Hasan Minhaj to Get Stand-up Comedian of the Year Award at Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal

Indian American comedian Hasan Minhaj will receive the stand-up comedian of the year award at Just for Laughs, billed as the largest comedy festival, held annually in Montreal, Canada. Amy Schumer is the recipient of the comedy person of the year trophy, and Jerrod Carmichael, a New Faces cohort in 2011, is to receive the comedy special of the year award for his HBO special “Rothaniel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Minhaj started his comedy career in 2014 as a Just for Laughs New Face. He will perform his latest one-man show “The King’s Jester” on July 29. It marked Minhaj’s comeback on the comedy circuit, his primary claim to fame. It also marked his return to his “storytelling roots four years after the global success of his Netflix comedy special “Homecoming King,” which garnered rave reviews and won a 2018 Peabody Award.”

He is also producing and starring in “For the Culture,” a film he’s scripting for Amazon Studios along with long-time collaborator Prashanth Venkataramanujam. The film will be the first venture of Minhaj’s newly-launched production company, 186KFilms. The comedian, actor and host will serve as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, with Venkataramanujam serving as Chief Content Officer and Tyler Babin as Chief Digital Officer.

The 40th edition of the festival will be held July 13 to 31 and includes comedians like Russell Peters and Vis Das. Peters, Patton Oswalt, Chelsea Handler, Jo Koy, Iliza Shlesinger, Marc Maron, Hannah Gadsby and Ronny Chieng will host galas that will take place throughout the festival. Kevin Hart and Bill Burr will headline the festival.

Das, India’s biggest stand-up comedian and a Bollywood star, will perform his “Wanted Worldwide Tour” on July 28. He was recently touring North America with his “Manic Man” tour. He has now crossed over to become a global comedy sensation, filling an international vacancy for an authentic Indian perspective and being hailed by Variety magazine as a “Top 10 Comic To Watch.”

The Indian comedian and actor will next be seen in the Judd Apatow film for Netflix He was the first comedian from India to have a stand-up special on Netflix, which since resulted in a multi-special deal with the platform for them to be the exclusive distributor of his stand-up. Since then, Das has written and produced four Netflix specials in five years.

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The most recent one, “Outside In,” was shot entirely in quarantine with audience members virtually attending from around the world, and he just received an international Emmy nomination for the special before that, “For India.”

Outside of his Bollywood films, Das starred as an actor in the ABC spy dramedy “Whiskey Cavalier,” the Randall Park and Constance Wu starring sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat,” and the Netflix series “Hasmokh,” which he created and executive produced.

Produced by the Just For Laughs Group, the festival regularly attracts more than 2 million attendees. The event has served as a launching pad for the careers of many notable comedians, including Hart, Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, Kumail Nanjiani, Ali Wong and Pete Davidson. It is returning to a physical event after a two-year hiatus during the pandemic.