Janine Harouni

Janine Harouni (born January 3, 1988) is a UK-based American stand-up comedian and actress. Raised in Staten Island, New York, by a Lebanese-American father and a mother of predominantly Italian and Irish descent, she moved to London in 2012 and has built the bulk of her comedy career in Britain. In 2009, before that move, Harouni survived a serious car accident in Manhattan that broke her pelvis, femur, legs and wrists and crushed her sciatic nerve, paralyzing her right leg for nearly three years.

She won the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year in 2018 and the BBC New Comedy Award in 2019. That same year she debuted her solo show Stand Up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, earning a nomination for the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. She returned to the Fringe in 2023 with Man'oushe, performed while heavily pregnant, which was nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award. Her set on the BBC's Live at the Apollo became one of the most-watched debuts in the show's recent history, with clips drawing more than 20 million views. She has also acted, playing Thalia in the ITV series Buffering from 2021 to 2023 and Carla Diaz in the 2022 film The Batman.