Kumail Nanjiani

A clever standup comedian with a unique cultural perspective, Kumail Nanjiani was born in Karachi, Pakistan but moved to Iowa to attend college. He had never even seen a standup comic before a fellow Grinnell College student showed him Jerry Seinfeld's HBO special I'm Telling You for the Last Time. He was instantly hooked, but he didn't try his hand at performing until he graduated and moved to Chicago. Nanjiani attended Second City writing classes and performed at open-mike nights around town, and then in 2007, he introduced his one-man show, Unpronounceable. In 2008, he brought the show to Los Angeles and New York City, landed a job as writer on the Comedy Central television show Michael and Michael Have Issues, and began making regular appearances on the network's The Colbert Report. In 2010 he starred in the film Life as We Know It and in 2011 he joined Ali Baker and introduced the video game/comedy podcast The Indoor Kids. In 2013 he hosted his Comedy Central special, Beta Male, which was also released as his debut album that same year.