Prashanth Venkataramanujam

Prashanth Venkataramanujam is an American television writer, actor and producer. Until August 2020, he was the head writer and executive producer for the Netflix series Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.

Prashanth Venkataramanujam
Born (1987-03-12) March 12, 1987
Downers Grove, Illinois, United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Writer, producer, actor
Years active2009–present
Known forPatriot Act with Hasan Minhaj

Early life

Venkataramanujam was born on March 12, 1987 in Downers Grove, Illinois to Tamil immigrant parents from India.[1] His father, Perialwar, left his job at the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board and immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s; he began working as a structural engineer. In 1981, he met and married Usharani. Venkataramanujam has one sister, Preethi.

Venkataramanujam grew up in Darien, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he joined the Chai Town a capella group and appeared as Jacob Winter on the TV series One Fine Day!. He graduated from the school in 2009 with a B.S. in molecular and cellular biology.[2][3]

Early career

After graduating, Venkataramanujam worked as a Technology Consultant in Chicago. He later moved to Los Angeles and began performing standup comedy. While performing at clubs, he met fellow comedian Hasan Minhaj.[1] In 2012, he was a semi-finalist at the San Francisco Comedy Competition.[4] His first break came in 2016 when he wrote Minhaj's speech for the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association. The speech was aired on C-SPAN and went viral, helping to bring both Minhaj and Venkataramanujam to wider attention.[5] In 2017, he was hired to write for Bill Nye Saves the World and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming. The same year, he wrote Minhaj's speech for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.[6] He served as an associate producer for the Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King special, released on Netflix in May 2017.

Patriot Act

In 2018, Minhaj decided to do a new one-man show built around politics and visual media. Venkataramanujam suggested that the format would work better as an episodic television series.[7] Venkataramanujam and Minhaj then co-created the late-night television show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. Venkataramanujam serves as both the series' head writer and executive producer.[8][9] He is also a producer for the Netflix panel show The Fix, hosted by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr.

Awards and honors
  • 2017 Nomination – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming

References
  1. Zubair, Ayyan (May 29, 2018). "#OnTheRise Comedian Prashanth Venkataramanujam Remarks on His Journey to Hollywood". Brown Girl.
  2. "MCB Graduates" (PDF). MCB Magazine. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. p. 20.
  3. D'Alessio, Jeff (August 20, 2017). "The Big 10 with Jeff D'Alessio, Aug. 20, 2017". The News-Gazette.
  4. Heuston, Laurie (September 28, 2012). "Who's the biggest hoot of them all?". Mail Tribune.
  5. Mason, Amelia (November 10, 2016). "Hasan Minhaj, Of 'Daily Show' Fame, Tackles Islamophobia And Cost of the American Dream". WBUR-FM.
  6. Bernhardt, Austin (May 2, 2017). "HASAN MINHAJ ON THE HIGH STAKES OF HOSTING THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER". Comedy Central.
  7. Cunningham, Vinson (November 16, 2018). "Hasan Minhaj talks Patriot Act with The New Yorker's Vinson Cunningham". New York City: 92nd Street Y.
  8. Egel, Benjy (March 1, 2018). "Davis' Hasan Minhaj inks Netflix deal to become first Indian-American talk show host". The Sacramento Bee.
  9. Greene, Steve (November 5, 2018). "'Patriot Act': Hasan Minhaj's New Netflix Series Looks Different From Every Other Show on Late Night". IndieWire.
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