How Zarna Garg Decided to Pursue a Career as a Brilliant Comedian

Welcome to Second Life, a podcast spotlighting successful women who've made major career changes—and fearlessly mastered the pivot. Hosted by Hillary Kerr, co-founder and chief content officer at Who What Wear, each episode gives you a direct line to women who are game changers in their fields. Subscribe to Second Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts to stay tuned.

There's no denying that stand-up comedian, producer, and screenwriter Zarna Garg is absolutely hilarious. Her sharp wit, unique perspective as an Indian mother, and belief that brown women everywhere have a right to laugh at anything and anyone they want have garnered the attention of many. In fact, after a few short years in the industry, Garg has become a regular at iconic New York comedy outposts like the Comedy Cellar and Carolines on Broadway. She also tours the world with her show, making millions laugh. And if you don't have the pleasure of sitting in the front row at one of her shows, her burgeoning social platforms bring her jokes right to your fingertips—she's amassed over 100 million views and more than one million followers on TikTok and Instagram combined. 

Impressively, she released her brand-new comedy special, Zarna Garg: One in a Billion, on Prime Video this month. And while Garg has won Kevin Hart's Lyft Comics comedy competition on Peacock and the 2021 Ladies of Laughter Newcomer Award, comedy was not her first career path. It wasn't until 2019, when Garg wrote a screenplay called Rearranged that won the Top Comedy Feature award at Austin Film Festival among over 11,000 scripts, that she began to really consider comedy a full-time career.

After immigrating to the United States as a teenager, Garg worked as a civil litigation attorney. She then stepped away from that career path to take on the esteemed career of motherhood. Listen to the latest episode of Second Life to hear how Garg's children encouraged her to take the leap into comedy, leading her to become one of the top new female comedians in the industry.

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