Biography

Curve magazine calls her
“a comic to keep your eye on”

Sapna Kumar is a unique performer, in that she is both a stand-up comedian and accomplished stage actor. Sapna was a featured comedian on LOGO TV’s “One Night Stand Up 9″ and a Regional Finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing 4.” She will be in the upcoming 2011 feature films Jamie and Jessie are not Together and Promise Land

Sapna began her career emceeing at Cracker’s Comedy Club in Indianapolis. Then she took off for Chicago where she improvised at The ImprovOlympic and ComedySportz Chicago. Sapna then transitioned to stand-up and worked at Chicago’s longest-running stand-up club, Zanies Comedy Club. Sapna was also part of the Cultural Madness Comedy Tour with Mikey O Comedy Productions. She has played large ampitheaters like The Park West and the Black Orchid in Chicago, and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Her stand-up career has taken her to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Miami, and Chicago.

In between stand-up gigs, Sapna managed to squeeze in a number of stage plays. She is an ensemble member with Rasaka Theater and was seen in their Jeff-Award-winning production, “The Masrayana.” Other credits include “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with Ivanhoe-Arts-Lanes, “Twelfth Night” with St. Sebastian Players, “The Young Playwrights’ Festival” with Pegasus Players, “Half Life” with Awaken Productions at the American Theater Company, and “Latinologues” at the Bailiwick Repertory. Sapna also toured nationwide with Chamber Repertory Theater of Boston. Sapna also understudied the role of Mahala in the Steppenwolf Theater production of Tony Kushner’s “Homebody/Kabul.”

Sapna’s act tells her story of being an Indian American raised in Indiana. She creates vivid characterizations of her loveable and endearing immigrant parents. She also quips about the economy and unemployment, and her tales, or travails, of being a single lesbian in the city. Sapna’s act appeals to the Indian Aunty and Uncle, the lesbians at the local feminist bookstore, and the cool cats in Chicago’s thriving comedy scene. Sapna is not the kind of girl you invite over for tea; you invite her to the stage.