About BWC
BROWN WOMEN COMEDY
We’re thrilled to be bringing back Australia’s first and largest comedy show featuring a line up of incredibly talented South Asian women comedians, as part of Melbourne’s International Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe and Sydney Comedy Festival.
Upcoming Shows
Past Shows
Adelaide (March 2024)
Melbourne (April 2024)
Tell us where to perform next?
We will email or text when we are in your city.
BROWN WOMEN COMEDY
Comedy Workshops
National Tour in 2024
Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne
BROWN WOMEN COMEDY
Up and Comers Showcase (Melbourne)
BWC Media Reviews
Meet the South Asian women challenging Australia’s white male comedy scene with Brown Women Comedy
Brown Women Comedy’ Is The Shake-Up to Australia’s Comedy Scene That’s Well Overdue. Sindhu Vee, Lilly Singh and Mindy Kaling. These are some of the names that often come to mind when one thinks of a brown female comedian. But closer to home, there’s a new generation of South Asian Australian women coming up in the comedy scene, ready to challenge the stereotype that brown women aren’t funny – and make us laugh while they’re at it.
The Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Brown Women Comedy night was an evening packed full of laughter. Amna Bee, Sunanda, Urvi Majumdar, and Swati Vats tackled South Asian taboos and brought big belly-laughs as they navigated everything from all-girls schools to Pakistani-Indian relations. Each comic delivered a tight routine showcasing their unique observations of the realities of being a brown woman to an audience who responded knowingly and uproariously.
-Maya Pilbrow, Editor at SAARI Collective
Without going into all the structural, systemic, cultural and patriarchal challenges we face, life can be a pretty serious affair when you’re trying to live your best life as a brown woman. So, being in a room where we can listen to relatable stories and then giggle and laugh it all out together is doing a massive community service to all of our wellbeing! Thank heavens for Brown Women’s comedy, more please!.
-Leah Vandenberg, Actor and Activist.
Out of the 500-plus shows at the comedy festival, I counted only eight brown women – and six of them are here,” exclaims Daizy Maan, producer of Brown Women Comedy and the show’s concluding act. There’s a well-documented gender disparity in the comedy industry, but there’s a race problem too – a doubleewhammy for women of colour.But if you’re solely expecting jokes about the idiosyncrasies of brown parents and the weight of unmet cultural expectations, Brown Women Comedy isn’t for you. It touches on some of those things, yes, but so much more – sex, mental health, queerness, divorce. Brown Women Comedy is on at Queen Victoria Women’s Centre until April 12.
–Reviewed by Sonia Nair, The Age.
Meet Our Comedians
Daizy Maan
Urvi Majumdar
A fast-rising star in Australian comedy, known for her dry, witty observations and sometimes deadpan humour – though Urvi assures you she can totally be happy too! Currently touring her latest show ‘Burnt’ nationally after the success of her debut solo, which has now been adapted for screen by ABC and Screen Australia. You can check out ‘Urvi Went to an All Girls School’ online (soon)!*
Kru Harale
As seen on ABC’s Win The Week, you’ll find Kru making audiences laugh with her ‘fresh’ (off the boat) perspectives. The Melbourne-based comedian’s vivacious energy crackles through her routine, as she describes her stories about Indians, Australia and globe-trotting.
Having performed alongside Australia’s biggest names including Kitty Flanagan, Dave O’Neil and Anne Edmonds, during 2023, Kru was the female lead in Adelaide Fringe play ‘A Star is Torn’, alongside Greg Fleet, and was also cast in ‘The Breast Of the Fest’ at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Ru Halwala
Ru galavants around town performing stand up, improv, sketch comedy and drag. She hosts Ru’s Chit-Chat-Cadillac improv comedy podcast, and events like Holi Festival 2024 and The STEAM Room ft. Doctor Karl. Ru’s comedy is a chaotic, eclectic mess dressed in a cute fit. Eat it up, b*tch!
As well as being the Creative Director of ‘Scary Strangers’, which she co-produces alongside her beloved partner, Ru also teaches improv at Improv Theatre Sydney and Sydney Girls High School, and worked as a sketch comedy consultant for the 2022 PoC Revue. She has Bachelor degrees in Business (Public Relations) and Fine Arts (Visual and Interactive Design) from QUT, as well as an Associate Diploma in Speech and Drama from IMEB.
Jess Karamjeet
Originally from the UK, stand-up comedian and screenwriter Jess is a rising star on the New Zealand comedy circuit. In 2022, she was selected for the NZ Comedy Trust’s ‘Ones To Watch’ showcase and won the PANNZ Touring Prize at Auckland Fringe Festival.
Alongside solo shows at both New Zealand and Melbourne’s International Comedy Festivals, Jess is a regular at Auckland’s No Homo: Queer Comedy night and also founded the Pan-Asian Comedy School Aotearoa aka PACSA (Laughs), which trains New Zealand diaspora creatives.
Her writing credits include soap operas around the world – she was one of the brains behind Neighbours’ #Chelly but there’s no make-believe here – her truth-bomb sets will have you on the edge of your seat.
Kushi Venkatesh
After performing a speech that made the entire school laugh and got her elected as school captain, Kushi decided to take her comedy, which shines a light on stereotypical teen brown culture, to the world of stand-up. Since then, the 18-year-old Adelaide-based comedian and content creator has made the state finals of RAW Comedy, was crowned the funniest teenager in South Australia 2023 and performed in the Class Clowns National Grand Finals at Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Her talent has also caught the eyes of several comedians, leading her to win the 2023 National EdStart Achievement Award for Performing and Visual Arts.
