Hasan Minhaj

Hasan Minhaj was born on September 23, 1985, in Davis, California, to Indian Muslim immigrant parents from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. His father was an organic chemist, and his mother was a doctor. For the first eight years of his life, Minhaj and his father lived in the U.S. while his mother returned to India to complete medical school. He attended Davis Senior High School, graduating in 2003, and later earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of California, Davis, in 2007. Minhaj’s interest in comedy began during college after watching Chris Rock’s “Never Scared” (2004). He started performing stand-up in San Francisco, winning Wild 94.9’s “Best Comic Standing” competition in 2008, which led to opening acts for comedians like Katt Williams and Gabriel Iglesias. In 2009, he moved to Los Angeles, becoming a finalist on NBC’s “Stand-up for Diversity” and performing in minor television roles.

Minhaj gained significant prominence in 2014 when he joined “The Daily Show” as a correspondent, the last correspondent hired by then-host Jon Stewart. His impactful segments and engaging delivery quickly made him a notable figure in political satire. In 2016, he hosted the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, where his critique of Congress’s inaction on gun control legislation garnered widespread attention. The following year, in 2017, Minhaj was the featured speaker at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, delivering a speech that criticized U.S. President Donald Trump and emphasized the importance of journalistic integrity. His one-man show, “Homecoming King,” which explored the immigrant experience in the U.S. through personal stories, debuted Off-Broadway in 2015 and was later released as a Netflix special in 2017, earning him his first Peabody Award.

In 2018, Minhaj launched his own weekly Netflix series, “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” which received initial orders for 32 episodes and focused on exploring the modern cultural, political, and economic landscape. The show earned him a second Peabody Award in 2019 and two Webby Awards. “Patriot Act” addressed various global and domestic issues, and Minhaj even testified before the U.S. Congress regarding student loan debt in 2019. Though “Patriot Act” concluded in 2020 after 40 episodes, Minhaj has continued to be active in television and film, appearing in season two of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” in a recurring role. He released his second Netflix stand-up special, “Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester,” in 2022, and voiced The Riddler in the Warner Bros.–Spotify podcast “Batman Unburied” (2022) and “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark” (2023). In 2023, he had supporting roles in films like “No Hard Feelings” and “Haunted Mansion,” and served as a guest host for “The Daily Show,” and hosted the 38th Independent Spirit Awards establishing him as a versatile talent across different media.