''Welcome to Chippendales'' is an American

biographical drama A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudr ...

miniseries created by

Robert Siegel Robert Charles Siegel (born June 26, 1947) is an American retired radio journalist. He was one of the co-hosts of the National Public Radio evening news broadcast ''All Things Considered'' from 1987 until his retirement in January 2018. Early ...

inspired by the book ''Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders'' by K. Scot Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca. It stars

Kumail Nanjiani Kumail Ali Nanjiani (; ur, کمیل علی ننجیانی, ; born May 2, 1978) is a Pakistani-American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is known for his role as Dinesh in the HBO comedy series ''Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019) and for co-wr ...

as Somen "Steve" Banerjee, the founder of

Chippendales Chippendales is a touring dance troupe best known for its male striptease performances and for its dancers' distinctive upper body costume of a bow tie, collar, and shirt cuffs worn on an otherwise bare torso. Established in 1979, Chippenda ...

. ''Welcome to Chippendales'' premiered on November 22, 2022, on Hulu.

Premise

The tale of Steve Banerjee, an Indian immigrant seeking the American dream, is chronicled in this true crime series laced with murder and sex. He builds the largest and first male strip joint, Chippendales, only to burn it down in less than ten years and wind up being an accessory to murder.

Cast and characters

Main

as Somen "Steve" Banerjee *

Murray Bartlett Murray Bartlett (born 20 March 1971) is an Australian actor. His roles include Dominic "Dom" Basaluzzo in the HBO comedy-drama series '' Looking'', Michael "Mouse" Tolliver in the Netflix revival of ''Tales of the City'', and Armond in the HBO ...

Nick De Noia Nicholas John De Noia Jr. (May 14, 1941 – April 7, 1987) was an American director, screenwriter, and choreographer known for his work as choreographer of the Chippendales dance troupe and for his ''Unicorn Tales'' shorts for young audiences, for ...

* Annaleigh Ashford as Irene * Juliette Lewis as Denise

Recurring

* Quentin Plair as Otis * Andrew Rannells as Bradford Barton *

Robin de Jesús Robin de Jesús is an American film and theater actor of Puerto Rican descent. He has received Tony Award nominations for his roles in ''In the Heights'', '' La Cage aux Folles'', and '' The Boys in the Band''. Life and career Robin de Jesús ...

as Ray Colon *

Spencer Boldman Spencer Boldman (born July 28, 1992) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Adam Davenport on Disney XD's ''Lab Rats'', and for playing Gio in the film '' Cruise''. Personal life Spencer was born in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from P ...

as Lance McCrae

Guest

Nicola Peltz Nicola Anne Peltz Beckham (born January 9, 1995) is an American actress. Primarily known for her roles in dramatic film and television, she has performed in some blockbuster adaptations and has since been nominated for a Young Hollywood Award. ...

Dorothy Stratten Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980), known professionally as Dorothy Stratten, was a Playboy Playmate and actress, originally from Canada. Stratten was the ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playm ...

* Dan Stevens as Paul Snider

Episodes

Production

Development

In May 2021, it was announced Hulu had given the series a straight-to-series order, with

Rajiv Joseph Rajiv Joseph (born June 16, 1974) is an American playwright. He was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play ''Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo'', and he won an Obie Award for Best New American Play for his play ''Descri ...

and Mehar Sethi serving as writers. In October 2021, it was announced

Ramin Bahrani Ramin Bahrani ( fa, رامین بحرانی; born March 20, 1975) is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert ranked Bahrani's ''Chop Shop'' (2007) as the sixth-best film of the 2000s, calling him "the new director of the ...

would direct and executive produce the series, with Jenni Konner joining as an executive producer. In February 2022, it was announced

Matt Shakman Matt Shakman is an American film, television, and theatre director, and former child actor. He produced and directed '' WandaVision'' and has directed episodes of ''The Great'', ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', '' Fargo'' and ''Game of Thr ...

would replace Bahrani as director and executive producer.

Casting

Upon the initial announcement,

was announced to star in the series. Nanjiani was first offered a role in the series in 2017, but at the time wasn't sure if he wanted to play a "bad guy" Indian immigrant. By the time the project came back around a few years later, he had a different perspective, and was more open to portraying such a character. In January 2022,

, and Annaleigh Ashford joined the cast of the series. In February, Dan Stevens was announced as another series regular, with Quentin Plair and Andrew Rannells in a recurring capacity, and

as a guest star. In March,

and Juliette Lewis joined the cast in recurring and series regular roles, respectively. In April,

joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began by March 2022, with production briefly paused due to a positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

test.

Music

The score was composed by Siddhartha Khosla. The album was released on December 30, 2022.

Release

The series was released on November 22, 2022 on Hulu. Internationally, ''Welcome to Chippendales'' premiered on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

via the Star hub and in

Star+ A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

in Latin America and on Disney+ Hotstar. The series premiered on Disney+ in Sub-Saharan Africa on January 11, 2023.

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 75% approval rating with an average rating of 7.5/10, based on 32 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Blessed with a twisty true story that needs little embellishment to intrigue, ''Welcome to Chippendales'' details the battle over a beefcake empire with stylistic verve."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 67 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Hulu 2020s American drama television miniseries 2022 American television series debuts 2023 American television series endings American biographical series English-language television shows Hulu original programming Television series based on actual events Television series by 20th Century Fox Television