If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked actor Kumail Nanjiani — who is a brand partner of Quest Nutrition — about the all-in-one face oil, long-lasting T-shirts, and mouthwatering hot sauce he can’t live without.
I put this serum on in the morning. It’s oil based, so I give it an hour or so to soak in. I prefer the texture to straight moisturizer on my face. I just really like how it makes my skin feel. I’m not against a three or four step routine, but I don’t have time for it myself. I like that this is one step, and it makes my skin look and feel great. It does make me look like I just got out of the sauna, but I like the glow.
I mostly wear T-shirts every day. It’s so hard to find one that fits perfectly and is high quality. These are not the cheapest shirts, but once you get ’em, they last forever. I like the material and textures. It’s a little bit thicker than most shirts. And their large size just fits me perfectly. I go in and check out their shirts every other month or so to restock. My favorites are the simple graphic ones with just a heart or lightning strike on it.
I’m a big gamer. I had to set up a rule for myself 15 years ago: I can’t play for more than half an hour while the sun’s out. As a kid, video games helped me have an imagination, like I was escaping into these other worlds. I’m a grown man now, and I still love video games. It’s time that Emily and I spend together. Right now we’re playing an old one — Grand Theft Auto 5 again. It is just an amazing game. I can’t believe that somehow, no other games have been able to approach that level of size and fidelity and accuracy when it comes to a whole city. I have the PS5, Xbox, Xbox Series X, and a Switch, but the PlayStation is certainly getting the most play. The only problem with these consoles is how big they are now. I can’t travel with them anymore. Back in the day when I was traveling with them, I’d pack it in my carry-on because I’ve lost luggage too many times and didn’t want to risk it. It’s embarrassing when people are pulling out laptops to place in the tray, and you’re pulling out your PlayStation.
Vertigo is the worst I’ve ever physically felt in my life. You can’t move your head. Everything’s moving. You’re throwing up. It is awful. I did a stunt a couple years ago that caused me to get vertigo. I think it was because I banged my head and it dislodged the crystals in the brain that handle balance. Vitamin D helps keep those crystals in place. I know it helps if you don’t get enough sunlight, too, and I know I don’t get enough, but it also helps me feel like I won’t get vertigo again. I genuinely cannot live without it.
I use this to meditate every day. When you’re going, going, going, sometimes you don’t even know how you’re feeling. That can turn into anxiety, and then, you’re heightened and vibrating and you don’t know exactly why. This allows you to take a step back, be with yourself, and feel what you’re feeling. The skills — the breathing and breathing techniques and all that — then become part of your toolkit for just living through life or work. I find it very, very helpful, especially on days when I’m shooting. I’ll sit in the makeup chair and do ten minutes. It lets me check in with myself. If I’m worked up between takes, I know what to do with or without the app to settle down and feel like myself again. All acting is you being in touch with yourself, and that’s what the Calm app helps me do that.
I’m a big scents person. I’ll walk inside a Yankee candle store for hours. As you’ll see a lot of this list is about managing my internal life and anxiety, and I just like how warm this candle makes me feel. This smell is just really comforting. It feels like I’m laying under a blanket, and those are the little things that make my day better.
We have a ton of records. I listen to a lot of soul music. I love the Isley Brothers. This is a record player that my wife found. What I really like about records is you put on an album and you listen to the whole thing top to bottom. It’s very comforting. Overthinking is a problem for me. It’s very hard for me to be in the moment. I’m like, Oh, what do I want to do next? I’m playing this song after this. What song do I want to listen to? What am I going to do after that? I get stuck in the thing of planning what to do next and not enjoying what’s playing. But with the record player, I’ll just put it on and we’ll just listen to the whole thing, flip it, and listen to the whole thing again. I like giving up control, which in general is a good goal for me.
I’m a big coffee fan. I had to cut down to one a day or two if I’m working. No matter what, my wife, Emily, and I have our coffee together every single morning. That’s one of my favorite parts of the day. Obviously, I feel the caffeine (and I’m sure I’m addicted to that), but the taste just grounds me and gives me something to get excited about. I like Verve’s, because they have single origin coffees. I generally prefer African coffees — Ethiopian or Kenyan coffees — because they’re a little bit fruitier. I get excited when a bag is almost empty, because I get to choose three or four bags with new flavors. Verve does this one special variety — the Gesha blend — around Christmas time. It’s very expensive, but sometimes I’ll buy a couple bags and use them only on special occasions. It’s something that makes me feel like I’m taking care of myself.
I have a sweet tooth, and chocolate is how I really treat myself. I used to be such a purist about chocolate. I would want chocolate only, but Tony’s does their flavors just right. They have a salted pretzel one, and the pretzel is somehow still crispy in there. I don’t know how they do it. It’s salty and crispy in a really shockingly great way. There’s a potato-chip chocolate that I always thought was wild, but I’ve grown to love those, too. They do this thing where their bars are randomly sized instead of uniformed cubes. I think it’s because the distribution of wealth around cocoa beans is unfair, so this is their way of showing the inequality. I like that they’re doing that, but also if you’re eating a piece at a time, those days you break off a really big piece are really exciting.
I eat at least two pieces of fruit every day. Bananas are one of my favorite fruits in the world. Bananas are always there for you. They help prevent cramps. I work out pretty hard, so it helps with that. You don’t need to wash them. I also think they’re objectively the funniest fruit. They’re phallic, and it’s funny that monkeys like them. I recently learned that monkeys open them from the bottom, not the stock end. You just pinch it and it opens up, so you have a convenient little handle at the bottom. The weird veins that people peel off? I eat that too. I don’t like the fake banana flavor though. I think the banana-candy flavor is not like what a banana tastes like. It tastes like chemicals. But I love real banana desserts. I love banana bread, banana-cream pie. I fuck with bananas.
As much as I love hot sauce, I’m not one of those people who could enter a contest and win. My tolerance isn’t crazy, crazy high. But I love spicy things and the flavor of this is so good. The habanero is just the right level of heat and a great flavor. Often, I find hot sauces too sour for my liking. This compliments the flavor of whatever I’m eating rather than fighting it. It doesn’t draw too much attention to itself. It enhances it and is mouthwatering. I genuinely could put it on anything that’s savory. And it’s just the right amount of heat where you’re not sweating, but you’re really feeling it.
Biryani is my favorite food in the world. My grandmother used to make it, but she’s passed. My mother makes it now. Her biryani was 95 percent as good as my grandmother’s, and now it’s 98 percent as good as my grandmother’s. She’s growing in power. I just love it. The flavor is so complex, so using a biryani mix at home is a great way to make it if you don’t have 30 different spices in your cabinet. This is just a packet and it’s just as good. Not as good as what my mom makes, obviously, but it’s a quick way you can cheat a little bit. The purists are not going to like this, but if you don’t have a ton of time, you can make it in a pan. Clearly, this is some bastardized version, but this saves you what would usually take hours.
For me, my issue with a lot of protein products isn’t the flavor, but the texture. Sometimes you’ll get a protein product in the shape of a doughnut, but it feels like a doughnut from hell. Quest really nailed the texture of this muffin. Their flavor is obviously great too, but to me, that’s the hardest thing to get right is the texture. These are fluffy and crumbly and have the texture of a real baked muffin. They don’t feel like a dense or even rubbery thing that happens a lot with protein products.
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