# Little America
**Little America** is an American anthology television series on Apple TV+ in which each half-hour episode tells a standalone story based on the real-life experiences of an immigrant in the United States. It was created by [Kumail Nanjiani](https://www.edgepedia.org/kumail-nanjiani), Emily V. Gordon, and Lee Eisenberg, who also serves as showrunner, and it draws its stories from first-person accounts published in Epic Magazine.[1](https://www.tvline.com/news/kumail-nanjiani-emily-gordon-little-america-series-order-apple-957406/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/little_america) Two seasons of eight episodes each aired between January 2020 and December 2022.[3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/37928/little-america)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Scripted half-hour anthology; each episode follows a different immigrant or immigrant family, with a new cast, writer, and director per episode[4](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/little-america-review-apple-tv-best-show-1147010/) |
| Source material | True stories originally published in Epic Magazine; each episode opens with a bilingual "inspired by a true story" tag in the subject's native language[1](https://www.tvline.com/news/kumail-nanjiani-emily-gordon-little-america-series-order-apple-957406/) • [5](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/01/apples-critically-acclaimed-anthology-series-little-america-now-streaming/) |
| Creators | Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, and Lee Eisenberg (showrunner); executive producers include Alan Yang, Siân Heder, Joshuah Bearman, Joshua Davis, and Arthur Spector[6](https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/little-america/) |
| Production | Universal Television, with Epic Magazine[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/little-america/) |
| Run | Season 1 premiered January 17, 2020; Season 2 released December 9, 2022; status ended[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/little_america) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/37928/little-america) |
| Reception | Average Tomatometer 97% (Season 1: 95%, Season 2: 100%); Metacritic scores of 85 (Season 1) and 87 (Season 2)[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/little_america) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/little-america/) |
| Rating | TV-14; average episode runtime about 33 minutes[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/little_america) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/37928/little-america) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Because *Little America* is an anthology, the "plot" is a tour of eight lives, each episode self-contained and each ending with photographs of the real people who inspired it.
#### Season 1
"The Manager" opens the season in a Utah motel, where Kabir (Eshan Inamdar), a boy of about eleven, is effectively raising himself. His parents built up the motel and had a decent life until the immigration system caught up with them and they were deported to India. Kabir stays behind, running the front desk, checking in guests, doing homework between cleaning rooms, and waiting for a way to bring them back. His teacher pushes him to enter the National Spelling Bee, and Kabir goes far enough that the finalists are rewarded with a White House tour and a meeting with First Lady Laura Bush ([Sherilyn Fenn](https://www.edgepedia.org/sherilyn-fenn)). **Kabir's plea to the first lady is the episode's centerpiece: a child, standing in the White House, using his one moment of national attention to ask the most powerful woman in the country why his parents cannot come home.** The scene is played quietly, without swelling music or an easy answer, and it is the moment people remember from the whole series. The episode refuses a tidy reunion; what Kabir gets is dignity, not a visa.
"The Son" follows Rafiq ([Haaz Sleiman](https://www.edgepedia.org/haaz-sleiman)), a Syrian cook who is gay at a time and place where that is dangerous. When his family learns the truth, his father burns him, a literal scar, and disowns him. Rafiq flees to Jordan, terrified and closeted, until he meets a flamboyant, joyful man (Adam Ali) who is an unashamed [Kelly Clarkson](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelly-clarkson) superfan. The new friend pushes Rafiq to apply for asylum in the United States, and Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" scores the episode's emotional arc, turning a pop song into the sound of a man deciding he is allowed to want a life. The story is based on Shadi Ismail, a gay Syrian who fled through Jordan and found asylum in [Boise, Idaho](https://www.edgepedia.org/boise-idaho), and the episode ends with Rafiq building exactly that kind of small, free life.
Other episodes fill out the mosaic. Marisol (Jearnest Corchado), the daughter of an undocumented Mexican housekeeper, signs up for a squash league not out of love for the sport but because membership comes with free sneakers to replace her duct-taped pair; the episode, "The Jaguar," turns equipment into a measure of class. A Nigerian college student (Conphidance) in Oklahoma tries to fit in by dressing as a cowboy, and the episode ends with him grown as a person while his circumstances have not actually improved. A Frenchwoman ([Mélanie Laurent](https://www.edgepedia.org/melanie-laurent)) at a silent retreat, run by a guru played by [Zachary Quinto](https://www.edgepedia.org/zachary-quinto), gets an episode built around a single French monologue when the silence finally breaks. A Ugandan divorcée (Kemiyondo Coutinho) navigates life after a marriage ends. A Vietnamese telemarketer (Angela Lin), a single mother, wins a prize cruise to Alaska in "The Grand Prize Expo Winners," a story set to [Dusty Springfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/dusty-springfield)'s "Goin' Back" in a montage critics singled out as stunning. And an Iranian parking lot attendant (Shaun Toub) gets a small, warm portrait of unrecognized dignity.
