Hello everyone, and welcome back to people Do want to know
podcast. Today's guest is someone I've
wanted to have on forever. I'm such a fan girl.
It's honestly embarrassing. Arielle Stachel Arielle is a
Yemenite and Ashkenazi Jewish Tony award-winning actor and
singer best known for his breakout role in the band's
visit. He's a Berkeley born, NYU Tish
trained performer whose work covers identity, heritage and
being visibly Middle Eastern and Jewish.
In 2025 I saw his one man show called Other and I was
completely blown away. You'll hear more about it in the
episode, but it was the first show I had seen that portrayed
what it's like to have immigrant parents and just the
relatability of trying to fit in in America with clearly
immigrant parents. Of course, this is me.
After the show, I got to chat with Arielle and the rest is
history. I'm so grateful he came on the
pod and I'm excited for you to learn more about him.
I think of him as a total badass because he only works on things
that align with his values. He's very clear on what kind of
art he wants to make. We have many people representing
us in media and in Hollywood, and Arielle is a person who
consistently makes me proud. He's a Mensch, a great dancer,
he's very fun at a party, and he's one of the people you want
to know. Please enjoy this episode,
Arielle. Welcome to PEOPLE You Want to
Know podcast. I love the title.
Thank you so much for being here.
My pleasure. So excited to chat.
You too. I'm gonna start short and
simple. How we start every episode here.
Tell us about yourself. What do you do and how did you
get there? I am an actor, I am a writer, I
am a singer. And I suppose I'm here because
I'm also an activist. Yeah, on some level.
And, and I got here by trying a bunch of different things that
failed in my life. So I would say that the first
thing that pivoted me into realizing I was an artist was
realizing I wasn't going to make the NBA.
When I didn't make the NBA, I'm like, OK, I got a pivot.
And my sister was a dancer. And so I followed her into a
dance class and fell in love. And also felt like I could be
great because when I was in 9th grade, I made a basketball team
and there was a teammate who was 6 foot eight who dunked on my
face. And I was like, I don't think
I'm going to be in the NBA. So then I, you know, followed my
sister into the arts. And then after two years of the
arts, my dance teacher was like, I don't think you could be a
great dancer, but you might be a great actor and a great singer.
This was junior year in high school.
And at that point, my target became Broadway.
All I wanted to do is be on Broadway.
All of this happening with the backdrop of me feeling very,
very uncomfortable in my skin as a Yemenite, Israeli, Ashkenazi
Jews. So I'm hiding my ethnicity for
all of high school. And in the meantime, pursuing
these other passions as an artist, my passion worked.
And because I was sort of like hiding my ethnicity for most of
high school, I would say that was my real acting training.
It wasn't the acting training I was receiving at school.
It was the fact that I was literally pretending to be other
people. And so I got a full ride to
almost every college I applied to, NYU being one of them.
And I came to NYU and for two years at school, I was still
hiding my ethnicity from my peers, from my classmates.
And it was a really stressful time because I went through all
of high school, you know, hiding my ethnicity, which also meant
hiding my father, who's Yemenite, Israeli.
But somehow coming to New York and being in the big city and
studying acting made me feel like, is this going to be
forever? Am I going to hide who I am
forever? So after my second year of
school, I decided I was going to drop out and give up on my dream
of being an actor and just go back home because I I started to
be scared of like, if I'm pursuing some of this public and
I get found out. Like it just got to a point was
like, you can't lie about who you are anymore.
And that summer I went back home and I spent the entire summer
with my dad and we listen to yummy night music and cook the
yummy night food. And at some point something
switched where I was like, I can't hide who I am anymore.
I cannot hide who I am anymore. He was cooking yummy night soup
and I was like dancing along with yummy night music.
And I ran into the kitchen. Sorry, ran into the bathroom
instead of crying and I came out.
This was two weeks before the beginning of junior year.
And I said, I'm going back to NYU.
And on one of my first days back, the assignment was to
share our life story in our acting class.
And I knew this was my opportunity to come clean.
