How Mo Amer Turned His Family's Refugee Story Into Netflix's Latest Must-See Show 'Mo'

Mohammed “Mo” Amer was on a mission to tell a real American story with Mo—and he succeeded.

Season 1 of the comedian’s new Netflix series hit the streaming service on Aug. 24, and that’s good news because this is the kind of show you’ll want to watch front to back in one sitting. The comedy-drama is loosely based on Amer’s real-life story of how his family fled his birth country of Kuwait during the Gulf War in the ’90s and emigrated to the United States to settle in Houston, Texas. The show follows their 22-year struggle as Palestinian refugees who are constantly living one step away from asylum on the path to U.S. citizenship. Amer co-created and stars on the show as Mo Najjar.

The first episode titled “Hamoodi” kicks off with Mo driving around Houston while listening to Paul Wall’s “Sittin’ Sidewayz.” Within the first five minutes, there’s also a Selena Quintanilla mention, instantly setting the tone for what’s in store. At the start of the episode, viewers get to watch along as Mo loses his job at a mobile store because he doesn’t have a work permit. “It’s not the first time ICE runs me out of a job,” he says as he walks out with his last paycheck in hand.

The show aims to uncover so many of the hardships immigrants face that most people aren’t familiar with, like Mo having to deny medical care after being shot, resorting to criminal activity to make ends meet, and dealing with a disorganized system that makes seeking asylum extremely challenging. The show marries its most raw, honest, and heartbreaking moments with a touch of comedy and humor that make their troubles easier for viewers to absorb and understand without cheapening their pain.

Complex spoke with Amer prior to the show’s release and he opened up about wanting to tell this story after never seeing a Palestinian family on American television before. “I felt like it was really important to relate to an Arab family, a Palestinian family, and a Muslim family, that has immigrated to America in such a universal way. Because in the end, this is a story about belonging, by being seen as an equal human being, as the person next to you,” Amer explained. “I think we did a really good job of that. It was all very conscious and meticulous and went through everything with a fine-tooth comb, to make sure that it was a genuine experience.”

Part of making the story so genuine is adding so much of his culture, his religion, and his family’s interactions, as well as showing what it was like to grow up in a city as diverse and rich in culture as Houston. Mo features appearances and music from some of the biggest names to come out of the city, including Tobe Nwigwe, who has a recurring role as Mo’s best friend Nick. Growing up in Houston also exposed Amer to other communities, especially the Mexican community, and Teresa Ruiz plays his Mexican girlfriend, Maria. Through the season, Amer flows from English to Arabic to Spanish seamlessly, further displaying how growing up in Houston impacted him.

Amer created and executive produced the series alongside Ramy Youssef, who is his longtime friend and co-star on Hulu’s Ramy. The A24-produced Netflix series is off to an outstanding start, and Season 1 is masterful with its revisiting of Mo’s childhood, the flashbacks of him leaving his father and country behind, and sharing the struggles his family faced as they tried to assimilate into their new home. The story will not only resonate with millions of people who have shared in that experience, but it will also be a learning opportunity for those who have not. It’s not easy to make light of the pain we go through, but through his humor and transparency, Amer’s purpose is to help us all see the humanity in one another.

Check out our interview with Mo Amer below, where we talk about creating Mo, feeling nervous about sharing his most personal stories with the world, representing Houston, the musical influences on the show, and more.

It takes real talent on your end to be able to tell this story in such a comedic way. Do you think humor makes the reality of these hardships a little bit easier for people to digest or understand?

It’s just such a great medium to bring serious topics forward. It’s just one of those things that afford you more room with people whenever you’re shaping it with comedy. In the same breath, there’s a lot of tragedy in the show as well. There are really sad moments that we just leaned into and it’s really important just to sit in it. Once you do that, the comedy became even stronger. The more we sat in it, the more you were able to feel for the character and go there with us, and the funnier the stuff became. It was just this beautiful thing, this merger of those two worlds. It’s a natural thing.

