Top 10 Indian Standup Comedians Right Now + 2 Honourable Mentions

With over 5 million subscribers on YouTube, Zakir Khan is India's biggest stand-up comic who has performed to sold-out audiences all over the world. Zakir created waves in 2016 with his appearance on AIB Diwas, as he swiftly went on to become what AIB founder Tanmay Bhat describes as "The biggest stand-up comedy act in India. Period". A writer by profession, this 'Confused Desi' serves his take on modern India, with a hard-to-resist style of humor that'll have you nodding your heads and clapping as you'll relate to everything he says.

Biswa first gained popularity on YouTube with his series "Pretentious Movie Reviews" with fellow comedian Kanan Gill. Since then the stand-up comedian, writer, show runner has done countless shows across all sorts of venues in the country. The comedian has moved up a few notches since his YouTube glory days and is using his IIT Kharagpur education, along with his knowledge of mathematics, language and life, to make jokes that have never been cracked before. He released his comedy special, Biswa Mast Aadmi, to rave reviews, with which he toured every pocket in India in 2017

Anubhav Singh Bassi was born on 9 January 1991 in Meerut, India. He is an actor and writer, known for Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (2023), Humorously Yours (2016) and Bas Kar Bassi (2023).

Aakash is a stand-up comedian from Delhi. An eccentric performer, He always had that knack of making people laugh. Desperate for laughs, he started his comedy career started by mimicking his maasi on family get-togethers. Fortunately, the path has been upwards since then. "Par ye humesha gusse mei kyu rehta hai" is what you must be thinking. Yes he always looks grumpy and that's not because his face is like that. It's because he takes his comedy way too seriously. Otherwise, he is very jolly in nature.

Vir Das was born in Dehradun, India. He was raised in Nigeria and studied at the Indian Language School in Lagos, Nigeria, as well as at The Lawrence School, Sanawar and in Delhi. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Knox College, Illinois, in Economics and Theatre with a concentration in performance.

It was at Knox that Das first explored stand-up comedy with his first special, Brown Men Can't Hump, which debuted in Knox's Harbach Theatre. He received a Richter Scholarship for Theatre and later went on to win the Colton Performance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting from Knox. He was also a teaching assistant for Beginning Acting at Knox.

After graduating from Knox, Das was accepted into the Stanislavsky Program of the Moscow Arts Theatre and performed eight plays. At Havard, Das trained as a method actor for six months.

Das returned to India in April 2003 and since then has performed over 100 comedy shows in all the major cities. He debuted six comedy specials written, directed by and starring him at the India Habitat Center. These include Brown Men Can't Hump, Not for Members Only, Bored of The Things!, Who Let the Das Out?, Son of a Switch! and VIRagra.

He started his career on TV when he hosted two TV shows for Indian TV channel 'Zoom' The first one was 'Is Route Ki Sabhin Linein Maast Hain' where he was an agony uncle. The second was his own stand-up comedy late night show 'Ek Rahin Vir'. Das also hosted 'Top Drive - Getaway' for Indian channel ' Star World'.

Das has appeared on a variety of comedic television programs before being cast in acting roles, as the comic relief in 'The Curse of King Tut's Tomb', a Hallmark mini-series filmed in India. He began filming for his first two Bollywood roles in early 2006. He played a small role Vipul Shah's 2007 movie 'Namastey London'. Das moved to Hindi Cinema starring in films like 'Delhi Belly', 'Badmaash Company' and 'Go Goa Gone'.

In 2012, Das released his first music album with his comedy rock band Alien Chutney. Das serves as vocalist on the album, entitled Mauritian Chutney.

In Apr 2017, he became the first Indian Comedian to make a comedy special for Netflix called 'Abroad Understanding' and released his second Netflix special 'Losing It' in Dec 2018.

