Aziz Ansari Pens a Touching Tribute to His Father

— -- In his new series "Master of None," Aziz Ansari plays a character, Dev, whose life seems to loosely echo Ansari's.

Perhaps most tellingly, they share a family, as Ansari cast his parents, Fatima and Shoukath Ansari, as Dev's mom and dad.

"My dad took off most of his vacation time for the year to act in 'Master of None.' So I’m really relieved this all worked out," the former "Parks and Rec" star wrote on his Tumblr page. "After we did Colbert together he said: 'This is all fun and I liked acting in the show, but I really just did it so I could spend more time with you.'"

Ansari, 32, wrote that his father's words made him emotional and added that working with them on the Netflix series brought them closer in real life. While he expressed regret for not spending more time with them in South Carolina, where Ansari's parents live, he added that "things are getting better."

"I haven’t always had the best, most open relationship with my parents because we are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes," he admitted. "If you have something like that with your family -- I urge you to work at it and get better because these are special people in your life and I get terrified when my dad tells me about friends of his, people close to his age, that are having serious health issues, etc. Enjoy and love these people while you can."

"I’m an incredibly lucky person and many of you are as well," he continued. "Not to beat a dead horse here and sorry if this is cheesy or too sentimental but if your parents are good to you too, just go do something nice for them. I bet they care and love you more than you realize."