The Night Of

Riz Ahmed is only 10 years younger than Peyman Moaadi and Poorna Jagannathan, who play his parents.

HBO originally passed on the pilot. HBO later picked up the series after James Gandolfini and Steven Zaillian agreed to make a mini-series instead of an open-ended series. Gandolfini died suddenly a month later.

Robert De Niro stepped in to take over the role originally played by the late James Gandolfini in the pilot episode.When scheduling issues forced De Niro to drop out, John Turturro stepped into the role.