LOS ANGELES — Canter’s Deli has welcomed plenty of celebrities over the years but Jay Pharoah was making his first visit as he sat down to breakfast one weekday morning in July.

Best known for his spot-on impressions of Barack Obama, Jay-Z and others on “Saturday Night Live,” the comic has been too busy shooting “White Famous,” his new showbiz satire on Showtime, to see much of Los Angeles since he moved there early this year. But he’s already warmed to the city.

“I’m still figuring everything out, but it feels good to be out of my New York apartment, which was like a kennel,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh snap, my lungs can come all the way up? This is great!’”

Created by Tom Kapinos (“Californication”), “White Famous” is the first top billing for Mr. Pharoah, who will turn 30 the day before the show debuts on Sunday, Oct. 15. It’s also a case of art imitating life: He plays a rising young comic courting a new level of fame as an actor. His character, Floyd Mooney, contends with Hollywood flakes like a maniacal filmmaker (Michael Rapaport), as he tries to achieve crossover celebrity — the “white famous” of the title — without losing his dignity or sense of himself.