Yannis Pappas (born August 24, 1976) is an American comedian from Park Slope,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York.

Early life

Pappas was born in Brooklyn, New York to Greek parents Chris Pappas, an Army officer, and Anna Pappas née Mamalakis, a lawyer originally from

Rethymno Rethymno (also Rethymnon; ) is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 35,000 inhabitants (nearly 40,000 for the municipal unit). It is believed to have been built ...

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. He was raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in South Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Prospect Park and Eighth Avenue (Brooklyn), Prospect Park West to the east, ...

with his two older brothers, Peter and Nikos. The former is a lawyer who worked for the Clinton and Obama administrations. He has also been featured on the award winning podcast "You Made It Weird" with Pete Holmes Pappas attended college at the

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

in Washington, D.C. where he studied American Studies and History.

Career

Pappas began his comedy career in 2000. After two years, he stopped performing, in large part, due to the effects of being shot during a robbery attempt. He returned to stand-up at the end of 2004. Pappas began pursuing comedy full-time in 2008. Pappas has been featured doing stand up on AXS TV,

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

's ''How To Be a Grown Up'', VH1's ''

Best Week Ever ''Best Week Ever'' is an American comedy series created and executive produced for VH1 by Fred Graver. The series, which first aired from January 23, 2004, to June 12, 2009, is a spin-off of the '' I Love the...'' series and was renamed ''Best ...

'', Fox Business, and

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

. He was the first comedian to ever do stand-up comedy on ''The'' ''Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon''; it was a test show and did not air. Alongside his stand-up comedy, Pappas had previously partnered up with lifelong friend and director Jesse Scaturro to create the production company Ditch Films in the mid-2000s. The comedy production team produced live and filmed comedy. With Ditch Film, Pappas created his popular internet characters Maurica and Mr. Panos, which premiered online in 2010 and 2009, respectively. Beginning in June 2013, Pappas co-hosted the

MSG Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by Sphere Entertainment -- a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provid ...

show ''The Bracket'' with

Chris Distefano Christopher Paul Anthony Distefano (born August 26, 1984) is an American comedian. Primarily a stand-up comedian, he began his career in entertainment on MTV and MTV2's shows '' Guy Code'' and ''Girl Code''. His first hour-long standup special, ...

. Later in 2013, he began co-anchoring the live primetime news show ''Fusion Live'' alongside journalists, Marianna Antonio and Pedro Andrade. Focusing on current events, pop culture and satire, the show was one of the first for the then-new Fusion network. The show was canceled in December 2014. Beginning in Spring 2015, Pappas hosted the AOL Original Series, ''2 Point Lead'', a sports comedy show. Pappas' first special, part of

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 The Half Hour series, aired in June 2014. In 2016, he released his comedy album ''Let Me Be Yannis'', which was recorded live in Madison, Wisconsin. The album was awarded Album of the Year for 2016 by SiriusXM Comedy. Starting in February 2018, Pappas co-hosted the weekly podcast ''History Hyenas'' via the Riotcast network with frequent collaborator Chris Distefano. The podcast entered a hiatus on March 24, 2021 and was brought back on November 7, 2024. In 2019, Yannis released his first hour-long special ''Blowing the Light'' on YouTube. It was produced by comedian

Andrew Schulz Andrew Cameron Schulz (born October 30, 1983) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. In addition to his stand-up, he is known for his work on MTV2's '' Guy Code'' and its two spinoffs,

Personal life

Earlier in his career, Pappas worked in the social work field; his work included participating in 9/11 disaster relief for two and a half years and working with people dealing with mental illness and homelessness for three years with Lutheran Social Services. When he was 21, he was shot in the right thigh outside of a New York nightclub during an armed robbery. Pappas has lived in

on-and-off for much of his life. He moved to Miami in 2013 for the show ''Fusion Live''. More recently, he lived in

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...

Discography

Comedy Specials * ''Let Me Be Yannis'' (2016) * ''Blowing the Light'' (2019) * ''Mom Love'' (2022) * ''Property Owner'' (2025) Podcasts * ''History Hyenas'' (with

) (February 2018 – March 2021) * ''The Yannis Pappas Hour'' (January 2021 – present)

References

External links

Yannis Pappas Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pappas, Yannis American people of Greek descent People from Park Slope People from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Living people Comedians from Brooklyn 1976 births