Hasan Minhaj

Hasan Minhaj (حسن منہاج; ; born September 23, 1985) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor and television host.

Much of his comedy involves South Asian culture and the modern American political landscape through the use of satire, observational comedy and black comedy.

His Netflix series Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and two Webby Awards.

Hasan Minhaj was born on September 23, 1985, in Davis, California, to Indian Muslim parents from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.

His parents, Najme and Seema Minhaj (née Usmani) immigrated to the United States from India.

After his birth, he and his father, an organic chemist, remained in the U.S. His mother returned to India for eight years to complete medical school, visiting the U.S. after three years to give birth to his sister in 1989.

Minhaj attended Davis Senior High School, graduating in 2003.

While in college, he became interested in comedy after seeing Chris Rock's Never Scared (2004), the first stand-up special he watched.

He began traveling to San Francisco to perform.

He graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 2007.

In 2008, he won Wild 94.9's "Best Comic Standing" competition, which resulted in his working as an opening act for Katt Williams, Pablo Francisco and Gabriel Iglesias.

He also worked part-time for the website Ning, an experience he used to write comedy.

Minhaj lists Kevin Shea, W. Kamau Bell and Arj Barker as inspirations.

In 2009, Minhaj moved to Los Angeles to perform on NBC's Stand-up for Diversity, on which he was a finalist.

In 2011, he was recurring on the TV sitcom State of Georgia and starred in various roles on the MTV hidden camera show Disaster Date.

Through posting on YouTube, he was cast as the host of Failosophy on MTV.

In 2013, Minhaj appeared in guest roles on Arrested Development and Getting On. He hosted Stand Up Planet in 2013 and a web series, The Truth with Hasan Minhaj, in 2014.

After working as a stand-up comedian and appearing in minor television roles, Minhaj came to prominence for his work on The Daily Show as its senior correspondent from 2014 to 2018.

In 2014, he voiced Rabi Ray Rana in the video game Far Cry 4.

On November 19, 2014, Minhaj joined The Daily Show as a correspondent, the last one hired by then-host Jon Stewart.

Minhaj was asked to come in for an audition with new material after he sent in a tape of him performing an idea for a Daily Show segment, but he initially panicked as he had no other material prepared.

The Friday before Minhaj's audition, Ben Affleck and Bill Maher got into a heated exchange about Islam on Maher's show, and Minhaj used this for a new sketch he called "Batman vs. Bill Maher".

Minhaj's one-man show, Homecoming King, debuted Off-Broadway in October 2015.

The show featured a central theme of the immigrant experience in the United States today, illustrated with stories from Minhaj's life as a second-generation Indian-American Muslim.

On June 18, 2016, Minhaj performed a set as the host of the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner.

The set gained attention for his condemnation of the United States Congress' inaction in passing gun control legislation.

He was the featured speaker at the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

His first stand-up comedy special, Homecoming King, released on Netflix in May 2017, received positive reviews from critics and won him his first Peabody Award in 2018.

On April 29, 2017, Minhaj was the featured speaker at the 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner, where he took on the traditional role of roasting Washington, D.C. society, national politics, current events, the current president, the Washington press corps and the American media.

He criticized U.S. President Donald Trump, who was boycotting the dinner, calling him the "liar in chief," and stating: "Only in America can a first-generation, Indian American Muslim kid get on the stage and make fun of the president."

He also reminded the press to do their job, and added: "I want to thank all of you. I want to thank Woodward and Bernstein for inspiring a generation of journalists, and I would like to thank Donald Trump for inspiring the next."

He later turned the show into his first stand-up special, Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King, which premiered on Netflix on May 23, 2017.

The special was filmed at the Mondavi Center at Minhaj's alma mater, UC Davis, in January 2017, and won a television Peabody Award.

Minhaj left The Daily Show in August 2018 to host a weekly comedy show, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, which debuted on Netflix in October 2018.

In March 2018, Netflix announced that Minhaj would host his own weekly show on the platform.

In 2019, he was listed in Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

In April 2019, he won his second Peabody Award for Patriot Act.

Minhaj released his second Netflix special, Hasan Minhaj: The King's Jester, in 2022, and appeared in season two of the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show in a recurring role.

In September 2023, The New Yorker detailed instances of Minhaj fabricating or embellishing stories that were used in his comedy specials and repeated in interviews.

Minhaj responded to the reporting, stating that it was "needlessly misleading" while admitting to the fabrications.