| Yannis Pappas | |
|---|---|
 Yannis Pappas in March 2017 | |
| Born | August 24, 1976 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Medium | Stand-up, television |
| Alma mater | American University |
| Years active | 2000–2002, 2004–present |
| Genres | Observational comedy, blue comedy, surreal humor, satire |
| Subject(s) | American culture, human interaction, human behavior, self-deprecation |
| Spouse | Brittany Pappas (m. 2019) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | yannispappascomedy |
Yannis Pappas is an American comedian from Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York.
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, Crete. [1] [2] He was raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope with his two older brothers, Peter and Nikos. The former is a lawyer who worked for the Clinton and Obama administrations. [3] [4]
Pappas attended college at the American University in Washington, D.C. where he studied American Studies and History. [3]
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. [5] He returned to stand-up at the end of 2004. Pappas began pursuing comedy full-time in 2008. [6]
Pappas has been featured doing stand up on AXS TV, TruTV's How To Be a Grown Up, VH1's Best Week Ever , Fox Business, and Good Morning America. He was the first comedian to ever do stand-up comedy on TheTonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; it was a test show and did not air. [3]
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. [3] 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. [7] [8]
Beginning in June 2013, Pappas co-hosted the MSG Network show The Bracket with Chris Distefano. [9] 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. [10]
Pappas' first special, part of Comedy Central'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. [11] The album was awarded Album of the Year for 2016 by SiriusXM Comedy. [12]
Starting in February 2018, Pappas co-hosted the weekly podcast History Hyenas via the Riotcast network with frequent collaborator Chris Distefano. [13] The podcast concluded with their final episode on March 24, 2021. [14]
In 2019, Yannis released his first hour-long special Blowing the Light on YouTube. It was produced by comedian Andrew Schulz. [11]
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. [15] When he was 21, he was shot in the right thigh outside of a New York nightclub during an armed robbery. [16]
Pappas has lived in Park Slope 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. [17]
Comedy Specials
Podcasts
Colin Edward Quinn is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. Quinn first gained widespread attention for his work as a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2000, and he became known for anchoring Weekend Update, the show's news parody segment. Prior to SNL, he was best known as the announcer/sidekick on MTV's 1980s game show Remote Control. Following his departure from SNL, Quinn went on to host Comedy Central's late-night panel show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, where he and a panel of New York's big names in stand-up comedy discussed and debated news stories of the day. Notable film work includes his role as Dooey in A Night at the Roxbury, Dickey Bailey in the Grown Ups films, and playing Amy Schumer's father in the film Trainwreck. Comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, and Dave Attell have cited Quinn as the quintessential "comic's comic" and New York comedian.
William Frederick Burr is an American comedian, actor, writer and podcaster. He has released multiple stand-up comedy specials, including You People Are All the Same (2012), I'm Sorry You Feel That Way (2014), Walk Your Way Out (2017) and Paper Tiger (2019). He received a Grammy Award nomination for Paper Tiger, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the dark comedy series Immoral Compass (2021–present). In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him at No. 17 on their list of the "50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time".
Neal Brennan is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster. He is best known for co-creating and co-writing the Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) with Dave Chappelle and for his Netflix stand-up comedy special 3 Mics (2017).
Paul Francis Tompkins is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television on such programs as Mr. Show with Bob and David, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Best Week Ever, later renamed Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins.
Christopher Paul Gethard (; born May 23, 1980) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He was the host of The Chris Gethard Show, a talk show based in New York City, which aired from 2011 to 2018. He hosts the podcasts Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People and New Jersey is the World.
Timothy Patrick Herlihy is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and playwright.
Jerry Angelo Brooks, commonly known by his stage name J. B. Smoove, is an American actor, comedian and writer. After beginning his career in 1995 on Def Comedy Jam, he was a writer and performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live (2003–06). He is best known for his starring roles on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2007–present) and the CBS sitcom The Millers (2013–15). He also portrayed a fictionalized version of himself on the BET improv-comedy reality television parody Real Husbands of Hollywood (2013–16).