In 2019, he made his debut in American television in the series, Whiskey Cavalier (2019)

Rahul Subramanian is a brand-manager-turned-comedian. Currently touring his one hour solo titled Kal Main Udega. If you are someone who enjoys humour with a message then Rahul's comedy is made just for you, only disclaimer being you've to come up with a message of your own as Rahul has none to offer. This Mumbai-based comedian has been performing since 2014, as he broke into the scene by winning stand up competitions like Virgin Pants and Canvas Laugh Club (All India open-mics) and also the first ever YouTube Comedy Hunt (sketch video competition) along with his friend Kumar Varun for their channel Random Chikibum. When he is not doing stand up, or acting in videos by Random Chikibum or All India Bakchod, you will see him pursuing his hobbies which include seeing, waiting, and getting stuck in traffic, all things that help him write better jokes and sketches that make you go "that's happened to me too!

Abhishek Upmanyu was born on 19 May 1990 in New Delhi, India. He is a writer and director, known for On Air with AIB (2015), Bas Kar Bassi (2023) and Karunesh Talwar: Adrak Ka Swaad (2024).

Rahul Dua is a popular Indian standup comedian and actor. And he is hard to miss - as one of India's top 16 comedians in Netflix's Comedy Premium League, 1st Runners Up and one of the best performers on Amazon Prime's Comicstaan S01, Cricket Commentator during IPL 2021 on Hotstar Dosts, as a lead actor in CultFit & Zomato TVCs and Hyundai Grand i10, Nando's and Wakefit Mattresses' Digital Ad films. OMNIPRESENT. As one of the highest ticket sellers for a comedy special with more than 25,000 tickets sold across 50+ cities nationwide with having done 300+ public shows across the country garnering 2M+ live viewership with his widely popular special "Oh Hello!", Dua - with his measured delivery, charming on-stage persona, astute observations, gripping storytelling and heartfelt jokes - has had an exponential rise in the Indian comedy scene and has made it large and how! You know what - If you suddenly hear a sharp, high pitched shrill voice going "woohoo" in a peaceful, silent room- you know Dua is around.

Sumukhi Suresh is a stand up comedian, actor, writer, showrunner and most importantly a show-off. Sumukhi started comedy in Bangalore while working at a food testing and certification company. She rose to fame with "Behti Naak", a Youtube series created by her. She also acted in the mockumentary web series "Better Life Foundation" created by Naveen Richard. Eventually she created and starred in the once in a life time role in the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video show "Pushpavalli" , season 1 and 2.

"Go Straight Take Left", a sketch comedy show co-written with fellow comedian Naveen Richard is another feather to her character-playing cap. Sumukhi has created and acted in shows across OTT platforms namely, "Beauty and the Feast" for Hotstar, "Banake Dikha" for Zomato and "Lust Stories" for Netflix. She was also a host and now judge on the Amazon Original "Comicstaan". Notable among the actress' feature film credits is the 2018 Kannada satirical comedy "Humble Politician Nograj". She recently released her stand up special "Don't Tell Amma" on Amazon Prime Video and turned producer on "Notary"- a short film that's doing the rounds at festivals.

Prashasti Singh is a stand-up comic, writer, actor and improviser. She was one of the top three comics on Amazon Prime Video's hugely popular comedy reality show, Comicstaan. Ever since the show concluded, she has been touring the country extensively, performing, and refining, her stand up act. She's also host of a segment called Baath Cheat in the recently launched show Kiski Sarkar, now live on MX Player. A former MBA from IIM Lucknow, she worked with a major television company for four years before deciding that she'd rather be funny than rich.

Karunesh Talwar is known for On Air with AIB (2015), AIB Honest Series (2013) and Gilbert (2015).

Aishwarya Mohanraj is a stand-up comedian and writer. Aishwarya was one of the top 10 contestants in Comicstaan and since then has written for shows like Son of Abish, Behti Naak, On Air with AIB, Comicstaan S02 and One Mic Stand. She has performed in various comedy venues including Canvas Laugh Club and NCPA. Also, she can recite the alphabet backwards.