Tom Haverford is an administrator in the Parks and Recreation department in Pawnee, Indiana. He is Indian-American and was born in South Carolina. His real name is Darwish Sabir Ismael Gani, but he had it legally changed to Tom Haverford because brown guys with funny-sounding Muslim names don't make it really far in politics. He later clarifies that if he'd known a dude named Barack Obama was gonna be elected president, yeah, maybe I wouldn't have changed it. Tom is all about image and cool, and being what he thinks a real man should be. He is married to a rarely seen Canadian pediatric surgeon named Wendy who seems to be way out of his league. He likes to dress well, but because of his short stature shops for kids' sizes at Dillard's and Brooks Brothers Boys. When he goes camping, he brings along a decked-out tent, complete with a flat-screen TV, gaming console, soft mattress, smoothie maker and more -- mostly from the Sharper Image catalog.Tom's lifelong goal is to become a mogul of some sort -- any sort, really. He tries his hand at perfumery, alcohol production, bar and club ownership, and even running a vague multimedia conglomerate. It's all part of the Jay-Z vibe he tries to maintain. Tom is all-too eager to take advantage of a situation if it suits his desires to promote himself or one of his businesses, but does so with such a childlike enthusiasm that those around him can't stand upset very long. Tom often stumbles in his attempts to make something more of himself, but he doesn't let setbacks keep him down. Soon enough, he's back on to the next thing. He also doesn't seem to want to leave Pawnee, despite his grand ambitions. He instead generally wants to be the person who'll become known for having brought cool to Pawnee. Show less «