The Incredible True Story Behind Nasir Ahmed
Kayla Keegan
This Is Us writers introduced two new characters to season 5 — an electrical engineer named
Nasir and his outspoken other half,
Esther Ahmed.
When we first meet them, Esther is immediately drawn to Nasir's ambition, though she later struggles to understand what is keeping her husband at the office so late at night. While it's initially unclear how Nasir and Esther are connected to the Pearsons, in true
This Is Us fashion, everything comes together at the very end of the episode. It's then that viewers learn Nasir is a real-life inventor who helped make video-calling technology possible. In other words, the Pearsons — like so many of us right now — were able to stay connected via FaceTime amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic thanks to Nasir's work.