Vir Das

Vir Das was born to Ranu Das and Madhur Das in Dehradun on 31 May 1979.^[5][6][7][8] He was raised in Nigeria and India. In Nigeria, he attended the Indian Language School in Lagos, Nigeria. In India, he attended The Lawrence School, Sanawar and Delhi Public School, Noida.^[6] After 18 months at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi he went to the United States.^[6][9] There he obtained a bachelor's degree from Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois in Economics and Theatre with a concentration in performance.^[6] After graduating from Knox, Das was accepted to Harvard University and Moscow Arts Theatre for their joint Stanislavsky Program.^[10] He has a sister Trisha, who is four years elder to him and is a published author and a documentary filmmaker.^[7] His grandfather Brajbir Saran Das was a Padma Shri awardee from Bengal.^[11][12] He married his girlfriend after five years of relationship, Shivani Mathur, in October 2014.^[13][14]

Das began his career with a gig at one of the premier hotels in New Delhi with a performance titled "Walking on Broken Das".^[9] He started working on TV when he hosted two TV shows on Zoom.^[15]

Das is the host of News on the Loose, his own news comedy show on CNBC-TV18. News on the Loose was given its own weekly half-hour special News On The Loose — Weekend on CNBC-TV18.

Das was cast as the comic relief in The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, a Hallmark mini-series filmed in India. He began filming for his first two Bollywood roles in early 2006. He played a small role Vipul Shah's 2007 movie Namastey London.

Vir Das has also worked with Ashvin Gidwani Productions-AGP on stand-up shows like Walking on Broken Das, Battle of Da Sexes, and History of India: VIRitten, which he wrote and directed.^[16]

He performed at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011,^[17] 2022^[1] and 2024.

On 25 April 2017, Das's Netflix special Abroad Understanding was released, in the process becoming the first Indian comedian with a comedy special on the platform.^[18] In December 2018, Das released his second Netflix comedy special, entitled Losing It.^[19] In 2019, Das released his travel-cum-comedy show Jestination Unknown where he explores how Indians see humour along with a couple of other stand-up comedians and celebrities.^[20]

He starred opposite Preity Zinta in a Fresh Off the Boat episode titled "The Magic Motor Inn".^[21] He plays the patriarch of an Indian family. Das's onscreen family was slated to be at the centre of the plot of the official spin-off of the same show.^[21] However, the show was not picked up by networks.

During the lockdown in 2020 he was on Netflix in a one-hour special called Vir Das: Outside In.^[22]

On 12 November 2021, Das performed a monologue titled "Two Indias" at the Kennedy Center in Washington.^{[23][24][25][26][27]} He contrasted India's rich and poor, criticised politicians and democratic backsliding, and noted divisions over Bollywood films and cricket teams. On the topic of women, he remarked: "I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them at night." The performance received a standing ovation,^[28] but Indian politicians filed seven police complaints against Das, including for insulting India on foreign soil.^[29]

In November 2022, Mumbai police issued a first information report against Das, two other people, and online streaming platform Netflix on charges of copyright rules violation,^[30] following a complaint by theatre producer Ashvin Gidwani of AGP World that Das had re-used material from his previous show in his Netflix special.^[31]

On 29 January 2023, Das appeared on the Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast and discussed faking appendicitis as a child, the first laugh he ever got on stage, the controversy over his "Two Indias" monologue, and his new special Vir Das: Landing.^[32][33]

He hosted the 52nd International Emmy Awards in 2024.^[34]

In December 2025, he announced his directorial debut titled Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, produced by Aamir Khan Productions, which stars Das himself, Mona Singh, Mithila Palkar, Imran Khan and a cameo appearance by Aamir Khan. It released on 16 January 2026, to mixed-to-positive reviews.^[35][36][37]

• List of Indian comedians
• List of stand-up comedians