Yannis Pappas: Bio, Comedy Style, and Where to Watch

Who is Yannis Pappas?

Yannis Pappas grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with roots in Greek immigrant culture that run through everything he does. Before he was a comedian, he did social work — 9/11 disaster relief for two and a half years, then three years working with people dealing with mental illness and homelessness for Lutheran Social Services. When he was 21, he was shot in the thigh during an armed robbery outside a New York nightclub. He became a comedian after all of that. The biography matters because it shows up in the work: Pappas is not performing Brooklyn, he is Brooklyn.

He is best known in the comedy community for two things: the internet characters he created — Mr. Panos and Maurica, which premiered online in 2009 and 2010 and built him a following before podcasting existed in its current form — and the podcast History Hyenas, which he co-hosts with Chris Distefano. He has been a regular guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, Kill Tony, Your Mom’s House, 2 Bears 1 Cave, Bad Friends, Lex Fridman, and Tigerbelly. His stand-up specials — Blowing the Light (2019), Mom Love (2022), and Property Owner (2025, filmed at the Comedy Mothership in Austin) — are all on YouTube and have collectively accumulated millions of views. He was the first comedian to ever do stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (a test show that did not air). He hosts the weekly podcast Yannis Pappas Hour with 357K Instagram followers and 250K+ YouTube subscribers.

Yannis Pappas’s Comedy Style

Pappas is a high-concept comedian with deep Brooklyn grit. His material combines social observation, Greek-American identity, and the specific perspective of someone who spent years doing social work before getting on stage. He has seen real suffering up close and chose to process it through comedy, which gives his stand-up a weight that most performers his age don’t have.

He is also one of the funnier people in the podcast ecosystem — not performing funny, actually funny, which is a different thing — and his improvisational instincts translate directly into how he works rooms like the Cellar.

Where to Find Yannis Pappas

All three specials are free on YouTube. History Hyenas and Yannis Pappas Hour are on YouTube, Spotify, and all major platforms. Find tour dates at yannispappascomedy.com.

Yannis Pappas 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.