Whenever you feel this sadness, whenever you feel something so deep and profound and it hits your heart a certain way, it’s like you’re naturally going to comedy to give a little relief to your spirituality, to your heart, to your mental. It was really difficult at the moment, of course, to build something like this and to space it out. When you put in there these kinds of storylines it was hard and cathartic and good for me also on a personal level, but resonates really well when people are viewing.

Did you feel any nerves or qualms before sharing such a personal story with the world?

Hell yeah. [Laughs.] Hell yeah. I was nervous. My God, I was so nervous. It’s so personal. The stuff in Episode 3 is really what happened to my father. Man, that’s a lot to just share on camera like that. And not only that, but it goes out immediately into 190 countries. You’re just so scared of that. I think the moment you start having fear and nervousness or anxiety, that’s when you know you’re on the right track.

Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of shows that talked about immigration or refugees or people dealing with being undocumented in the U.S. Did you feel the need to create a show where people are like, “Oh, this is kind of like my and my family’s story”?

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, there was no Palestinian family ever depicted on American television. Such a big topic that takes up media space on a regular basis for the last 70-plus years, but you’ve never met a Palestinian family. That’s crazy. And also to understand that not all Arabs are Muslims either, to have a Christian character get married in Episode 6. That is also really important and significant to know that Bethlehem is in Palestine, and Nazareth is in Palestine. That’s important as well. People need to know that.

But I felt like it was really important to relate to an Arab family, a Palestinian family, and a Muslim family, that has immigrated to America in such a universal way. Because in the end, this is a story about belonging, by being seen as an equal human being, as the person next to you. And I think we did a really good job of that. It was all very conscious and meticulous and went through everything with a fine-tooth comb, to make sure that it was a genuine experience.

You included the hardships like Mo refusing medical care because he doesn’t have insurance. So all these things that a lot of people have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, why was that important for you to include in the show?

It’s just for people to understand what it takes to be a refugee or asylee in America. They think you get here and then you’re a citizen tomorrow. When in fact it’s the opposite, it requires so much time, so much patience. And also to show how disorganized the system really is and how unfair it is. The way it’s set up now, it’s set up for you to be involved in illegal activity. It’s almost impossible not to do something illegal if you’re going to survive. So how does that make sense?

When you complain about certain things and immigrants or whatnot, but if the system is set up for you to work under the table, for you to have to do things that are illegal. That needs to be exposed and brought to light. And I think that major adjustments need to be done with it, for us to be so advanced in technology, but still be disorganized in this way, and to have people waiting so long to become honorable citizens is absurd.

While you’re doing that, you’re still paying taxes too. You’re still paying taxes throughout that time. My family took 20 years to get their citizenship. Throughout that timeframe, you’re not even allowed to travel overseas to see your family, to see how they’re doing. The next thing you know, 20 years have gone by and everybody’s old and maybe some people haven’t made it. You haven’t had chances to reconcile those relationships. So it’s really, really painful. People need to know that. That’s why we chose the vehicle of comedy to bring those in because people will relate to it in a way they can laugh with us, can cry with us, in such a beautiful way.

There’s nothing more American than two people from different cultures coming together. The interracial relationship between Mo and Maria that’s at the heart of the first season, that’s also part of your personal experience. Can you talk about sharing this part of your story in the show?

I just think it’s, again, like you said, it’s such a diverse show, No. 1. We’re filming in the most diverse city in America, Houston. Alief, a suburb with 80 languages spoken in that suburb alone, which is mind-blowing when thinking about it. On top of that, you have this conversation that happens every day when two different people get together from not only two different cultural backgrounds but also religious backgrounds. So such an interesting conversation to see two people, who both believe in God, have these differences. My character in the show, his ticking point is not really the religion, that’s a small part of it, it’s more of him not feeling less than, or not feeling like a man that’s able to provide and do something for not only his family, but his girlfriend.

He’s always competing with her. She has a very successful business, is a strong woman, boss lady, just running this male-dominated world, which is the mechanic shop. She’s the center point of that, which I thought was really exciting as well. And sharing all about those differences between them made it so exciting on television.

This show is based in Houston and I feel like it’s a love letter to Houston in a way.

