Anand Rathnam

Anand Rathnam is an Indian stand-up comedian based in Bangalore who trained as a civil engineer at New Horizon College of Engineering. He has said he once hoped to become an officer in the Indian Army but was medically disqualified, and discovered stand-up comedy during a difficult period in his life before turning to it professionally in 2015.

Rathnam performs mostly in English, with a style he describes as observational and opinionated, often drawing on personal experience and touching on themes such as love and loss. He opened his YouTube channel in 2013 and built a following there after 2015; the channel has grown to around 150,000 subscribers and roughly 22 million views. He has since performed across South India in cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, as well as at the Bengaluru Comedy Festival, and has become a recognized figure in the South Indian comedy scene. He has also spoken about his transition from engineering to comedy in a TEDx talk titled "Roots of Comedy" at TEDxSJECollege.