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What do you think keeps drawing you to these topics in your work?
And I cant run from my own personality.
Im a child of the 90s; pop culture is very much a part of my life.
Its the best part.
That and the first kiss or the first fight or anything like that.
There are so many of those elements that I think if its not broke, dont fix it.
I think good tension and good banter is such a huge thing.
It was just a pleasure trying to write two characters who are genuinely funny.
You know whats so fun is how many times it felt sick to write, Tom laughs.
Like, Tom laughs at Jessie.
Then you realize, Damn, I never see a guy laugh at a girl in a rom-com.
Its always like, Youre ridiculous, or like, Ohyou.
It also works because Nikesh is so wonderful at that and he holds his own.
Its just so easy.
Honestly, fake it.
Its genuinely the best thing you’re free to do.
What was your approach to setting up the dynamic between these characters?
And I was like, Oh, yeah, it is.
It genuinely did not occur to me.
[The dynamic] comes from what throw in of character Jessie is.
Shes confident and knows herself.
Shes happy being single in a city and shes happy with her position in life.
Shes not thrown by an encounter with a guy like that.
If anything, hes chasing her, which is quite awesome and quite nice to see and definitely unexpected.
I love it because if anything, his fame is a turnoff for her.
Shes not impressed by it.
Its so rare to see interracial couples onscreen where one of them isnt white.
Was that something you were considerate of when casting Tom?
Its also something thats not necessarily talked about in the show.
And it becomes part of your character and it becomes part of the story.
And that was something really nice about this, which is its just two people falling in love.
Particularly with women who are quite tall.
Nicole Kidman, taller than me.
I really wanna meet her one day to see how tall she is compared to me.
Cameron Diaz, I think slightly shorter.
A lot of men who were surprisingly shorter than me, which was kind of sad.
But you know, I love my short kings.
They still deserve it.
Rick Moranis, a lot shorter.
Steve Martin, kind of maybe the same height.
Ive got to revisit it.
Ive got to make the chart up again.
Youre already working on season two, and most rom-coms end where this first season does.
Whats it been like figuring out the next chapter of Jessie and Toms relationship?
Its very difficult to write a sequel to a rom-com, I will say that.
Particularly when youve kind of written this story that neatly ties up in a way.
Its almost like writing fan-fiction of your own thing.
What do you think about where the genre stands and the ways its evolving?
And its exciting to see those things made by people as well.
I think thats a big, big thing.
People writing and directing and actually creating that content themselves rather than being written for is the next step.
I wanna fucking see them!
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