And mind you, my professor was was black and he sort of
accepted me as one of his own. I mean, I had this whole thing
and I spent two weeks feverishly writing my life story and sort
of confessing all of the moments where I lied about who I was to
sort of fully come clean. So two weeks later, I show up to
the class kind of shaking and I sang an ancient Yemeni Jewish
song and did a, you know, 10 minute short story play, I
suppose, playing different characters in my life and sort
of revealing all the moments where I veered from my truth.
And that was very liberating. So from that point forward, I
had to learn what it meant to be a Middle Eastern American in the
world. At the time, that's what I
thought that I was. Now it's being a Jew.
So at that point I was trying to
connect with Middle Eastern culture and my Yemenite culture.
And for me at that point, what I didn't mention is that the
reason why I hid my ethnicity growing up was because after
911, there was so much hatred towards anyone who was brown
skinned. And my father had this accent
and the kids didn't really process that he was a Jewish
Israeli. The point is that he was brown.
He was Yemeni. So my mission became, you know,
sharing Middle Eastern culture and finding pride in it.
And so, you know, joined and founded, I guess, a Middle
Eastern, North African, South Asian actors group.
I had a short stint at the Yemenite synagogue, Manhattan,
realized I didn't really know how to pray like them.
So it's like we keep it moving and I just sort of tried to sort
of integrate myself. And then and then, you know,
shortly after graduating NYU in actors years, I guess I kind of
made it on some level. I got one of the leading roles
in a show called The Band's Visit, which went on to
Broadway. And in that show, I was playing
an Egyptian character and at that time as a 25 year old, 26
year old, in my consciousness, I was like, I've arrived like this
is what I've been waiting for, Like I'm playing a Middle
Eastern role, like I'm fully in my truth.
Life is good. And I, you know, the show went
on to be a tremendous success. We won 10 Tonys.
I won for my performance for best featured actor.
And that moment really changed my life on many, many levels.
And not just professionally, personally, because I thought it
was an arrival of sorts, but it but as it turned out, it wasn't.
And as it turned out, the way that I was looking at the world
and seeing myself was going to shift.
And you already said it, I guess for the brevity sake.
A few years after that, I guess five years after that, obviously
October 7th happens. But prior to October 7th, there
were still a lot of anti-Semitism starting to sort
of be spread all over social media from Kanye West.
And because of what I'd gone through as a kid, it wasn't an
option to stay silent, even if it made me anxious.
I knew that I could only live with myself if I was advocating
for myself, for my people. And so I would say that who I
am, to answer your question, I am two things.
On the one hand, I am an actor, writer, singer, and on the other
hand, because of my lineage, I'm an activist.
And I think that you can't be from a background such as mine
or such as yours and not feel like your role in the world is
to share stories, humanize, fight against hatred.
And in my case I mean even something smaller, which is like
just make space for. Yeah, or be seen.
Exactly. All of these moments culminated
into what is now your one man show other where you walk the
audience through this experience with a lot of humor and
beautiful singing and art and joy and dance and theatrics and
it's just fantastic. How has the show been received?
Very positively. But I do want to say something
that you know, our art is always in conversation with the world.
And when I first wrote it, it premiered at Berkeley Repertory
Theatre in June of 2023. And the focus was a myriad of
identity and anxiety. And that was pre October 7th.
And I got back to New York and I was meeting with all these
producers trying to plan the New York run.
And of course, October 7th happened, and then the lens on
the piece changed by virtue of the fact that I am a Yemenite,
Israeli, American, and so how can I not speak to the moment?
And that became really challenging because you don't
make art to react to the headlines.
Like it's a very dangerous thing.
Like you want to make art that release that really is coming
from a place I, I would say that is Evergreen.
And if it touches the headlines, that's cool.
But Evergreen is something that's always true.
Which is which is, you know. Yeah.
What does it feel? And it took a moment to digest
October 7th and talk about my experience inside of it, inside
of a play that, as you say, is timeless.
That's speaking to something that is larger than the slogans
that we see on social media. So.
But I would say that, you know, the interesting thing about how
it's received is that we finally opened it in New York after
doing 3 productions regionally. And I would say New York is the
place where it received the most.
It became the most politicized, which, you know, I didn't really
embark on the journey of writing the play to be political.
I told it to say to tell my story.
