Rekha Lakshmi Shankar (born 1990) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for her writing and performing work with Dropout (previously

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

Career

Shankar grew up in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and graduated from the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. She initially worked as a

video editor Video editing is the post-production and arrangement of video shots. To showcase excellent video editing to the public, video editors must be reasonable and ensure they have a thorough understanding of film, television, and other sorts of videog ...

before moving into comedy. While in New York, Shankar performed

improvisational comedy Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv or impro in British English, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its ...

with the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Ad ...

, wrote for the

MTV News MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...

web series ''Decoded'' and the satirical website '' Reductress'', and appeared in web videos for ClickHole and

Funny or Die Funny or Die, Inc. is a comedy video website and production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staf ...

. She was in a sketch group, DUMB video, that made YouTube videos. In 2016, she created the web series ''Hustle'', supported by crowdfunding, which portrayed the life of struggling freelancers as a video game. Shankar was hired by the comedy company

in 2017. She moved to Los Angeles and became the head writer of its ''CollegeHumor Originals'' web series. CollegeHumor rebranded over time into the streaming service Dropout; Shankar has appeared in Dropout series such as the

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gam ...

show ''

Dimension 20 ''Dimension 20'' is a tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout (media company), Dropout, and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master. Most of the games use Dungeons ...

'' and the game show '' Game Changer''. In 2019, she created the Dropout miniseries ''Gods of Food'', a parody of the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

food documentary series ''

Chef's Table ''Chef's Table'' is an American documentary series created by David Gelb', which premiered on video streaming service Netflix on April 26, 2015. The series takes viewers inside both the lives and kitchens of a variety of acclaimed and successful ...

''. She has hosted Dropout shows such as ''Celebrity Slumber Party'' in 2018, ''Erotic Clubhouse'' in 2020, and ''Smartypants'' in 2024, in which performers put on comedy PowerPoint presentations. Shankar played a small role in Netflix's '' Between Two Ferns: The Movie'', released in 2019, and wrote for the Netflix series '' Magic for Humans'' and '' Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show''. She appeared in an episode of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

show '' Hacks'' in 2021. She later wrote for shows such as

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's '' Grand Crew'' and

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's '' Digman!''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shankar, Rekha 1990 births 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American comedians Actresses from Philadelphia Actual play performers American actresses of Indian descent American comedians of Indian descent American screenwriters of Indian descent American sketch comedians American television actresses American television writers American women comedians American women television writers American web series actresses CollegeHumor people Comedians from Philadelphia Living people Tisch School of the Arts alumni Upright Citizens Brigade Theater performers