Chanel Ali is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actress based in New York City. You may have seen her on MTV’s Girl Code, TruTV’s Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks, Starz’s Night Train with Wyatt Cenac, or two showcases she did for Comedy Central in partnership with Refinery29. She also released a full special for Unprotected Sets, available on MGM+. Deadline named her as one of their 15 Comedians to Watch in 2025, based on the success of her debut one-woman show, Relative Stranger, which she took to the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe and the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In her show, she recounts bouncing around the foster care system, and how a DNA test for a 23andMe commercial revealed a brother she never knew about and how she ultimately found her biological father. Ali spoke to me on Zoom just before her off-Broadway run at SoHo Playhouse, produced by Sarah Cooper. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!
Buy tickets for Chanel Ali: Relative Stranger, Sept. 17 through Sept. 28 at SoHo Playhouse.
This is the 23andMe clip that started it!
Here’s a Comedy Central performance from 2021 joking about her season of Girl Code, among other things:
And here’s a clip from her previous hour, which she did for Unprotected Sets when it was on EPIX (now known as MGM+):
More options to listen to Last Things First. I’m trying to figure out a best replacement for embedding episodes up top instead of Spotify. If you have suggestions, please let me know! In the meantime, here’s a link to many different podcast platforms.
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