Alex Edelman

Alex Edelman^{[1] [2]} (born March 20, 1989)^[3] is an American stand-up comedian. He was named Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his show Millennial.^[4] He has toured three shows since 2014: Millennial (2014–2015), Everything Handed to You (2015–2016), and Just for Us (2018–2020; 2023–2024^[5] ). Just for Us opened Off-Broadway in 2022 before premiering on Broadway in 2023 at The Hudson Theatre; it was named a NYT Critic's Pick both times and earned him a 2024 special Tony Award and an Emmy Award.^[6] In 2024 he was named to the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.^[7]

Edelman was born in Boston to Cheryl, a real estate lawyer,^[8] and Elazer R. Edelman, a biomedical engineer, cardiologist, and professor. He has two brothers, Austin, and Israeli Olympian Adam Edelman.^[9] He was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts.^[10] He began performing stand-up at age 15.^[11] He attended and graduated from Maimonides School in Brookline, a modern Orthodox Jewish day school. A baseball fan, he has worked for the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers.^{[10] [12]}

Edelman grew up in a modern Orthodox Jewish family and, following high school, spent a year in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. During his time there, he helped to establish the city's first comedy club, Off the Wall Comedy. In 2008,^[12] he moved to New York City to study English at New York University ^[10] and graduated in 2012.^[13] The photographer Mario Tama took his photo during graduation, which was featured in his special Millennial. During college, he continued to perform stand-up and later joined Upright Citizens Brigade.^[13] He first performed in the UK in 2012 while studying abroad.^{[14] [10]} He made his Australian debut in 2015.^[15]

His show Millennial won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe,^[4] the first American to do so since Arj Barker won in 1997.^[4] Edelman's 2015 Edinburgh Fringe show was titled Everything Handed to You and was the second most well-reviewed show at that year's festival.^[16] His 2018 show, Just For Us, was nominated for the Best Show award at the Edinburgh Fringe.^[17] He has appeared in the UK on television shows such as The John Bishop Show , Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, Live from the BBC , Roast Battle, and contributed several anecdotes about his experiences as a comedian to the 2015 book Off the Mic, by Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur. He has done a BBC Radio 4 comedy series called Alex Edelman's Peer Group.

As a comedy writer, he has contributed to the American television shows The Great Indoors (2016–2017) and Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020). Edelman was the head writer for Saturday Night Seder, a virtual celebrity Passover seder held during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also trained rabbis to infuse humor into the High Holiday services as part of the Jewish communal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[18]

In Just for Us, Edelman quips, "If I was raised secular I would consider myself bisexual. But because I was raised religious, I consider myself straight with some secrets."^{[19] [20]}

Edelman had an on-again, off-again relationship with Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan.^[21]

• Millennial (2014–2015)
• Everything Handed to You (2015–2016)
• Just for Us (2018–2020; 2023–2024)

• Millennial (2015) – BBC Radio 4
• Alex Edelman's Special Relationships (2018) – BBC Radio 4
• Alex Edelman's Peer Group (2017–2021) – BBC Radio 4

• Alex Edelman: Live at the BBC (2016) – Netflix UK; hour-long special
• Until Now (2020) – album
• Just for Us (2024) – MAX

• Official website
• Alex Edelman at British Comedy Guide
• Alex Edelman on Instagram
• Alex Edelman on Twitter
• Alex Edelman at IMDb

• 1989 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American comedians
• 21st-century American Jews
• American male comedians
• American stand-up comedians
• American bisexual writers
• American bisexual male actors
• American bisexual men
• American LGBTQ writers
• Bisexual comedians
• Bisexual Jews
• Bisexual writers
• Comedians from Boston
• Jewish American comedians
• Jewish male comedians
• Primetime Emmy Award winners

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2023
• Commons category link from Wikidata