Get to know Dhaya.
Dhaya Lakshminarayanan stand-up comedian, storyteller and writer.
Dhaya’s debute album DHAYATRIBE debuted #2 on iTunes. She received the Liz Carpenter Political Humor Award (previously awarded to Samantha Bee, Wanda Sykes and Mark Russell) for her stand-up. Comedy Central Asia crowned her the Grand Prize Winner of “The Ultimate Comedy Challenge” filmed in Singapore. Bay Area PBS affiliate KQED named her one of the twenty “Women to Watch,” a series celebrating women artists, creatives and makers who are pushing boundaries. She has performed across Asia in Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. She has also been invited to perform at some of the top festivals in the US including Bridgetown Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, The Boston Comedy Festival, Limestone Comedy Festival, and Laugh Your Asheville Off. She is the sole subject of the documentary “NerdCool” which premiered at the LA Comedy Festival.
Dhaya has worked with a variety of progressive headliners including Ronny Chieng, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Behrendt, Anthony Jeselnik, Maz Jobrani, Greg Proops, and the late Dick Gregory. Dhaya once introduced former Vice President Al Gore at an event. He then laughed onstage at her joke, so technically she’s opened for Al Gore.
As a television host, Dhaya helmed the inaugural season of the Emmy award-winning series High School Quiz Show on PBS’s WGBH. She is a frequent comedic storyteller on NPR’s Snap Judgment. She currently serves as the host of San Francisco’s monthly Moth.
Dhaya is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America (West), joining after her writing work for Sony Columbia/Montecito Productions. She consulted on “Enough About Me” by MSNBC’s Richard Lui and written for podcasts, universities, and live events.
Dhaya’s first solo play “Nerd Nation” was funded in part by The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center of San Francisco and DIVAfest which supports new and developing works by female playwrights.
Prior to her endeavors in the entertainment business, Dhaya was a venture capitalist, management consultant, and two-time MIT graduate. You can indeed call her a nerd.