Episode #20: Aparna Nancherla

Aparna Nancherla has performed stand-up on Conan, @midnight and Last Comic Standing, and previously worked as a writer and performer on FX/FXX’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Nancherla recently started a new gig as a monologue writer for another late-night TV talk show, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Nancherla told me what her first day at the new gig was like, how her upbringing outside of Washington, D.C., prepared her for a comedy career, attending open mics before she ever performed at one, the success of her fellow former improvisers in D.C., and whether she considers herself inside or outside “the Beltway.” She also recently recorded her first stand-up comedy CD, and told me why she chose now to do so. Her CD will come out in early 2016.

Above: Aparna Nancherla, photographed in September 2015 by Mindy Tucker

The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First is produced by ShowBriz Studios.