Hani Hussein

Hani Hassan Hussein is a Norwegian comedian, actor and screenwriter born in 1995 in Oslo, Norway, to a Norwegian Somali family. She discovered stand-up comedy on Netflix at the age of sixteen, citing comedians such as Bo Burnham and Hassan Minhaj as influences, and began performing herself several years later following what she has described as a quarter life crisis. Before turning to comedy full time, she worked as an advisor for Somalia's delegation to the United Nations in New York and completed a bachelor's degree in African studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Hussein built her stand-up career through Oslo clubs and student radio before becoming known nationally for her appearances on NRK's Latter Live and TVNorge's Kongen Befaler. In 2023 she premiered her first solo stand-up show, Comeback, performing it at Oslo venues including SALT and Nieu Scene; the show addresses, among other topics, how she experienced the Atle Antonsen controversy as a Norwegian Somali woman in comedy. Since autumn 2022 she has also worked as a field reporter for the radio programme P3morgen. Often described as the first Norwegian Somali woman in Norwegian stand-up, Hussein has said she hopes to open the field to more women from minority backgrounds.