CBS has greenlit a multi-cam comedy pilot titled Zarna, starring acclaimed comedian Zarna Garg. In addition to headlining the project, Garg will serve as writer and executive producer. Darlene Hunt (Call Me Kat, The Big C) is on board as co-writer, executive producer, and showrunner. The pilot was initially reported to be in development in September.
The show boasts an impressive roster of executive producers, including Mindy Kaling and Jessica Kumai Scott under the Kaling International banner, Howard Klein of 3 Arts Entertainment, and Kevin Hart, Bryan Smiley, and Mike Stein from Hartbeat. Warner Bros. Television, which has an overall deal with Kaling International, will produce the pilot.
The official synopsis describes Zarna as a story about “a proud immigrant woman raising her American-born children with traditional Indian values. As her kids grow older, she shifts her focus to pursuing her own American dream.”
Zarna Garg is an award-winning stand-up comedian whose recent comedy special, One in a Billion, premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2023. She gained widespread recognition after winning Kevin Hart’s Peacock comedy competition series, Lyft Comics, in 2021. As an actress, Garg appeared in the comedy feature A Nice Indian Boy, and her screenplay Rearranged earned the Best Comedy Screenplay Award at the 2019 Austin Film Festival. The screenplay was also a semi-finalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowships.
Garg is represented by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Hansen Jacobson. Hunt is represented by UTA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
This marks CBS’s second recent comedy pilot order. The network also greenlit DMV, a single-cam comedy featuring an ensemble cast that includes Tim Meadows, Harriet Dyer, Molly Kearney, Alex Tarrant, Tony Cavalero, and Gigi Zumbado.
