*** Welcome to piglix ***

Hari Kondabolu

Hari Kondabolu
Hari Kondabolu.png
Hari Kondabolu during interview
Born (1982-10-21) October 21, 1982 (age 34)
Queens, New York, United States
Medium Stand-up, film, podcasts
Nationality American
Education Bowdoin College, Wesleyan University, London School of Economics
Years active 2000s–present
Genres Observational, political
Relative(s) Ashok Kondabolu
Notable works and roles Waiting for 2042
Website HariKondabolu.com

Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (Telugu: హరి కొండబోలు; born October 21, 1982) is an American stand-up comic, actor, and podcast host. He is best known for his comedy on subjects such as race, identity, and inequity. He has appeared on television on many occasions, and was a writer for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.

Kondabolu was born in Queens, New York in 1982, to Ravi and Uma, who had immigrated from Tenali in Andhra Pradesh, India. Soon after Ravi had immigrated to the United States in 1978, while in a small town in Louisiana, he was approached by a person who asked, "Excuse me, sir, are you Chinese?" Both parents trained in medicine in India, and became the heads of New York area medical labs; Ravi is a cardiologist, but Uma never practiced as a physician in the US. Ravi has worked at the Flushing Hospital Medical Center since 1981. Ravi's father, Venkaiah Choudhury, had been an Indian freedom fighter, a member of the Communist movement and a member of the Andhra Pradesh state assembly. In 1994, after years of work, Ravi was able to fulfill his dream by opening a college in Wyra in the Khammam district in India. Half the seats at the memorial college (now a polytechnic) are reserved for women.

Kondabolu credits his mother with having and expressing unusually progressive views on gay rights during his childhood, and says she is "the reason I'm funny" and "the funniest person I know".

Kondabolu is the older brother of Ashok, who is a former member of the group Das Racist. As Indian-Americans of Telugu origin they are unusual: "Growing up I’d tell people, even other Indians, that I was Telugu and they would have no idea what that meant."

His mother recollected, "If someone bullied Hari at school, he would go after them verbally, giving them long lectures and preach endlessly. He would exhaust them to such an extent that they would beg him to stop and promise him that they would never bully him".

Kondabolu attended public schools in Queens: PS 69 in Jackson Heights, PS 115 in Floral Park, MS 172 in Floral Park, and Townsend Harris High School in Flushing, where he graduated in 2000. While a high school student, Kondabolu repeatedly watched a Margaret Cho special on the then-new Comedy Central cable network "in awe, because up until then I had never seen an Asian-American comedian. There she was up there—strong and funny and talking about her parents. That was the first time I thought maybe I could try this." He began writing in-class sketches, and produced and performed in a comedy night during his senior year.


...
Wikipedia

...