It just so happens, though, that there are times in the world
where the thing that you're creating with the thing that you
are becomes political. You know, I think that at the
heart of it is a person dealing with anxiety, anxiety that is
very much rooted in the complications of identity as a
Jew. But I think because one of the
main strands is anxiety, it's something that has been able to
reach people from a multitude of backgrounds.
But I will say that there's something very, very special
about connecting with Jewish people in this moment.
And so, you know, the piece has taken me for a ride that I
didn't even know I was going to go on.
And I'll add that aside from the fact that the show touches that,
you know, you're Jewish and now we're in this difficult time for
Jewish people, any immigrant or child of immigrants should the
show should resonate with them. Because watching what you showed
on stage, you brought me back to when I was like, you know, 14.
And they didn't want my parents to attend my choir recitals or
my swim meets because I was like, they're going to say some
embarrassing shit, you know, and they're broken English.
I was all I it completely like I understood it so intimately or
how like all the parents were involved with like the cook off
or the fundraising and I'd be like mom, dad, you don't need to
come. It's not a big deal.
You know, because I didn't I knew that they would feel
awkward around these like super American Minnesotan white ladies
and they had nothing in common with these people.
So watching you portray that, that's a universal experience.
I appreciate you saying that. I'm so identifying with what
you're saying right now. Did you try to assimilate?
Like did you try to pass? So I with a name like Margarita,
you never quite pass, believe it or not.
The The funny thing is, so I grew up in Minnesota, which is a
place where I think assimilation is expected.
It's not New York where there's a lot of people here that never
learn English. Like in Minneapolis, MN, you
have to assimilate. And for all my life, like even
through part of college, I was just like such an American girl
that did sports and like I was in the cool prom group with the
party bus. I was friends with all the
popular kids. Like, I really, I figured it
out. I figured out how the system
worked. And I'd always come home and
speak Russian to my parents and I was like very Jewish and
whatever. But that was always separate
from how I was at school or at sports or in choir or whatever
it was. But then when I got to college,
I kind of realized it sucked to do that.
I don't know how else to explain that.
I was just like being different and worldly is cool, being from
Minnesota and is not. That was with a conclusion that
I drew. And so after I finished college
and I worked so hard in school, I graduated a year early.
I hated it so much. I was like, I want out.
I moved to New York and I never looked back.
And my quality of friendships changed immediately.
I felt like I could go to a Russian restaurant, you know,
because those don't really exist in Minnesota at all.
And it was like cool to go try infused vodka at this like
Soviet decorated bar in Flatiron.
People found it but endearing and interesting in a way that
Minnesotans just, like, don't care for.
So yes and no. And I'm really glad that I grew
out of it. And my brother, who is much
younger than I am, it's been interesting to see how he's
handled it. He went to a Spanish immersion
for school. So he was friends with a lot of
kids who are Latino or Hispanic. And so he never had to, like,
assimilate as much because they weren't assimilated.
So it was like cool to speak another language, cool that your
parents are immigrants. It was normal.
Whereas I went to like a very American school.
So thankfully he did not have to pass as much.
Yeah, your environment really is a big part of the way that you,
the nurture, I think, is as important as nature.
So it's interesting, I would say, as I think about what you
just shared with me and the way that I think about my own life
is that, you know, I spent 20 or so years wrestling with a
Yemenite identity. Not the Jewish part, not even
the Israeli part. It wasn't a thing.
It was what it meant to be Yemenite.
And of course I knew I was Jewish, of course, and it was
Israeli. But the thing that I was
perceived as was Arab growing up or Middle Eastern or, or what
have you, right? Because of being in California
and kids not having, you know, the nuanced understanding of
people's identities like you experienced as well.
And in addition to that, I also grew up, I would say,
identifying as a person of color, it means a lot.
Like even in high school, for example, the girls who were
attracted to me were more often than not black.
For whatever reason, white girls didn't like me.
This wasn't a thing. The only time that changed was
when I won the Tony and then and then it kind of like people's
tastes change after that. But but anyway.
