‘Mr. Robot’ Creator Sam Esmail Opens Up About His Own Hacking History in a Live New Yorker Interview

During a panel at New Yorker Festival, moderator and staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe spoke with Sam Esmail, the creator of the sublime Mr. Robot series and actor Christian Slater, who plays the titular character with delicious nuance. In response to Keefe’s first question, Esmail opened up about his own history with hacking, social anxiety and the loneliness that results as a combination of the two.

I did want to talk about loneliness but I felt like the irony of this whole …I want to talk about loneliness in the context of today in the context of modern technology how supposedly all these tools are there meant to connect us but how it is actually feels like it’s isolating us even more.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.