Kaneez Surka

Kaneez-e-Fatema Surka was born on 28 October 1983^[11] in Umtata, Transkei. She studied in DSG, Graham School and attended Rhodes University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in law and psychology.^[12]

Ethnically a Gujarati, Kaneez Surka was born into a Muslim family originally from Kapadvanj, which allowed her to have a deep understanding of different cultures and religions.^[13]

In 2018, Surka accused comedian Aditi Mittal of sexual harassment, stating that Mittal had forcefully kissed her on the mouth. Mittal denied the accusation, leading to Surka publicly posting what had happened on Twitter.^[14] In October 2018, Mittal said that "she gave the improv artiste, who was hosting an open mic, a peck on the lips as a joke, as a part of the act" and apologised later to Surka when she realised "the discomfort she had caused".^[15]

Surka was part of the Mumbai improv scene since 2009.^[12][16] Her initial work in Mumbai was with Divya Palat's Imps troupe.^[12] Surka was co-director of a Mumbai-based story-telling club "Tall Tales"^[17] in 2013.

She achieved mainstream popularity on the satirical news show The Week That Wasn't^[18] on CNN-News18 (formerly CNN-IBN). She also worked with Weirdass Comedy, a Vir Das venture and then began collaborating with^[19] and making appearances in several All India Bakchod videos including roles such as Clitika from "A Woman's Besties", "Honest Weddings", "Honest Bars & Restaurants" and the Instagram character from "If Apps Were People". She also teaches the art of improv comedy, proving her comedic skills by being on the judge panel in Amazon Prime's stand-up comedy reality show Comicstaan^[20][12] and Improv All Stars for Amazon Prime Video and Queens Of Comedy^[21] for TLC. Surka is part of an improv group called "The Improvisers"^[22] along with Abish Mathew, Kanan Gill, and Kenny Sebastian, and has an improv special titled Something From Nothing on Amazon Prime Video.