#### Season 2
A second season of eight episodes followed, continuing the same format: new cast, new writers, new directors, new true story each time, drawn from the same Epic Magazine well of immigrant experiences.
### Characters
Because the cast resets every episode, the "main characters" are the standouts of season one. Kabir (Eshan Inamdar) is the boy motel manager, wise beyond his years and quietly furious about his parents' deportation. Rafiq (Haaz Sleiman) is the Syrian cook disowned by his father, whose journey from fear to asylum gives the season its most complete arc. Marisol (Jearnest Corchado) is the teenager who joins a squash league for the sneakers and stays for the game. The Nigerian student (Conphidance) is the cowboy of Oklahoma, described by Rolling Stone as the most charismatic performer in a season full of them. Angela Lin plays the Vietnamese telemarketer and mother, [Shaun Toub](https://www.edgepedia.org/shaun-toub) the Iranian parking attendant, Kemiyondo Coutinho the Ugandan divorcée, and Mélanie Laurent the Frenchwoman who will not stay silent.
### Interpretations and controversies
There was no controversy around the content, but there was one around production: the Trump administration's travel ban made it impossible to authentically cast Middle Eastern actors and shoot "The Son" in the United States, so a series called *Little America*, about immigrants coming to America, had to shoot its Syria-Jordan-Boise episode in Montreal. Co-creator Lee Eisenberg joked that it was probably the first time in television history Montreal had played Boise.
## Development and production
Apple gave the series a green light in June 2018 as a half-hour anthology based on real stories of immigrants in the United States, inspired by the true stories featured in Epic Magazine. The project was written and executive-produced by Nanjiani and Gordon, the married couple behind the film *The Big Sick*, together with Lee Eisenberg of *The Office*, who also served as showrunner. [Alan Yang](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-yang), co-creator of *Master of None*, and Epic's Joshuah Bearman and Joshua Davis joined as executive producers, with [Universal Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/universal-television) producing.[1](https://www.tvline.com/news/kumail-nanjiani-emily-gordon-little-america-series-order-apple-957406/)
The idea began with Eisenberg, who approached Epic co-founder Joshuah Bearman about a project on immigration; Eisenberg's own father grew up in Israel before moving to the United States. After the Epic profiles were published, Bearman signed on as an executive producer. Eisenberg has said the series was influenced by *Master of None*, and that he wanted a show in which every episode felt like that series' episode about first-generation Americans and their parents' sacrifices.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-apples-new-tv-show-tells-the-stories-of-real-immigrants--with-no-mention-of-trump/2020/01/16/2daeff2a-378b-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html)
Production deliberately avoided star casting. Few of the actors had marquee recognition, which the makers treated as a feature: the performers could seem like the people they were portraying, and the series could promote largely non-white talent on screen and behind the camera. Filming required multiple locations; the Syrian and Jordanian scenes of one episode were shot in Montreal, and other episodes were shot in New Jersey.[9](https://www.macworld.com/article/233759/little-america-review-apple-tv-plus.html) • [8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-apples-new-tv-show-tells-the-stories-of-real-immigrants--with-no-mention-of-trump/2020/01/16/2daeff2a-378b-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html) For the second season, Siân Heder joined as executive producer and co-showrunner alongside Eisenberg.[6](https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/little-america/)
## Format and stories
Each episode is a standalone story with its own cast, writer, and director, and the episodes differ in tone, language, and music. Every installment ends with a caption under a photograph of the real-life subject, updating viewers on what happened to that person afterward.[4](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/little-america-review-apple-tv-best-show-1147010/) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/17/little-america-review-eight-immigrant-stories-make-for-truly-radical-tv)
Season 1 episodes included:
- **"The Manager"**, about Kabir, a 12-year-old Indian American boy in Utah who runs his family's hotel alone after his parents are deported to India; he competes in the National Spelling Bee to reach the White House and plead his family's case.[11](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/little-america) • [12](https://time.com/5558226/apple-streaming-service-tv-shows/)
- **"The Cowboy"**, following Iwegbuna Ikeji, a Nigerian college student who arrives in Oklahoma in 1981 and adopts cowboy culture from the Westerns his father took him to; the closing caption notes he became a dean of economics in Louisiana.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/17/little-america-review-eight-immigrant-stories-make-for-truly-radical-tv)
- **"The Jaguar"**, about Marisol, an undocumented Mexican American teenager who joins a squash club and eventually plays for the US national team, ranking in the top 15 of the country's players.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/17/little-america-review-eight-immigrant-stories-make-for-truly-radical-tv)
