Urzila Carlson

Urzila Carlson is a South African-born New Zealand comedian and actress, known for her stand-up performances as well as her appearances on television programs in both New Zealand and Australia. She is a regular panellist on 7 Days and both the Australian and New Zealand versions of Have You Been Paying Attention?, and was a panellist on The Masked Singer Australia for the show's second and third seasons. She also played Fallon in the comedy film Kinda Pregnant alongside Amy Schumer and Brianne Howey.

Born in South Africa in 1976 as the youngest of three siblings, Carlson spent her early years in mining towns and lived in Benoni, near Johannesburg. Her first job was as a typesetter for a South African newspaper, which she did for 12 years, and by the age of 24 she was production manager for a large African newspaper group. She moved to New Zealand in 2006 and transitioned into comedy in 2008, when she was 32. Her stand-up routines include The Long Flight To Freedom, and she has performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala over several years.

Carlson was nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer in 2018, appeared in Netflix's Comedians of the World in 2019, and won Best Female Comedian at the New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards six times. She became a New Zealand citizen in 2012 and released a memoir, Rolling with the Punchlines, in 2016. Her TV sketch show Urzila is being broadcast on ABC Television in Australia from 29 April 2026. As of April 2026 she lives in West Auckland.