But what I'm trying to say is that, so what's been interesting
and what's been really heartbreaking and confusing I
think in the last five years is that a community that I felt
like I belong to and a community that I as as an actor, you end
up spending lots of times with time with people that you look
like, because the way that you look is generally how you were
cast. And so in my case, I was cast
Middle Eastern, right? And so I'm more often than not
in cast with other Egyptians and Lebanese and Yemen, what, what
have you, right. Of course, in the last five
years, last few years rather, you know, that fracture, it's
been both confusing and frustrating, but not entirely
bad because I would say that there are the Super political
folks who those bonds have, have have broken.
But then there's also just like the people who are like willing
to like DAP you up and be like Habibi, you know, like before I
came here, I was at my favorite Yemeni cafe, which I go to
almost every day and write. And they love me.
They know that I'm Israeli as well.
You know, they let me film a segment for other actually on
ABC at their place. And there isn't that tension.
But but in general, you know, the schism that I now feel as a
person of color with other people of color that I once
identified with has been the most unique experience I've ever
felt and has made me feel more Jewish than I ever have.
But mind you, I didn't really, even though I am half Ashkenazi,
I didn't really identify with Ashkenazi culture at all growing
up because again, growing up in America, you are really
separated on how you look more often than not.
So I was the brown kid at Jewish day school.
So it's been a really interesting experience for me
now kind of finding Jewish community that feels kind of
home, but not fully home because there are experiences, I feel
like even for example, for you, you sharing your immigration
story, that's something that's like a, I'm like, I, I can
connect to that. So now it's I would say that the
evolution of my identity is now in a very influx space.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
That's a good thing. And you can lead by example for
all the people who can't reconcile those differences.
Like if you and I were friends when we were nine years old or
whatever, that would have been a different story, right?
So someone has to lead by example, and someone has to be
the first, and that's not an easy position to be in.
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, it's why I it's, and
it's why I've transitioned to being a creator, you know,
because a lot of people in my position, having made it to
Broadway, there's a trajectory that you go on.
And I was kind of like, but I want to sit here and think about
my Yemenite Jewish roots. Like, I just want to write like,
it's what I want to think about when I wake up in the morning.
I think about that. I think about my lineage.
I think about my grandparents. I think about the music.
I think about my childhood. I think about the crazy and
bizarre experience it was to try to like hide my ethnicity.
So I think about it a lot. And so that ultimately is what I
say. You know, when I started it by
saying on on one track I'm an actor or whatever, but I really
am someone who is purpose based with my work and and that has
been a really interesting experience over the last five
years as well. You had these videos that you
made that were addressed to basically like other Arabs, I
think, or like other people of color.
That was shortly after October 7th.
And like any video that you posted with, that messaging went
viral and all these Jewish people were in the comments.
Like, see. My activism journey on social.
So I think that the you know, the first thing that you know,
my, my activism started with a toe dip post October 7th, Then
I'm starting to jump into the pool a little bit more.
You know, the toe dip was, hey, there is this awful thing
happening in the world right now.
We all acknowledge that, right? But born out of that art is a
lot of misinformation, right? And so the first thing that I
would try to do as a storyteller and say, listen like.
My family's Yemeni, like, that felt like the first form of
activism for me to be like, no white colonizer from the family,
refugees from Yemen, bro. Like, it's like, you know, that
was the first thing that I felt comfortable offering, right?
And then I think it evolved and then I started doing skits that
sort of revealed the tension and, and lack of understanding
about the multitude of Jewish identities and, and how angry
people get. If I say I'm Arab Jews, I'm
Yemenite, a lot of people would be really pissed.
If I say I'm Israeli, a lot of people think that doesn't exist.
You know, if I say I'm a person of color, a lot of people say,
well, that's, well, that's not true because there are no white
Jews, because we all come from Judea.
I mean, there's not a thing that I can say that won't incite
anger in somebody. And I started sort of playing
with that tension. And I really enjoyed, I think, a
mixture of direct addresses, which is where I just shared my
feelings straight to the camera. And then I also like being
artistic with it and kind of showing myself in a scene.
But hopefully that scene reveals something larger about just the
craziness of the situation and the way that we politicize
people's identities. But I think the things that
actually traveled the most were my addresses to Mamdani in that
I basically was like, yo, I relate to you.
