“Deli Boy,s” the Hulu comedy set at a convenience store in Grays Ferry, was renewed for a second season.
“Deli Boys” follows a pair of brothers who have spent their lives believing their wealth came from a convenience store empire. When their father dies, they realize the stores were a cover for drug smuggling and lose everything in a federal investigation — except for one store in South Philly. The show depicts their efforts to keep the ailing business afloat.
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In Season 2, Fred Armisen, of “Saturday Night Live,” joins as regular character alongside stars Saagar Shaikh, Asif Ali and Poorna Jagannathan, Deadline reported. Armisen will play a legendary gambler with an outstanding ability to read people — someone who is “uniquely brilliant and deeply unhinged.” He plays around the world, but Philly is his “crown jewel.”
Abdullah Saeed, the series creator and a Temple University alum, and Michelle Nader, a South Philly native, return as executive producer and showrunner, respectively.
After graduating from Temple, Saeed spent four years in the city and worked as a journalist for Philadelphia Weekly. He said setting the show in Philly was an ode to a city that “always had a warm place in my heart.” The idea to set it in Grays Ferry came from a party he attended as a student.
Nader’s local roots also help make sure things stay uniquely Philly. After growing up in South Philly, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and went on to work on the comedies “Shifting Gears,” “Dollface” and “Two Broke Girls.” But some might remember her for starring in a commercial for Geno’s Steaks.
“I’m not from the rich side of Philly,” Nader said in March. “I’m from South Philly, so the sort of underbelly of Philly is my world. I think we were both attracted to that, what that looked like behind the doors of the deli, what’s really going on. I think Philly has that mystery to it.”