Vir Das

Vir Das is an Indian Bollywood actor and comedian. It was at Knox that Vir first explored stand-up comedy with his first (1-1/2 hour) special, Brown Men Can't Hump, which debuted in Knox's Harbach Theatre. He received a Richter Scholarship for Theatre and later went on to win the Colton Performance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting from Knox. He was a teaching assistant for Beginning Acting at Knox. At Harvard, Vir trained as a method actor for six months and performed eight plays with the Moscow Arts Theatre. He performed at the Habitat Center, New Delhi on a visit to India. While in the USA, Vir was a cast member in three sketch comedy troupes: The Really Useless Improv, Improv Inc, and Illegal Aliens. He performed, wrote and developed 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' style comedy sketches with them. He has performed as a ship comedian aboard Carnival Cruise Line between Houston and Mexico. Furthermore, he spent time working comedy clubs in Chicago. People has seen many of his standup comedy. Vir returned to India in April 2003 and since then has performed over 100 comedy shows in all the major cities. He has debuted six (1.5 hour) comedy specials written, directed by and starring him at the India Habitat center to audiences of over 900 a night. These include Brown Men Can't Hump, Not for Members Only, Bored of The Things!, Who Let the Das Out?, Son of a Switch! and VIRagra. Every one of these shows has sold out within a matter of days. Vir started his career on TV when he hosted two TV shows on Zoom Channel. The first one was Is Route Ki Sabhin Linein Maast Hain where he was an agony uncle. The second was his own stand-up comedy late night show Ek Rahin Vir. Although early for their time, they got noticed and put Vir on the comedic map in India. Vir has also hosted Top Drive getaway for Star World. Vir's comedy can be viewed on TV in many genres of entertainment. He hosted Cricket Firsts, a sports comedy show on Zee Sports (now TEN Action+). He did improvisational comedy on SAB TV's Lo Kar Lo Baat. He was an addition to the cast of The Great Indian Comedy Show on STAR One. He can be seen anchoring Now Not Showing on CNN-IBN. Most importantly, Vir is the host of News on the Loose, his own news comedy show on CNBC-TV18. The show is a huge hit amongst Indian audiences for its fearless brand of intelligent comedy. News on the Loose was recently given its own weekly half-hour special News On The Loose — Weekend on CNBC-TV18, which went on to become a hit. Vir was cast as the comic relief by winning one of the principal characters 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 can be seen in Vipul Shah's hit movie Namastey London. The Indian Express has called him 'a comedian to watch out for' and 'India's Answer to Jay Leno'. The Hindustan Times calls him 'simply hysterical'. Delhi Times has listed him as one of Delhi's Top Ten Dream Men. The Pioneer has called him 'The Funniest Kid in India'. Verve has called him 'India's only true comic'. Vir has approximately 35 plays, over 100 stand-up comedy shows, 8 TV shows, 2 movies and 6 comedy specials behind him. He is writing comedic columns for Femina, Maxim, Exotica, DNA and Tehelka. Vir Das currently is also working with Ashvin Gidwani Productions-AGP in plays like Walking on Broken Das, Battle of Da Sexes and History of India: VIRitten. Walking on Broken Das, History of India: VIRitten and Battle of Da Sexes is written, directed and performed by Vir Das.

Born in: Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India