Kaya Yanar

Kaya Yanar (born 20 May 1973) is a German comedian, best known for his comedy show Was guckst du?! (Whatcha lookin' at?!). He was born in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, to Turkish immigrants from Antakya. After graduating from Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium, a school in Frankfurt, he studied phonetics, American studies and philosophy but left university prior to graduation.

In his one-man comedy show Was guckst du?!, Yanar toys with well-known cultural stereotypes both as host and main performer. For one of his best known sketches about an East Indian, Ranjid, and his pet cow Benita, he practiced pidgin-English for months. He toured through Germany with solo programmes, and fixations of his programmes "Made in Germany" (2008), "Live und unzensiert" (2009) and "All Inclusive!" (2013) were broadcast by German TV station RTL. Because of his great success being without precedent for an artist with Turkish migration background in the German-speaking countries, Yanar is considered as a key figure and trailblazer for the acceptance of multicultural issues.

In 2014, RTL started broadcasting his show "Geht's noch?! Kayas Woche", a weekly current affairs programme with a mixture of stand-up comedy and political satire. Yanar is also a member of the jury in the German "Comedy Grand-Prix". He won the Deutscher Fernsehpreis Beste Comedy for Was guckst du?! in 2001, and the Deutscher Comedypreis Bester Komiker in 2014. He is a vegan, an animal rights activist and supports PETA.