Tom Haverford was pretty much an open book, which allowed Parks & Recreation fans to truly get to know him, but there’s one detail about him that is often forgotten: his real name. Yes, “Tom Haverford” wasn’t his actual name. Parks & Recreation was created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur and debuted on NBC in 2009, coming to an end in 2015 after seven seasons. Although it had a rough start, with its first season regarded as the worst of the bunch, the series eventually found its balance and tone, and built a pretty solid fanbase.
Parks & Recreation followed eternal optimist Leslie Knope and her friends and coworkers from the Parks Department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Among those was Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), Leslie’s immediate subordinate at the Parks Department, who often served as her right-hand man – though that doesn’t exactly mean he did a good job. Tom was very sarcastic, had a cocky attitude, and was often involved in a lot of businesses (along with his friend, Jean-Ralphio) that didn’t really have a future.
Tom was very open about every aspect of his life, and his biggest secret was that of his green card marriage to his college friend, Wendy. Aside from that, viewers got to know him quite well, though many surely can’t remember what his real name was.
Tom Haverford’s Real Name & Why He Changed It
Tom revealed his real name in season 1 and it was never mentioned again, so it’s completely understandable if you don’t remember it. Turns out that his name was Darwish Zubair Ismail Gani, but he changed it to Thomas Montgomery Haverford to make it farther in politics, as there was a lot of racism towards Muslim names and people of color. However, and given Tom’s tendency to exaggerate, many fans believe that he might have not been telling the truth, and his name really was Tom Haverford.
Tom was often assumed to be an immigrant due to his Indian American roots, with Leslie even assuming he was Libyan. Tom was actually from South Carolina, which helped his green card marriage go unnoticed as people thought he was the one in need of citizenship, when it was actually Wendy who needed it, as she was Canadian. Perhaps all those assumptions about his birthplace also contributed to Tom changing his name. Whether his new name truly helped him get a place in politics or not is unknown, but at least it was known all over Pawnee thanks to Tom’s Bistro and later his career as bestselling author.
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