Alex Edelman

Alex Edelman (born March 20, 1989) is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He was named Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his show Millennial, becoming the first American to win that award since Arj Barker in 1997. He has toured three shows since 2014: Millennial (2014-2015), Everything Handed to You (2015-2016), and Just for Us (2018-2020; 2023-2024). Just for Us opened Off-Broadway in 2022 before premiering on Broadway in 2023 at The Hudson Theatre, where it was named a NYT Critic's Pick and earned him a 2024 special Tony Award and an Emmy Award. In 2024 he was named to the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.

Edelman was born in Boston to Cheryl, a real estate lawyer, and Elazer R. Edelman, a biomedical engineer and cardiologist. Raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family in Brookline, Massachusetts, he began performing stand-up at age 15 and graduated from Maimonides School. Following high school he spent a year in a yeshiva in Jerusalem, where he helped establish the city's first comedy club, Off the Wall Comedy. In 2008 he moved to New York City to study English at New York University, graduating in 2012, and later joined Upright Citizens Brigade.

As a comedy writer, Edelman has contributed to the American television shows The Great Indoors (2016-2017) and Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020), and was head writer for the virtual celebrity Passover seder Saturday Night Seder during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an actor, he starred as Adam Cooper in the Peacock mockumentary series The Paper, based on The Office, where he is also credited as a writer. He has hosted several BBC Radio 4 series, including Alex Edelman's Peer Group.