I'm, you know, if my position is I'm really happy that there's
going to be a Muslim mayor. Like that's a cool thing, cool
thing for our country, but I relate to you because I imagine
our childhoods as young brown men were probably somewhat
similar on the playground. Like I just sort of so I, I just
came and said, listen, I've experienced that.
I've experienced the sting of anti Arab, anti Muslim
environments in United States. And it made me want to hide who
I was for 20 years. And now, whether or not you
intend to or not, you are perpetuating the new layer of
hatred which I'm also feeling. And so I sort of come to that
community, I would say, with love.
I always try on my social media to end with an extended arm,
always at the handout, always. But the idea being like I'm now
experiencing something and seeing it happen to my community
in a way that you might not be aware of did.
They ever acknowledge. That people on his team did, but
he hasn't directly, which is cool.
Got a lot of life ahead of us, Got a lot of life ahead of us,
you know, but I try to be of service as an artist by sharing
my own life experiences in a way that can be additive to the
conversation. So that's kind of my sort of
metric for am I going to share? Because I think social media is
crazy and I think that, you know, it's just such a wild
world out there. But, but so, you know, I've
tried to be inclusive, I've tried to build bridges, you
know, but at the end of the day, I am the son of an Israeli
father, Yemenite Israeli father. And I'm always going to honor
that, especially after what I went through growing up.
I will never negate that. And I have a lot of space for
empathy. I have a lot of space for
inclusion. I have a lot of space to talk
about things that I think Israel is or isn't doing well.
But I don't have a lot of space to negate who I am.
I have 0 not that complicated to me.
I think the way that Jewish stories are told in the media
now is really changing. If we look back, kind of like at
the traditional archetypes of how Jewish characters were
portrayed. We've got like the Holocaust
survivor, and then we have the lovable, funny Jew in the
sitcom, and then we have on rare occasions in films like Munich,
the strong Jew who fights back, usually Israeli, or like an
Ellie Cohen, played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
How do you think this like Next Generation should portray Jews?
I think that one thing is that, you know, I'll start with my
story as an example. You know, the story being about
a guy trying to overcome and battle his anxiety disorder is
an entry point that welcomes everyone in, right.
And then inside of that, I'm a guy who's Jewish and I'm Israeli
and I'm American and I'm not argumentative about it.
I'm not I, I sort of just exist and I have, as all humans do,
have a lot of life. I mean, we wake up and we're
hungry. We don't know what food to
choose. We have relationships that are
breaking apart. We're dealing with our jobs.
We're dealing with, I don't know, getting groceries.
I mean, human, right? And I think that this next
generation, I think our job is just to reflect our own
experiences as the most nuanced ways that we can and with entry
points that are for everyone. You know, like, I'm thinking
about sinners, right? This movie that just, you know,
triumphed on so many levels. Like, I bring that movie up to
say that people can know that it is a movie that is populated
with black actors and is a black story, but believe that it's for
everyone. And I don't think Jewish stories
yet have achieved that. And so I think we just need to
keep making more. And, you know, I think that
there's a fine balance between waving a flag and telling a
story. I think the story is the thing
that we should be focusing on. And through that, I think
there's going to be a lot of really great Jewish stories that
people get to interact with. Does that make sense?
Yeah, The critique I see is that any time that we try to make
Jewish films like that, what ends up happening is it's like
actually devoid of anything Jewish.
Like for example, this movie Sinners, it has strong black
characters who represent a proud African American person, right
with black music, everything black culture.
When Jews try to make shows that appeal to others, it's like
nobody wants this, right? Where being Jewish is just a
feeling and eating holla. So it strips what truly being
Jewish actually is for the vast majority of people, which is not
just a feeling or eating holla. It's a lot more for most all
people. So we need to figure out how to
tell stories in a way that are true.
But, you know, to that end, aren't there?
Like isn't, didn't Sdissel have a moment?
I know that's a very specific kind of Jewish experience, but
do you know that show? I never watched it, I is it
popularized in American? Maybe it got onto Netflix, but
but no, I, I hear what you're saying.
I mean, I mean, listen, I'm 34, almost 35 years old and it
continues to be a revelation to many, many people that my family
is Yemenite and Jewish, right? So like I say that to say that
we have to also, you know, boost and support the diversity of the
Jewish community, in addition to sharing stories that are proudly
Jewish, as you're saying. My hope is that we just continue
to make shit. Yeah.
