Maulik Pancholy has spent two decades making people laugh on screen—as the neurotic Jonathan on 30 Rock, the hapless Sanjay on Weeds, and the endearingly nerdy voice of Baljeet in Phineas and Ferb. But lately, he's been thinking about what happens when you take away the pictures entirely.

"There's something about audio that forces you to lean in," Pancholy said in a recent interview, according to the Free Press Journal. "On screen, everything is given to you. In audio, you have to build the world yourself."

It's a surprising pivot for an actor whose face has been a fixture on prestige television—he's appeared in The Good Fight, The Good Wife, and Whitney—but Pancholy has always been drawn to storytelling that asks something of its audience. His children's books, The Best at It (a Stonewall Honor recipient) and Nikhil Out Loud, tackle identity, belonging, and courage with a lightness that never undercuts their emotional weight. Now he's exploring whether audio drama can achieve something similar for adult listeners.

The Case for Listening

Audio storytelling isn't new, of course. Radio drama thrived for decades before television, and podcasts have revived the form in recent years with hits like Welcome to Night Vale and Homecoming. But Pancholy believes the medium is still underestimated, particularly when it comes to blending genres that don't always play well together on screen.

"Comedy and crime are both about timing," he explained. "They're both about withholding and revealing. In audio, you can do that with sound design, with silence, with the way a voice cracks. You don't need a camera to tell you someone's scared—you hear it."

The technical limitations of audio become creative opportunities. A scene that might require expensive sets or CGI on television can unfold in a listener's imagination with nothing but dialogue, music, and carefully placed sound effects. A joke can land differently when you can't see the punchline coming. Suspense builds when you can't scan the frame for clues.

From Screen to Page to Sound

Pancholy's path to audio wasn't exactly planned. After years of auditions and episodic television work, he turned to writing as a way to tell stories he wasn't seeing elsewhere—specifically, stories about South Asian American kids navigating identity in ways that felt real rather than tokenized.

The Best at It, published in 2019, follows a twelve-year-old boy named Nikhil who's trying to figure out what it means to be good at something when you don't fit the mold. The book was praised for its gentle handling of both cultural and queer identity, earning recognition from the American Library Association. Nikhil Out Loud, the follow-up, continued that thread with even more confidence.

But writing for children also taught Pancholy something about economy—how much you can convey with small gestures, how a single image or phrase can carry emotional weight. Those lessons translate surprisingly well to audio, where every word and sound has to justify its presence.

"In a kids' book, you can't waste a sentence," he said. "Same with audio. You're asking people to close their eyes and trust you. That's a gift, but it's also a responsibility."

Why Now?

The timing of Pancholy's interest in audio isn't accidental. Streaming platforms have fragmented television audiences, making it harder for mid-budget comedies and character-driven dramas to find homes. Meanwhile, podcast listenership continues to grow—particularly among younger audiences who consume audio while commuting, exercising, or doing chores.

Audio drama, in particular, has seen a renaissance. Production companies like QCode and Gimlet have invested in high-profile fiction podcasts featuring A-list talent. Spotify and Audible are commissioning original scripted content. The barrier to entry is lower than film or television, but the creative possibilities are wide open.

For actors like Pancholy, it's also a chance to work differently. Voice acting for animation taught him how much expression can live in a performance stripped of physicality. Audio drama takes that further—no motion capture, no green screen, just the raw texture of a voice in a scene.

What's Next

Pancholy hasn't announced specific audio projects yet, but his interest in the form signals a broader shift in how actors and writers are thinking about career longevity. The days of waiting for pilot season or hoping for a network pickup are giving way to more entrepreneurial approaches—creating content, building audiences directly, experimenting across platforms.

It's also a reminder that some of the most interesting work in entertainment is happening in spaces that don't get red carpet premieres. Audio drama won't replace television, but it might do something television can't: make you pay attention in a different way.

"I love TV," Pancholy said. "But I also love the idea of telling a story where the audience has to do half the work. That's collaboration. That's trust."

In an era of endless scrolling and algorithmic recommendations, maybe that's the rarest thing of all—a story that asks you to stop, listen, and imagine.