Sashi Perera
A Sri Lankan Australian comedian, writer and recovering lawyer, Sashi was nominated Best Newcomer at Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2023 and featured as ‘One to Watch’ at the 2021 UK Funny Women Awards 2021. Her latest show “Boundaries” will tour across Australia and overseas in 2024.
Leela Varghese
Indian/Lebanese filmmaker and TV presenter Leela is one half of award-winning, Adelaide-based musical comedy duo ‘The Coconuts’, whose show ‘Brown on The Outside, White on The Inside’ sold out at the 2023 Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals. Also an award-winning filmmaker, Leela is in production for her debut feature, adult animation Lesbian Space Princess, while her accomplished TV career includes writing, presenting and producing popular children’s programmes Totally Wild and Behind the News. She will also be the voice of Shanti in Netflix/NITV animation Eddie’s Lil’ Homies.
Aarti Vincent
From the yoga teacher’s mat to sold-out laughs, Aarti has been killing audiences regularly around Australia, Bali and Vietnam with her observational humour. The bilingual comedy dynamo not only stretches the limits of humour but also dishes out belly laughs in Hindi.
Shyaire Ganglani
Yasmin Kassim
Indian-Malay writer/actor/comedian Yasmin was born in Perth, where she was raised half-beach bum, half-Muslim. The first Australian to be one of ten Performer/Writers in the CBS Comedy Diversity Showcase, her comedy is rooted in her reality growing up with a Muslim father, a health food store-owning spiritual mother and hiding her bisexuality for years until she came out in 2019. Her acting credits include Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max), Joe Exotic (NBC/Peacock), Dive Club (Netflix), Neighbours. starring opposite Daniel Radcliffe in Jungle and Kelsey Grammar in Guardians of the Tomb. Yasmin also has multiple films in development, including co-written feature Tik/Crok, which is set to film in Queensland in 2024.
Amna Bee
Amna Bee is a Melbourne-based comedian & writer, hailing originally from Pakistan and Canada. She started her comedy career in a small outback town in Australia and has since then performed all around Australia and internationally. Her solo show Don’t Tell My Family had sold out runs and nights at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe. She also runs a highly regarded, routinely sold-out monthly women’s comedy night in Melbourne ‘Raise the Bar Comedy’
Gauri B
Guneet Kaur
A writer, stand-up comedian and producer of Sydney’s best women’s comedy night, ‘Yeah The Girls Comedy’, Guneet made her way onto Sydney’s comedy scene a few years ago and has been leaving audiences in stitches ever since.
A RAW Comedy National Finalist in 2022, Guneet has since performed at some of the most prestigious comedy clubs across the country, including the Comedy Store. Recently she made her mark as a contributing writer on hit ABC show ‘Question Everything’. With her quirky observations and hilarious takes on the complexities of her identity, she has been described as both “sharp” and “anxious” by the Sydney Morning Herald. Guneet is a comedy force not to be missed.
Monica Kumar
The Actor / Writer is currently playing Padma in ‘Shantaram’ (Apple TV+), and Renuka in ‘Wakefield’ (ABC), while writing an upcoming children’s animation with Flying Bark Productions.
Her co-created ABC iView series ‘Carpark Clubbing’, was selected by The Digital First Initiative by Create NSW and won Best Ensemble Cast at Die Seriale Festival, and a Best Writing Award at the NYC Stareable Festival, where she was also nominated for Best Actor.
On stage, Monica has appeared in Belvoir St Theatre’s ‘Counting and Cracking’ (which won at the 2019 Sydney Theatre and Helpmann Awards) and ‘Gravity Guts’, which received three nominations at the 2019 Sydney Fringe Awards. Additionally, she contributes her soprano vocal range to radio and voiceover work. In her spare time, Monica enjoys long walks on the beach, reading fan-fiction…and crying over her Master’s Degree.
Chanika Desilva
This Australian Actor, Writer, Director and Producer, made her screen comedy debut under the watchful eye of Aussie Comedy Legend Matt Okine in The Other Guy (STAN, 2017) and The Chaser’s ABC Comedy Skit show, The Checkout (ABC, 2018).
Chanika has developed her own TV series ‘BS Detector TV’ and short film ‘Love in the Time of Covid’, which screened at the Burbank and SF3 Film Festivals. Her other acting credits include Hyde and Seek (Ch9, 2016), The Reckoning (US 2020) and Reef Break (ABC 2019).
Chanika is also part of the NSW Writer’s Association, is a Special Needs Educator and a mentor at Arise Foundation.
Chanika immigrated to Sydney during Sri Lanka’s civil war, has lived in four continents and travelled to over forty countries. This inspires her as an artist – being interested in people of all persuasions, their stories – and making them laugh out loud.
Following in the footsteps of her “hot dad”, Chani is ready to take on the world one comedy stage at a time. Facing the facts; looks skip a generation, so come down and watch her scramble to develop a personality before her parents get desperate and set her up with a distant cousin.
Kripa Krithivasan
Kripa has been making people laugh for years – she was only two years-old when she realised she loved the sound of her own voice.
Laughing on the outside, dying on the inside, join Kripa as she delves into the depths of her quarter-life crisis.
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