Modi: Bio, Comedy Style, and Where to Watch

Who is Modi?

Modi (born Mordechi Rosenfeld) was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and moved to Woodmere, New York, with his family at age seven. He graduated from George W. Hewlett High School in 1988 and Boston University in 1992, majoring in psychology and minoring in voice. He studied cantorial music at Yeshiva University’s Belz School of Music. He worked as an international banker at Merrill Lynch on Wall Street before a single open-mic night changed the direction of his career entirely.

He became a Comedy Cellar regular and built one of the most distinctive followings in New York comedy — deeply rooted in Jewish communities while drawing crowds of all backgrounds. The Hollywood Reporter voted him one of the Top 10 Comedians in New York City. He has been featured on HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, The Howard Stern Show, and E! Entertainment, with rave reviews from the New York Times, Time Out NY, and the New York Post. He played himself in HBO’s Crashing and Netflix’s When Jews Were Funny. He won the LA Film Festival with Waiting for Woody Allen and starred in the feature film Stand Up. He appeared in Last Comic Standing, The Sopranos, and was a voice actor in Grand Theft Auto IV. He reached the semi-finals of Last Comic Standing in 2007. The City of New York proclaimed June 26, 2018 “Mordechi ‘Modi’ Rosenfeld Day.” In 2024, he was inducted into Anu — Museum of the Jewish People’s Hall of Fame for Jewish Humor. His specials include Know Your Audience (2024) and Pause for Laughter. His Pause for Laughter Tour included three sold-out shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York, and he is scheduled to headline Radio City Music Hall on April 23, 2026 — his largest New York City show to date. He hosts the And Here’s Modi podcast. He is gay and legally married his partner, Leo Veiga, in 2020. He is co-founder and producer of the Chosen Comedy Festival.

Modi’s Comedy Style

Modi performs with precision-crafted material and characters that celebrate Jewish life while finding the universal inside the specific. His ability to work rooms ranging from intimate Comedy Cellar sets to sold-out theater tours comes from the same skill set: reading an audience, committing to the material, and trusting that the jokes are good enough to carry any room. The cantorial music background is not incidental — his timing has the quality of someone trained to understand how sound and space interact.

Where to Find Modi

Find tour dates and the And Here’s Modi podcast at modilive.com.

Modi has performed at the Comedy Cellar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Check the current lineup and upcoming shows at comedycellar.com.

Catch Comedy Cellar shows live from New York on Mint Comedy at watch.mintcomedy.com.