The television sitcom “United States of Al” portrays an Afghan interpreter resettled in Ohio with his former Marine fighting partner as they pick up the pieces of their postwar lives.
In real life, writers of the comedy have been drawn into the earnest task of helping to extract relatives from the chaos of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The TV show, which debuted on CBS in April, was one of the first U.S. network sitcoms to hire Afghan writers, and it drew criticism for ethnic stereotypes.
“This is the only show that tells the story of Afghans at this moment,” said Habib Zahori, a writer on the show.
Mr. Zahori has been working remotely from Ottawa, Canada, bringing the sitcom to life with another writer on the show, Chase Millsap, a Portsmouth, Ohio-based former Marine infantry and Army Special Forces officer.
