Netflix’s newest comedy-drama sequence, 'Mo,' stars Mohammed Amer, but is it a true story? How identical or other is it to his real existence?
Comedian Mohammed “Mo” Amer takes us on a journey through the life of a refugee in America in his new Netflix series, Mo. Mo follows a character also named Mo performed by way of Mo, so it kind of feels like it should at least partly be in keeping with Mo’s genuine lifestyles. Co-created by Mo and Ramy Youssef, the series paints a picture of Palestinian American existence in Houston, Texas.
Even despite the fact that Mo will get shot, or lightly grazed by means of a bullet, at the end of the first episode, the heartfelt collection is in some way also humorous. Could real existence be as humorous as that? As it turns out, Mo blurs the traces between reality and fiction, however there are lots of similarities between the sequence and Mo’s genuine lifestyles.
‘Mo’ is loosely based on the true story of Mo Amer’s existence.
Mo is a Palestinian American whose circle of relatives has been forced to escape their properties for generations. In the 1940s, his circle of relatives was once forced to go away their home in Palestine to visit some other space. They were once once more displaced and forced to go to Kuwait. Then in 1990, Mo’s circle of relatives fled Kuwait right through the Gulf War and landed in Houston, Texas, where they needed to watch for their papers to clear.
At the time, Mo used to be just Nine years outdated. He didn’t in fact turn into an American citizen till 2009, when he used to be 28. Like his Mo persona, real-life Mo if truth be told lived in the liminal space between being a felony citizen of America and being a refugee with none papers or evidence of having a proper to live in the country.
Of his and his family’s studies, Mo defined to NPR’s Morning Edition, "It speaks to a second generation statelessness, right? And the ripple effect that happens from being stateless.” Many of us don’t know how that feels, but Mo is hoping that Mo resonates with the millions of people who do.
"Once you're looking ahead to your asylum to be granted, you are just available in the market, no house on paper," he shared. "All a person like that wishes is to feel like he belongs, and feel like they're seen, and really feel like they are equal to their other human counterparts." And he’s hoping that this idea of wanting to belong resonates with all of us (news flash: it does).
Some similarities the character and the real Mo share include having to work under the table, dealing with America’s broken healthcare system that leaves people who can’t afford or obtain healthcare to suffer, gun violence, and more. "It's tragic. It's heartbreaking. It nearly forces you to do unlawful issues if you are looking to be an upstanding citizen," Mo said.
And Mo really did grow up in Houston. There’s no other place that could live up to his experience as an immigrant in America. He takes the setting very seriously, turning it into its own character and lifting up other Houston-made artists. However, Mo makes it very clear that flourishes, such as codeine addiction, are not based on reality.
In real life, Mo’s family is a bit different than in the series.
In Mo, we meet some fictional members of Mo’s family, such as his mother and brother, along with his girlfriend, Maria. In reality, Mo was actually married to his now ex-wife, a Mexican American woman. While they never had kids of their own (to our knowledge), Mo was a stepfather to his ex-wife’s daughter during their marriage. In the show, Maria is a definite representation of Mo’s real-life ex-wife.
However, in Mo’s most recent stand-up special, he explained that he and his ex-wife got divorced during COVID-19, a common phenomenon. In the series, Mo is afraid to commit because his mom won’t approve of the pairing, and it’s very possible this happened to Mo in real life too. But that’s not why he got divorced. “It just didn't work out, you know what I mean? And, it's fine,” he explained in his Netflix special.
Mo also grew up with a very large family. Mo was once the youngest of six kids, and his father worked as an engineer for the Kuwait Oil Company. One of Mo’s brothers is a pilot, and every other has a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Sadly, when Mo was simply 14 years previous, his father passed away. Mo talks a lot about his family lifestyles in his stand-up comedy, which also inspired his Netflix sequence.
Season 1 of Mo is now to be had to stream on Netflix.
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