Reeves deepened the film’s emotional heart—Reeves plays Gabriel, an angel who loses his wings after meddling in human affairs.
By blending classic body-swap tropes with social satire, Ansari created a film that’s both hilarious and thought-provoking, touching on privilege, identity, and what it truly means to be lucky.
Aziz Ansari is an American actor, comedian, writer, and filmmaker born on February 23, 1983, in Columbia, South Carolina, to Tamil Muslim immigrants from Tamil Nadu, India. Raised in Bennettsville, South Carolina, he attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics before earning a marketing degree from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Ansari began performing stand-up comedy while still in college, eventually gaining national attention through the MTV sketch show Human Giant. His breakout role came as Tom Haverford on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, where his quirky charm and comedic timing won over audiences. He later created and starred in the critically acclaimed Netflix series Master of None, which earned him multiple awards, including two Emmys and a Golden Globe—making him the first Asian American actor to win a Golden Globe for television acting. Ansari is also the author of Modern Romance, a sociological exploration of dating in the digital age. Known for blending observational humor with social commentary, he continues to push boundaries in comedy and storytelling. In 2022, he married Serena Skov Campbell, a Danish physicist, and remains a prominent voice in entertainment and cultural discourse.
