Steph Tolev

Steph Tolev was born on March 7, 1985, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Bulgarian-immigrant parents. She grew up in the East York district and attended East York Collegiate Institute. Her early artistic endeavors included competitive highland dance from ages three to eighteen. Tolev’s interest in comedy was sparked by playing Nick Bottom in a high school production of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. She later enrolled in the Comedy Writing and Performance program at Humber College. At 18, Tolev performed stand-up for the first time at a Scarborough bar. After graduating in 2005, she formed a four-person, all-female improv group with fellow Humber College graduate Allison Hogg, eventually leading to their sketch comedy duo, Ladystache.

In 2009, Tolev and Allison Hogg officially formed the sketch comedy duo Ladystache. This partnership garnered immediate recognition, winning the Most Innovative Comedy Troupe award at Montreal Sketchfest in 2010. They were also nominated for Best Sketch Troupe at the 2013 Canadian Comedy Awards and secured the Just for Laughs Award at Montreal Sketchfest in 2014. That same year, Ladystache released their comedy album, “So Many Wolves.” The duo performed at various international festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, North by Northeast, the Toronto and Vancouver Sketchfests, and Just for Laughs in Toronto.

Simultaneously, Tolev cultivated her stand-up career. She received the Best Female Stand Up award at the 2014 Canadian Comedy Awards and was a finalist in Sirius XM Canada’s Next Top Comic competition in 2015. In 2016, Tolev relocated to Los Angeles and released her first solo stand-up album, “Hot N’ Hungry.” Her 2019 comedy album, “I’m Not Well,” earned a nomination for the Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year in 2020. Tolev became a paid regular at The Comedy Store in 2021. She opened for Bill Burr on his comedy tour in 2022 and was featured in his Netflix special, ‘Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill’. In 2023, she performed at Just For Laughs in Montreal and launched her podcast, “Steph Infection,” where she discusses bodily ailments with fellow comedians. In 2024, Tolev served as a guest judge on the Snatch Game episode of the fifth season of ‘Canada’s Drag Race’. She filmed her Netflix special, ‘Filth Queen’, at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2025.