NBC’s new crime drama Found premiered on the network on October 3rd and is currently available to stream on Peacock. The series follows the work of public relations specialist Gabi Mosely, a kidnapping victim who was able to escape her captor and rebuild her life. With the help of her crisis management team, Gabi is determined to solve missing-person cases that are disregarded by law enforcement and overlooked by the media.
Nikhil Paniz acts as a directing producer for Found and has directed multiple episodes of the series. He has served as a cinematographer and camera operator for several projects but is most well-known for his work on Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War. Shanola Hampton stars as Gabi with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta, and Karan Oberoi completing the ensemble cast.
Nikhil Paniz chats exclusively with Screen Rant about Found’s unique protagonist and explains how the show challenges the way the world addresses missing-person cases. Note: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and the show covered here would not exist without the labor of the actors in the union.
Nikhil Paniz Talks Found
Screen Rant: I’m such a big fan of Found already. What sticks out to you about the series, and how do you feel it differentiates itself from other procedurals?
Nikhil Paniz: Found is going to set itself apart with the Mark-Paul Gosselaar twist. I think it’s got a strong procedural backbone that we can feel comfortable with from our history of watching television, but as soon as you throw Sir into the mix, it starts to set itself above the rest. There’s also that internal battle that our lead has to go through with being a protagonist-antagonist hybrid. You don’t see a lot of that in network procedurals. I think it’s going to set itself apart mainly in that vein.
How does your work on Avengers transfer to a project like Found? Do you feel there are any similarities?
Nikhil Paniz: Yes and no. There is definitely a sense of creating drama that translates across the board—Avengers to All American to Found to CSI—those are common threads that I think go without saying. But the action and the suspense and the dynamic nature of Avengers has helped me bring a little tone to Found, whether it be through the Karan Oberoi character chasing and getting his guy or just the way Margaret uses her Margaret vision. There’s a little superhero in each one of these characters, so being able to find a way to translate that onto the screen, yeah, Marvel definitely helped.
There’s obviously a lot that goes into shooting a pilot because you’re trying to give viewers a reason to come back the next week. Tonally, what did you and the team really want to convey in these first few episodes?
Nikhil Paniz: I think it was very important, especially for Nkechi Okoro Carroll, the creator, executive producer, and queen bee of the show that we tell stories that are relatable or real. Every one of our characters, as amazing and with as many superhero qualities as they might have, every one of them is fractured. Every one of them has a past of hardship, and seeing that struggle and the way they use that trauma to make their worlds better.
I think that was one of the most important parts for us—to really put forth an aspirational show—something that made people believe that there’s hope. At the end of it, you can’t run from your dark side either, so there’s a little bit of facing who you really are, and maybe that’s not the person you want to be. There’s a lot about the pilot that I thought spoke to the state of the world right now. There are a lot of fractured people who are trying to do the right thing, and there are a lot of dark sides out there. I think we hit a home run when we tried to put that all into one little TV show.
That ties into my next question. The show is fictional, but it tackles very prevalent issues about black children, especially, being overlooked in missing person cases. What do you think is most important about the way the show addresses these topics?
Nikhil Paniz: I think that the show challenges, on a very in-your-face level, some accepted or ignored norms of the way we look for missing people—brown, black, Asian, kids, adults, trans. There’s a list of people, that’s unbelievable, that don’t get the resources that are given to a select few. I think that that’s a story that needs to be revealed and brought into the light. It’s not like the resources don’t exist, it’s just how we allocate them. I don’t know that a lot of people really understand the numbers, and I think this show will help us, maybe not normalize, but to bring into the light some of the challenges we have with people who go missing in this country alone.
Gabi’s rough around the edges from everything she’s been through, but she’s working hard to save others from that same fate. Can you give some insight into what the directors really wanted from Shanola Hampton when she stepped into this role?
Nikhil Paniz: I’m fortunate enough to have directed three of the episodes, so I can say from firsthand experience. What we needed to show with Gabi was a strength, a resilience, an ability to heal, and an ability to repurpose trauma, and at the same time, to show someone who maybe isn’t completely in control, and how those can exist inside one being whether or not they’re searching for the light. I think that that was a very complex tone for Shanola to strive to do every day.
Like I said, it also has the formulaic procedural sort of structure to it, and so a lot of the scenes couldn’t be a broken hero, couldn’t be a conflicted kidnapee. They had to be moving our story forward. How do you do that without balancing that? That’s a tough call. But I think Shanola pulled it off with grace and with a sense of power. If you like what you’ve seen so far, just wait.
What did you enjoy most about bringing the team dynamic to life and watching it play out onscreen?
Nikhil Paniz: To be honest, that’s another tip the hat to Nkechi Okoro Carroll. The way she developed this story and brought this group of people together—each one of them has a story that’s rich enough to hold a whole season. Knowing what I know about their backgrounds and watching that slowly come to the surface and watching the slow revelation of our audience as to who these people really are is exciting. It’s empowering. It speaks to the cohesion of all these broken people in the pursuit of good. I think that the team dynamic of it is a very strong element. Another thing that we also very much wanted to convey in the pilot is that she does not work alone. She couldn’t do it alone.
I was already a fan of Brett Dalton from his work on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and he’s definitely playing an opposite role in Found. How was collaborating with him on this project?
Nikhil Paniz: First of all, Brett’s a very highly trained classical actor. He comes with such a skill set. It’s really kind of a gift for a director, producer, or writer to be able to work with someone like him. You can give him any directive, you can give him any scenario, and he’ll really chew on it and digest it and bring it into the character. His character is sort of that purgatory between law enforcement and Gabi’s PR firm.
He can’t really choose one or the other, and he rides that fence and then there’s a huge emotional attachment to Gabi as well. It’s very complex things to give to someone who’s trying to keep it all under the guise of a helpful hand. I think Brett brought a lot to the sense of Gabi’s struggle with law enforcement, yet how much she needs the resources of law enforcement. And, also, on the flip side, how much she can be to law enforcement, and how much they wish that she’d stopped making so much noise. And stuck in the middle is Brett Dalton.
What else do you enjoy about Gabi and Mark’s dynamic?
Nikhil Paniz: There’s the unspoken sexual tension there as well. There’s obviously a relationship simmering under the surface that we get hints and little sneak previews of, but playing with that dynamic while they’re doing dialogue that has nothing to do with that is a lot of fun, and I think it makes for good television.
You’ve worked in several different departments from cinematography to the director’s chair. Is there a role that you enjoy most?
Nikhil Paniz: To be honest, I’m settling into this producing directing role quite comfortably. I enjoy sitting in the chair behind all the chairs and observing. I enjoy seeing a season of television rather than an episode and seeing how it all works as one unit—how resources can be allocated and how drama can be achieved through a slow roll and through a big bang. All those things are kind of exclusive to being part of a season of producing television. But producing and directing? Are you kidding me? That’s the sweet spot.
About Found
In any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. More than half that number are people of color that the country seems to forget about. A public relations specialist — who was once herself one of those forgotten ones — and her crisis management team now make sure there is always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people. But unbeknownst to anyone, this everyday hero is hiding a chilling secret of her own.
Found airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on NBC and is available to stream the next day on Peacock.
