Stephanie Tolev (born ) is a Canadian comedian and actress. Along with comedian Allison Hogg, Tolev was a member of the

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

duo Ladystache, which won awards for Most Innovative Comedy Troupe and the Just for Laughs Award at Montreal Sketchfest in 2010 and 2014, respectively. She won the award for Best Female Stand Up at the 2015 Canadian Comedy Awards, and her 2019 comedy album ''I'm Not Well'', was nominated for the

Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year The Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year is awarded as recognition for the best Canadian comedy album released in the previous year. Irregularly presented from 1979 to 1984, the award was then discontinued until the Juno Awards announced in 201 ...

at the Juno Awards of 2020, and In 2016 she was featured as "The nine funniest stand-up acts in Toronto right now", published by '' Toronto Life'' magazine.

Early life

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

-immigrant parents, Tolev grew up in the city's East York district and attended

East York Collegiate Institute East York Collegiate Institute (East York CI, EYCI, or East York), formerly East York High School is a public high-school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the former borough of East York at the corner of Coxwell and Cosburn Avenues. ...

. From the age of three to eighteen, she participated in competitive

highland dance Highland dance or Highland dancing ( gd, dannsa Gàidhealach) is a style of competitive dancing developed in the Scottish Highlands in the 19th and 20th centuries, in the context of competitions at public events such as the Highland games. It ...

. She was inspired to perform comedy after playing the role of Nick Bottom in a high school production of Shakespeare's ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

''. Tolev enrolled in the Comedy Writing and Performance program at

Humber College The Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, commonly known as Humber College, is a public College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1967, Humber has two main campuses: the Humber North c ...

and performed stand-up for the first time at a

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

bar at 18 years of age. It was at Humber College that she met future sketch comedy collaborator, Allison Hogg. After graduation in 2005, Tolev and Hogg were part of a four-person, all female improv group.

Career

In 2009, Tolev and Hogg formed the

duo Ladystache. The troupe's name makes reference to a female moustache. Tolev and Hogg were influenced by

The Kids in the Hall The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in C ...

, Simon Pegg and

Nick Frost Nicholas Jonathan Frost (born 28 March 1972) is a British actor, author, comedian, painter, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in the ''Three Flavours Cornetto'' trilogy of films, consisting of ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), ''Hot Fuzz ...

, and SCTV. Ladystache won the award for Most Innovative Comedy Troupe at Montreal Sketchfest in 2010 and were nominated for Best Sketch Troupe at the 2013 Canadian Comedy Awards. They won the Just for Laughs Award at Montreal Sketchfest in 2014 and released their comedy album "So Many Wolves" that same year. The duo also performed at the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, North by Northeast, the Toronto and Vancouver Sketchfests, as well as the Just for Laughs festival in Toronto. While performing with Ladystache, Tolev continued to perform stand-up and won the award for Best Female Stand Up at the 2014 Canadian Comedy Awards. She was a finalist in

Sirius XM Canada Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. (commonly referred to as Sirius XM Canada) is a Canadian radio broadcasting company, which operates as a Canadian affiliate of Sirius XM Radio. The company received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Te ...

s Next Top Comic competition in 2015. In 2016, Tolev moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and released her first stand-up album ''Hot N’ Hungry''. She released her comedy album "I'm Not Well" in 2019, which garnered her a nomination for the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for Comedy Album of the Year in 2020. She became a paid regular at

The Comedy Store The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. History The Comedy ...

in 2021. In 2022, she opened for Bill Burr during his comedy tour and was featured in his

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

special, ''Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill''. She performed at Just For Laughs in Montreal in 2023 and launched her podcast "Steph Infection" that same year. For her podcast, Tolev interviews fellow comedians about bodily ailments. Tolev's comedic style, both in sketch comedy and stand-up, has been described by the media as "raunchy" During an interview in 2022, Tolev described her comedy as "brash, vulgar, self-deprecating, physical, silly and painfully real."

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolev, Steph 21st-century Canadian comedians Canadian stand-up comedians Canadian women comedians Canadian Comedy Award winners Canadian people of Bulgarian descent Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth uncertain