And what I really love about your show is that it's
unapologetic. It's a matter of fact.
This is who I am. This is what I stand for.
This is what I believe. And there's not like a
disclaimer or, you know, a caution label on it.
There's no apologizing. And that's what I think we need
more of in Jewish storytelling. Not.
Oh well, I guess being Jewish is a feeling to some.
Yeah, you're saying, you know, but here's The funny thing,
right? Like whenever we talk about
Israel nowadays, more often than not, there's a lot of a
qualifiers, as you say, but also the first thing that people
think about is war attention. Yeah.
What? What have you?
When I think about Israel, I don't think about that.
I think about wonderful summers. I think about my aunts.
I think about my cousins. I think about the beach.
I think about Jahnun. I think about driving to a lots
with my cousin. It's really warm.
Amazing feelings. And so when I talk about Israel
or my Israeli identity, I'm not going to be pulled into a
discussion that doesn't feel authentic to me about what
Israel means. So I think there's also that
like the unapologetic nature is also saying like, I don't need
to qualify this. I don't need to apologize for
it. This is just the story of XYZ
happens to be Israeli. I hope that people continue to
make them, but I think that we are in like, this is also a
microcosm of it right now. You saw a deficiency in the
market that there were people you want to know and maybe they
were not getting that. And so you did it right.
And the other thing I'll say is that like the the emphasis on
on, you know, movies and film and TV, that's one thing.
But what about podcasts? This is literally a new way that
we are getting to know people and coming into contact with
cultures and it's exciting. And so I just want to commend
you and say that this is also the active way of doing exactly
what you're saying, giving people 45 minutes to discuss
their lives, which, you know, highlights elements of them
being Jewish, but also them being a person.
And hopefully by the end, people are getting a well-rounded sense
of what Jewish people are. So I, I just want to say that,
you know, I think the range of ways that we share Jewish
stories has really grown, and this is one of them right now.
Thanks. I really appreciate that.
Actually, like when you talk about qualifiers and one of the
recurring challenges I have with my show in particular is I'm
always having people on that have, you know, controversial
off the beaten path viewpoints. Not saying you're one of those
people, but in general, I'm known to bring people like Peter
Beinart on and there's a subset of listeners that's like excited
about it because they want to know what these people are
thinking. And it's like kind of like the
audacity of it. It excites them.
But then there's another subset of people that say, how could
you endorse this person at this time?
I'll give you a very concrete example.
I asked Jeremy Jacobowitz who openly said he is voting for
Mandani to come on the show. I wanted to hear a Jewish voters
perspective on voting for Mandani.
I thought that that would be the best thing that I could offer my
listener because we want to know what were they thinking?
They don't want to talk to us, right?
Let's figure out what is driving the decision behind this pool of
voters that did influence the election in New York.
So I thought everybody would be so overjoyed that I brought this
guest. Instead, I got messages like,
how could you? Even though they all know that
it's not an endorsement from my side, they know where I stand.
What I love about the podcast medium and what I think is
important for the future of telling Jewish stories is having
the critical thinking to be able to withstand uncomfortable
things. When you consume film, podcasts,
any medium, it's not a element of persuasion.
It's up to you to discern what you're persuaded by and what
you're going to leave. And a lot of what we see today
as people, what they watch, what they follow, is an endorsement
of what they believe. Yes.
Listen, I've thought about this a lot.
And you know, whenever you wade, I mean, this is an incredibly
divided time. I've never lived through an
environment like this myself. And whenever someone chooses to
wade into identity and or politics, we can't please
everyone. And so I actually have a formula
that I use that might help you. So when I make a video, first I
need to ask myself, is it urgent for me to express?
And if the answer is yes, then I pursue it.
And if it's not, then I don't do it.
And then I say, if 33% feel seen by this, it's a big win.
If another 30% hates it for one reason, I accept that.
And another 33% hates it for another reason, I accept that.
That's just the metric that I use like it's.
