Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari signed with Penguin Press for his first book, the publisher announced Thursday.
Terms of the deal were not announced but Publisher's Weekly reported it netted Ansari a $3.5 million advance.
A deal that big puts Ansari, who plays Tom Haverford on the NBC show and also performs as a stand-up comedian, in elite company.
His advance places him just behind the $3.7 million Lena Dunham scored for her book in October and ahead of such stars as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak (though Fey has probably earned more than $3.5 million from her book, the advance was less).
Ansari is represented by 3 Arts' Richard Abate and APA's Mike Berkowitz.
Abate has been behind big book deals for Fey, Novak and Kaling, among others.
The untitled book, which is expected to be published in September 2015, "will provide an investigation into what Ansari argues is an entirely new era for singles, in which the basic issues facing a single person -- whom we meet, how we meet them, and what happens next -- have been radically altered by new technologies."
In addition to his first person perspective, Ansari will work with "noted academics" and "conduct original research to help bring this new reality into focus."
Ansari offered a peak at the book in the statement announcing the deal.
"You know when you text someone you're romantically interested in and you don't hear anything back and then you see them post a photo of a pizza on Instagram? That's exactly what I want this book to deal with. These are strange conundrums that no generation has ever faced before and it's a fascinating jumping off point for what I hope will be a very interesting book about modern courtship."
Scott Moyers, vice president and publisher of The Penguin Press said, "So much of Aziz Ansari's brilliant humor comes from grasping the hidden forces that govern our everyday lives. I'm delighted but not surprised that he is the one who is going to make sense of the strange new world that singles have to navigate today."
