That factory worker looks familiar in Oh My Ghost Clients? It’s Squid Game’s Ali

You probably know him as Ali Abdul from Squid Game, the deeply empathetic migrant worker whose tragic betrayal remains one of the series’ most haunting moments. But in Oh My Ghost Clients, Anupam Tripathi takes on a different kind of role. He’s not a player in a deadly game this time. He’s a factory worker named Nimal, still alive, still working, still trying to survive. And for once, he gets to speak.

Nimal first appears in episode 1 of Oh My Ghost Clients, when Mu-jin narrowly saves him from a workplace accident. The scene is quick but deliberate. From the beginning, the series draws attention to the quiet violence of neglected labor conditions, the overlooked risks, and the workers who carry those burdens in silence.

His importance deepens in episode 2, where Nimal becomes the key to understanding the death of his friend and roommate, Min-wuk. After Min-wuk returns as a ghost, Mu-jin takes up his case. The truth comes into focus through Nimal’s memories and courage. He shares the video that exposes the factory’s negligence and names the decision-makers who chose to ignore a life in danger. His voice changes the course of the story. Quite a happy ending, unlike his character from Squid Game.

A ghost from another game

Ali Abdul, the character Tripathi played in Squid Game, was one of the most emotionally devastating figures in the series. As Player 199, he was a Pakistani migrant worker trying to provide for his family in South Korea after being denied wages and injured on the job. His kindness and loyalty made him instantly beloved by viewers and deeply vulnerable inside the cruel logic of the game.

The turning point came during the marble challenge, where Ali trusted Sang-woo to work together. Sang-woo tricked him, switched his marbles for stones, and left him to be executed. Ali’s trust was met with betrayal, and the scene became a defining moment in the series. It wasn’t just another death. It was the moment viewers realized the game would break the best among them first.

That role left a mark. And in Oh My Ghost Clients, Tripathi brings all that history with him, not by repeating it, but by carrying its weight into something new.

The voice that shifts the story

Tripathi anchors the scene with quiet conviction. His presence holds the weight of the story from the inside, building tension through restraint and precision. Every movement is measured, every glance charged with memory. When he speaks, the air changes. He's more than that guy from Squid Game.

Nimal becomes the emotional core of the episode, not an accessory to someone else's arc, but the one who gives it shape. His grief never tips into collapse. His strength remains steady, and his voice carries the kind of truth that can’t be ignored.

Audiences recognize Tripathi immediately, and that recognition carries more than nostalgia. It brings with it the memory of betrayal, trust, and moral clarity that defined his role in Squid Game. That emotional history deepens every glance, every line, and every moment he shares with Mu-jin and the ghost of Min-wuk. The performance never begs for attention. It earns it, frame by frame, word by word.

The casting choice of the actor from Squid Game adds depth from the very first moment. Tripathi steps into a role shaped by defiance and moral force. Nimal speaks because no one else will. He stands because no one else did. There’s no hesitation in the way he steps forward to demand justice, no theatricality in the way he reveals the truth. The gravity of what happened to Min-wuk passes through Nimal with clarity and direction. Nimal wins, unlike Al from Squid Game.

What this moment leaves behind and the connection with Ali from Squid Game

The connection between the two characters in Oh My Ghost Clients and Squid Game reveals a larger arc. Ali placed his trust in a broken system. Nimal understands that truth from the start and chooses to act. He moves through trauma with focus, determined to ensure that Min-wuk’s death leads somewhere. His purpose is unwavering. His role is active, present, and essential.

Viewers online quickly recognized the weight of his appearance. Many celebrated how Oh My Ghost Clients placed a migrant worker at the heart of the episode, not as an ornament, but as the hinge that turns the entire plot. Nimal holds the truth. And the show allows him to carry it with clarity and dignity.

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The episode shifts because of him. The ghost may call for justice, but Nimal delivers the path to it. His presence challenges the silence that often follows these deaths, the institutional erasure that hides behind protocol and paperwork. He refuses to let it close over Min-wuk.

In a show filled with stories of the dead, this moment becomes a story about the living. Oh My Ghost Clients doesn’t simply offer closure. It demands recognition. Through Nimal, through Tripathi’s precise and piercing performance, the series gives voice to a man who saw injustice and answered it. And in doing so, it leaves behind something lasting, not just sorrow, but a kind of memory that demands we don’t look away.

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