It absolutely is.

As soon as we start there’s a Paul Wall song. I don’t want to ruin it for people, but we hear a Selena mention within the first 10 minutes of the show…

It literally jacks me up when I think about it. It’s a big part of the show side, sorry I didn’t let you finish it, because I get so pumped up about it. Because whenever people relate to it that way, it gets me really excited. It’s a big part of it to immediately just feel like you’re in Houston, it was so important to me for that to happen. To have it in the dialogue, Selena was a big part of my life, too. When she was killed, it hit me as well. It was so tragic. Just to see somebody’s life cut short when she had everything. She was literally going to take over the global culture.

The effect that she had was so deep and really meaningful. I was excited to see her grow. As a little kid watching her, and seeing my friends react to her death was so hard. To see the impact that she had was inspiring. So I had to have a line in there for Selena, for sure, and at the gate. I was tipping my hat to her and her family, keeping her name alive was important, knowing she’s from Corpus Christi, down the street from us, essentially three hours away to the south, it was important all the way around to have that.

When I was describing to our directors of photography how I wanted the show visually to look, I described it as an urban Western, something that’s bright and show the richness of the clouds from the Gulf, and to have it as a character in the show. So absolutely that was all deliberate and meaningful. The fact that Paul Wall is a dear friend of mine now, or Bun B, these guys that I looked up to as a kid, now calling them my friends and my brothers and collaborators, was just incredible. I wanted them to be in the show in a meaningful way as well. I didn’t want them to just be like, “Hey, here comes a Paul Wall cameo, here comes a Bun B cameo.”

Ramy Youssef is an executive producer on the show. You worked with him on Ramy before, what is it like working with him on your own show now?

Doing the show Ramy was important to show that I can act. Nobody’s ever really seen me do my thing as an actor, as an artist in that way. So it was really important to be involved in that. I wrote the [Mo] flashback in Episode 7 almost nine years ago now. That’s something I shared with Ramy before that inspired him to go on and do his show. We inspire each other and we work together. We always wanted to make a show around my life because he found it so fascinating. I just wasn’t ready. I wanted to do my specials first. I wanted to get my stand up out there. I felt like that was the best introduction to who I am and my background.

When the opportunity came to do my show, I was ready and I’d already been writing and putting things together, so we went ahead and went forward with it. So it was exciting to work together in that way. Ramy—this was the most important part of it—understood that the show was in my DNA and it revolved about tapping into what was real in my heart and my experience, and how we could fictionalize that and take it to another level.

What is it like having Tobe be part of the cast?

That’s my brother, I love this man so much. We became really close in a very short period of time. We’ve known each other for almost five years now. I knew him when he was just first starting to make videos. I always joke around with him like I made his career. I introduced him to [Dave] Chappelle, and then Chappelle introduced him to [Erykah] Badu, and he made a song about Badu. I FaceTimed him when I was backstage at The Tonight Show and introduced him to Black Thought, and they went on to make a song together. It was just real love, right out of the gate. And an appreciation and understanding for what he was creating and what he was putting together. It was really similar to what I was doing and planning. So it was just this incredible relationship that ensued after that.

We became really tight. When the show became a reality, I was like, “Tobe, this is what the show is about. This is what I want to do. I want you to play my best friend in the show.” Alief has one of the biggest Nigerian populations in the world, outside of Nigeria. It’s like, “We got to have you in it.” And he was like, “Anything you do, I’m in. I understand how much time and effort and how”—he calls me a psychopath—“how much you think about things is crazy. And I know that it’ll be a phenomenal show and I’m in.” So it was so exciting to have him on board, and he’s such a natural.

Any doubts that anybody had about him potentially doing it, of course, understandably doesn’t have an acting resume, in turn, became such a special experience. And he’s from my neighborhood. He’s from Alief, he went to Elsik High School, Hastings and Elsik are literally next to each other and we shared an annex right in the middle. So we have this really spirited rivalry between each other, but also we’re very close.

All Season 1 episodes of Mo are streaming now on Netflix.