Out100: Maulik Pancholy

Photography by Danielle Levitt

It’s been a bittersweet year for Pancholy, who waved goodbye to one memorable character — Jonathan, his overprotective assistant to Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock — and said hello to another, the title character in Nickelodeon’s animated series Sanjay and Craig (renewed for 2014). And then there were the more personal accomplishments.

“I just celebrated my nine-year anniversary with my partner,” he says. “It feels like a nice time to be celebrating something like that, especially on the heels of the DOMA and Prop 8 decisions.”

For Pancholy, who came to public notice playing another Sanjay, the dope-dealing college student in Weeds, there was never any question about what he wanted to do in life. As a kid, he recalls cutting his hand on a small switchblade he found in the bathroom.

“Instead of going for help and saying, ‘Hey, I cut my thumb, can I get a Band-Aid?’ I did a death scene in the bathroom. It was my big moment!”

Photographed at Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 23, 2013

SLIDESHOW: See the Complete Out100 List