Radhika Vaz (born 1973) is an Indian

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

and writer. Born in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, Vaz worked as an advertising executive in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

and has done her master's in advertising from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Biography

Radhika Vaz went for

improvisational theatre 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 ...

class, and she said this helped her start off as a performer and a writer; she trained at Groundlings School (Los Angeles) and Improvolution (New York). In 2014, she performed in New York and in the Indian cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi, Gurgaon and Delhi in September for her act ''Older. Angrier. Hairier''; she has done a play ''Unladylike: The Pitfalls of Propriety''. She is a columnist for ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

''. Vaz cites

Patrice O’Neal Patrice Lumumba Malcolm O'Neal (December 7, 1969 – November 29, 2011) was an American comedian and actor. He was known for his stand-up comedy career and his regular guest appearances on the talk show '' Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'' and th ...

and

Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian and satirist. His material— encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy— was controversial and ofte ...

as her inspiration for her show. She is the co-creator of web-series ''Shugs & Fats'' with Nadia P. Manzoor, which won a

Gotham Award The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

and is now in development with Amazon Studios.

References

External links

"Radhika Vaz is older, angrier, hairier in her new stand-up act"
from ''The Times of India'' Living people Indian women comedians 1973 births Syracuse University alumni Indian lesbian actresses {{Comedian-stub