Hasan Minhaj (/ˈhʌsən ˈmɪnhɑː(d)ʒ/ HUSS-ən MIN-hahzh, -⁠hahj;[a] born September 23, 1985) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host.

[2] His first stand-up comedy special, Homecoming King, released on Netflix in May 2017, received positive reviews from critics[3] and won him his first Peabody Award in 2018.

In September 2023, The New Yorker published an article claiming instances of Minhaj embellishing or exaggerating various anecdotes and stories that were part of his comedy specials and repeated in interviews.

[6][10][11][12] Hasan Minhaj was born on September 23, 1985, in Davis, California, to Indian Muslim parents from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.

[15] In 2008, he won Wild 94.9's "Best Comic Standing" competition, which resulted in his working as an opening act for Katt Williams, Pablo Francisco and Gabriel Iglesias.

[20][15] In 2011, he was recurring on the TV sitcom State of Georgia and starred in various roles on the MTV hidden camera show Disaster Date.

[16][33] The show featured a central theme of the immigrant experience in the United States today, illustrated with stories from Minhaj's life as a second-generation Indian-American Muslim.

The special was filmed at the Mondavi Center at Minhaj's alma mater, UC Davis, in January 2017,[3] and won a television Peabody Award.

[5] When writing episodes about the show, Minhaj frequently excluded or limited the role that researchers played in developing content and could be dismissive of fact checkers.

[6] Multiple female producers complained of abuse, mistreatment and harassment while on the set, and threatened legal action, which was ultimately settled out of court.

[39] Some months after Minhaj's episode on the student loan crisis aired, he was called to testify regarding the issue before the US Congress in September 2019.

[40] On November 27, 2018, Comedy Central aired a special titled Goatface, featuring Minhaj, Fahim Anwar, Asif Ali and Aristotle Athari.

[41] In February 2019, Minhaj played on the "Away" roster during the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[44] In 2021–2022, Minhaj performed a comedy tour across the United States that culminated in the release of a Netflix special The King's Jester in October 2022.

[57] In the September 2023 issue of The New Yorker, Minhaj was shown to have presented fabricated stories as truth to heighten the experience of racism in immigrant communities.

According to an interview titled 'Forever (530)', the Greenwich based comedian recalls how the FBI incident, occurring in 2002, climaxed in Minhaj being thrown against a cop car where "he landed his first joke in the parking lot of a gym in Davis."

[61] In reality, the arrest had zero police records matching the incident, and was instead inspired by "getting pushed by an older man during a basketball game as a kid.

"[64][65] After the release of Homecoming King critics were drawn to Minhaj's real life experiences without knowing the underlying fabrication, saying "It’s a winning formula that feels right for our times, because it is so clearly genuine.

Minhaj responded in October 2023 via YouTube, providing text messages and audio interviews that mostly agreed with the New Yorker article, or ignored larger points altogether.

"[69][70][71] Minhaj has said his comedy influences include Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, Trevor Noah,[72] Junot Diaz, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock[73] and Stephen Colbert.