Jesse Eisenberg & Kunal Nayyar

Jesse Eisenberg is an Academy Award–nominated actor, playwright, and contributor for The New Yorker and McSweeney's. He is also the author of three plays: Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils, which won the Theater Visions Fund Award. Eisenberg's acting credits include The Social Network, Now You See Me, Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale, The Double, and The End of the Tour. Forthcoming acting credits include Batman v. Superman. Bream Gives Me Hiccups: And Other Stories (Grove Press) is his debut story collection, which moves from contemporary L.A. to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions.

Kunal Nayyar was born in London and raised in New Delhi, India. He first came to the United States in 1999 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in business administration and went on to receive an MFA in acting from Temple University. Playing the character of Raj on The Big Bang Theory, he has been part of the ensemble since the show debuted in 2007. His debut book is Yes, My Accent Is Real: And Some Other Things I Haven't Told You (Atria Books). In this revealing collection of essays, Kunal Nayyar traces his journey from a little boy in New Delhi who mistakes an awkward first kiss for a sacred commitment, gets nosebleeds chugging Coca-Cola to impress other students, and excels in the sport of badminton, to the confident, successful actor on the set of TV’s most-watched sitcom since Friends. This witty and often inspiring collection of underdog tales follows a young man as he traverses two continents in search of a dream, along the way transcending culture and language (and many, many embarrassing incidents) to somehow miraculously land the role of a lifetime.