- **"The Son"**, based on the story of Shadi Ismail, a gay Syrian man who flees Syria, hides in Jordan, and eventually reaches the American Northwest.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-apples-new-tv-show-tells-the-stories-of-real-immigrants--with-no-mention-of-trump/2020/01/16/2daeff2a-378b-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html)
- **"The Baker"**, about a Ugandan woman building a cookie business, and **"The Silence"**, an almost wordless episode in which a man and a woman connect at a silent meditation retreat.[4](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/little-america-review-apple-tv-best-show-1147010/) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/17/little-america-review-eight-immigrant-stories-make-for-truly-radical-tv)
The second season, released in full on December 9, 2022, continued the format; its finale, "The Indoor Arm," follows a Salvadoran amputee adjusting to life in Beverly Hills.[6](https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/little-america/) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/37928/little-america)
## Approach to politics
The series keeps current politics off screen. The Washington Post noted that, at a time of border walls and family separations, the show is little overtly political, and that former first lady [Laura Bush](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-bush) is the only White House figure portrayed. Nanjiani said the intent was for the stories to stand on their own rather than become a message show.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-apples-new-tv-show-tells-the-stories-of-real-immigrants--with-no-mention-of-trump/2020/01/16/2daeff2a-378b-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html) Reviewers observed that the episodes still expose the systemic problems that can cause immigrant families to struggle, from deportation bureaucracy to the consequences of being undocumented, without editorializing.[11](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/little-america) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/17/little-america-review-eight-immigrant-stories-make-for-truly-radical-tv)
## Reception
The first season earned a 100 percent critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes at release, according to Apple, and the series was renewed for a second season before the first had finished streaming.[5](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/01/apples-critically-acclaimed-anthology-series-little-america-now-streaming/) Across its run the show holds a 97 percent average Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, with Season 2 at 100 percent, and Metacritic metascores of 85 and 87 for the two seasons, the latter labeled universal acclaim.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/little_america) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/little-america/) Critics singled out the anthology structure as the show's strength: because no two episodes share a cast, setting, or style, the series conveys that the immigrant experience is not universal.[4](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/little-america-review-apple-tv-best-show-1147010/) The series received nominations from the Imagen Foundation Awards, the [NAACP Image Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/naacp-image-awards), and the Film Independent Spirit Awards.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/little-america/)
## References
1. [Kimberly Roots (June 19, 2018). Kumail Nanjiani And Emily V. Gordon's Little America Greenlit At Apple. TVLine.](https://www.tvline.com/news/kumail-nanjiani-emily-gordon-little-america-series-order-apple-957406/)
2. [Little America, Rotten Tomatoes.](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/little_america)
3. [Little America, TVmaze.](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/37928/little-america)
4. [Pilot Viruet (January 17, 2020). Review: Little America Is Apple TV+'s Best Show Yet. TVLine.](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/little-america-review-apple-tv-best-show-1147010/)
5. [Apple Newsroom (January 17, 2020). Apple's critically acclaimed anthology series "Little America" now streaming exclusively on Apple TV+.](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/01/apples-critically-acclaimed-anthology-series-little-america-now-streaming/)
6. [Little America, Apple TV Press.](https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/little-america/)
7. [Little America Reviews, Metacritic.](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/little-america/)
8. [Geoff Edgers (January 16, 2020). Why Apple's new TV show tells the stories of real immigrants, with no mention of Trump. The Washington Post.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-apples-new-tv-show-tells-the-stories-of-real-immigrants--with-no-mention-of-trump/2020/01/16/2daeff2a-378b-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html)
9. [Leif Johnson (January 20, 2020). 'Little America' review: Apple's big, hopeful love letter to immigration. Macworld.](https://www.macworld.com/article/233759/little-america-review-apple-tv-plus.html)
10. [Lucy Mangan (January 17, 2020). Little America review: eight immigrant stories make for truly radical TV. The Guardian.](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/17/little-america-review-eight-immigrant-stories-make-for-truly-radical-tv)
11. [Little America: Parents' Guide & TV Review, Common Sense Media.](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/little-america)
12. [Here Are All the TV Shows Coming to Apple's Streaming Service, Time.](https://time.com/5558226/apple-streaming-service-tv-shows/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Family and relationship drama › Family and domestic drama › Family sagas and household dramas*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license