Inside the Office of ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ Showrunner Nahnatchka Khan
Don’t call it clutter — it’s “placed clutter,” jokes “Fresh Off the Boat” executive producer Nahnatchka Khan, about her well-stocked office on the first floor on the Fox lot. “It’s so stressful doing a TV show week after week, that I think that when you come in you just want to be reminded of things that are fun,” she says. So her workspace — which serves as the hub for the “Fresh Off the Boat” writers — offers many clever toys to keep her colleagues entertained. Yes, there’s an actual writer’s block — it’s just a block of wood labeled “writer’s block” — on her coffee table. “We’re here to have fun and make comedy, so we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” she says.
EYE OF THE TIGER
The tiger poster is a keepsake from the show’s first season, when Louis (Randall Park) played in the “Mystic Tiger” basketball league. “In Eddie’s (Hudson Yang) fantasy, he thinks it’s this amazing ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ style basketball league, but in reality it’s sponsored by Mystic Tiger cigarettes,” laughs Khan.
PANTY RAID
Yes, that poster says “Tall slut, no panties” — a souvenir from Khan’s series, “The B—- in Apt. 23.” It’s from an episode in which Krysten Ritter’s character was the inspiration for a Japanese comic book. “It’s funny to try to have serious meetings with that behind you,” she says. “It’s pretty telling. Either people will ignore it completely, which makes them uncomfortable, or they’re immediately like, ‘Oh my God!’ I love that.”
SHOOTING UP
As a thank you for doing a podcast with him, her friend David Windsor (of “The Real O’Neals”) brought her the one thing he knew she didn’t have: a rifle filled with tequila. But he wouldn’t tell her where he got it. “I don’t think he wants everyone to make a run on tequila rifles,” she says. She hasn’t opened it. Yet.
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