Mark Moshe Kasher is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in the Los Angeles area. He is the author of the 2012 memoir Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16. In 2009, iTunes named Kasher "Best New Comic" and his comedy album Everyone You Know Is Going to Die, and Then You Are! was ranked one of the top 20 comedy albums on iTunes that same year. He was also named "Comic to Watch in 2010" by Punchline Magazine.
Christopher William D'Elia is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and podcast host. He is known for playing Alex Miller on the NBC sitcom Whitney, Danny Burton on the NBC sitcom Undateable, Kenny on the ABC television series The Good Doctor and Henderson on the Netflix thriller series You.
David Sean Anthony is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and podcaster. He is best known as the creator and co-host of the comedy podcast The Dollop, in which he tells notable stories from American history to his friend and fellow comedian Gareth Reynolds, who has not heard the story before. The pair have a second podcast, The Past Times, where Anthony picks a paper from a day in history and reads it to Reynolds and a special guest. Since 2019, Anthony has also co-hosted the podcast The Audit with writer Josh Olson.
Edward David Pepitone is an American character actor, stand-up comedian and podcast host. He is known for his dark comedy style.
Christopher Paul Anthony Distefano is an American comedian. Primarily a stand-up comedian, Distefano began his career in entertainment on MTV and MTV2's shows Guy Code and Girl Code. Distefano's first hour-long standup special, Chris Distefano: Size 38 Waist, was released in 2019 by Comedy Central. His second special, Speshy Weshy, premiered on Netflix in May 2022. Distefano co-hosts Hey Babe! podcast with Sal Vulcano from Impractical Jokers and hosts his own podcast, Chrissy Chaos.
Nazeem Hussain is an Australian comedian, actor, television and radio presenter.
Alia Janine is an American comedian and former pornographic film actress.
Salvatore Edward Anthony Vulcano is an American improvisational and stand-up comedian, actor, and producer from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He is a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe consisting of himself, James Murray, Brian Quinn, and formerly Joe Gatto. Along with the other members of The Tenderloins, he stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which first aired on December 15, 2011, on TruTV.
Tony Hinchcliffe is an American comedian. He has been on the writing staff of the Comedy Central Roast series. He also appeared as a roaster on the All Def Digital Roast of Snoop Dogg that aired on Fusion in 2016.
Trump vs. Bernie is a satirical comedy act created by Anthony Atamanuik and James Adomian that imagines a series of fictional presidential debates between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential election. In a deliberately absurd anachronism, "Trump" (Atamanuik) and "Bernie" (Adomian) engage in inter-party debates long before their parties' nominations are decided. Originating in October 2015 as a live sketch at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in New York, Trump vs. Bernie continued throughout the 2016 election season as a 40-city live comedy debate tour, and spawned a special one-hour appearance on Comedy Central's @midnight, two hour-long specials produced for Fusion, and a comedy album released by Comedy Dynamics, along with numerous appearances on news and comedy programs, radio shows, and podcasts.
Cum Town was a comedy podcast that was hosted by New York City-based comedians Nick Mullen, Stavros Halkias, and Adam Friedland, and produced between 2016 and 2022. During its run, it was consistently one of the most popular podcasts on Patreon and concluded as one of the top 25 comedy podcasts on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In July 2022, it was succeeded by Mullen and Friedland's spin-off podcast and interview show The Adam Friedland Show.
John Ferrentino is an American comedian and comedy magician. He was born and raised in Long Island, New York. He has made several television appearances. For five years, he was a regular guest on Fox's Comic Strip Live, and for ten years he toured as the opening act for Crosby, Stills & Nash. He was also a regular on Comedy Tonight on the Fox Network.
Mike Lebovitz is an American stand-up comedian from Chicago now living in New York. He is a co-founding member of the Comedians You Should Know collective, a nationally known group based in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Sean Ely of the Chicago Tribune wrote that Lebovitz "has helped define the stand-up comedy scene in Chicago."