Like 1/3 is your rule of thumb. Yeah, and that's just like it's
a it's a joke, but it's it's the fact that like haters are going
to hate. And there are people who are a
very determined to have you align with their political
opinion and how dare you dream of, you know, having them right?
But like for you, that felt that felt valuable to you, and you
pursued it. Oh yeah, OK, it went live,
everything, and I don't regret it for a second.
Good. Yeah, that's what I think it is.
I mean, I mean, at the end of the day, it would be cool if we
were all kumbaya and all agreed, but we don't.
And that's also part of being Jewish.
Well, I was going to say, if you want a show where everybody
agrees, that's not my show. It's not and it shouldn't, and
it's echo chambers are so uninteresting to me.
I'm starting to experience the flip side of it where now I'm
like too jewy for certain things.
Such as? Like nonprofits that want to be
a little more progressively Jewish.
Not so Israel Margarita, not so focused on Zionism.
And so you're not going to please everybody.
No, no, you're not. You have.
To choose what you're comfortable with and what is in
line with your values. I'm curious to know what's next
for you. What are you excited about?
So I got a book deal from the show.
So that's been really exciting. I've been sort of figuring out.
I've been doing really intense writing sessions, which is
interesting and exciting. You know, going from, you know,
Broadway, where I interpreted a role to then Off Broadway where
I wrote the whole thing and performed it to now, you know, a
new medium. I love new mediums.
There are Broadway plans for other.
We're waiting for the right theater, but before that we're
going to tour it. So that's sort of really
exciting. And then doing just, you know, I
am very mission based right now. So I'm kind of loose and saying
yes. So for example, BJ Barhani, the
the Ethiopian Israeli restaurant owner, it's got shut down
because she didn't want to deal with all the harassment.
I met up with her and we came up with this wonderful series of
Shabbat dinners that highlight Yemenite Ethiopian culture.
So like another way of expanding my mission in a very different
way. And I performed during it.
So that's awesome. But I would say, yeah, I would
say the biggest thing right now is the other play needs to
finish its life and with the book, because I put a lot of
work into that and continuing to create.
And I'd like to get, I'd like to get a streaming deal for that
too. That would be really great.
And following what feels good to me.
Like I still have agents and managers that want me to do XY
or Z, but I'm very selective. But it's an.
Honor and a privilege. Yeah, I'm very selective, you
know, So if something, if something comes that is really
exciting to me, I'll pursue it. But like, in a moment like this,
it feels challenging to want to be like detective #2 how you're
doing. I don't know that like, that
doesn't feel as exciting when there's shit happening in the
world. I want to contribute to what's
happening in the world. So I feel like again, using my
story as a vessel for my own tikkun olam to humanize Jews, to
humanize Israelis, to try to build bridges, to challenge the
tropes that exist against Jews in any medium that I can,
whether it be dinners, films, on stage, book.
That's that's my shit right now. I want to see you on Hot Ones.
That's my request. I think it would be very funny
on that show. Hot 100, the the things.
Yeah. Oh, I'm down, I'm down.
Maybe we should do another one here.
We could do our own. We'll bring, but we could do the
Yemenite spices like we'll keep having Spicer's hug.
I don't know how long I'll last, but.
OK. We'll see.
Tell me, how can people connect with you and keep up with your
work? All right, people can connect
with me on Instagram. Ariel Stachel, you can connect
with me at Shabbat dinners, which is all on my Instagram.
Everything you need to know is on my Instagram.
OK, excellent. And I have one final question
for you. It's one that I ask every guest
who would you like to nominate for people?
Do you want to? Know who would I like to
nominate for? Who would you want to know?
Would you want to know? I guess I would nominate
Sassoon. Goodbye, my cast mate from The
Band's Visit and prolific Israeli actor.
I think it's an interesting story, having been born in Iraq
and moving to Israel when he was in his teens, becoming the big
actor. I think I would nominate him.
Thank you so much. This is an excellent nomination.
Thanks for doing this. Thank.
You. My pleasure.
And what we're going to eat is we should do nasty food, or
people make you try terrifying Russian and Ukrainian food, and
I try scary Yemenite food. Oh, I'm down.
There's nothing scary about Yemenite food.
It's the best. If you've enjoyed this podcast,
please go ahead and rate US five stars.
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