Film + TV

Rachel from Master of None was actually in a ska band in high school

by Tyler Munro

November 13, 2015

What seemed like a silly joke written for aged punks turned out to be legit.

Of the endless endearing moments in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None, the one that hit closest to home might have been the revelation that Dev’s love interest Rachel once played in a ska band called Nostraskamus. To anyone who didn’t live that life, it seemed like a silly, aimless pun, but to those of us who skanked our youths away at Planet Smashers shows it was a subtle nod that hit is right in the creeks of our aging nostalgia bones.

And as it turns out, the joke came from a very real place.

Yesterday, Noël Wells, who plays Rachel on the hit Netflix show, posted an Instagram revealing that while the Nostraskamus logo and trumpet in the photo were photoshopped, it was a very real shot taken during her very real high school ska phase.

I had a pop punk ska band (because what else would the band be) called “Red Tag” and our EP was called “Corporate Lemmings” and I saved money to record it by selling anti George W. Bush buttons at school.”

So, yeah: Noël Wells is the best and most definitely owned a Not My President shirt, even if it probably disappointed her mother, who apparently was quite disappointed that she would “disrespect the president the way [she] did.”