When Nik Dodani landed the role of social media expert Pat Patel on CBSs Murphy Brown reboot in fall 2018, he had one stipulation: that his character identify as gay.

I had a whole speech and a whole spiel [prepared], Dodani told HuffPost. To the surprise of the 25-year-old actor and comedian, series creator Diane English beat him to the punch. She told me that there was going to be a whole coming out arc, that it was gonna be very nonchalant, and she asked me how I would like it go down, he said. We were both really on the same page. What you see on the show was very much what we had talked about.

Pat came out and shared an on-screen same-sex kiss to boot on the Nov. 8 episode of Murphy Brown, titled A Lifetime of Achievement. As much as the episode was a turning point for the character, it was also a full-circle moment for Dodani, who hits the big screen Friday in Escape Room and is best known as the lovable but foul-mouthed Zahid on Netflix s Atypical.

Hed recalled his personal experience coming out as gay to his Indian parents in an early stand-up routine called Man of Color. That skit became a viral hit after it was featured in a 2016 BuzzFeed article , and, in turn, helped put the Arizona-raised performer on the national radar.