Sumukhi Suresh on why stand-up comedy should feel like an uncomfortable, honest confession
“I am from India of course, but I’m also specifically from South India,” Sumukhi Suresh declares, onstage in Los Angeles. As a part of the
“I am from India of course, but I’m also specifically from South India,” Sumukhi Suresh declares, onstage in Los Angeles. As a part of the global comedy festival Netflix Is A Joke Fest 2026 in May, Sumukhi was the only female Indian comic to feature in the lineup. A few weeks later, when we catch up with her, the comic is still basking in the glow of her Los Angeles adventure. “I was given a slot at 9.45 pm to perform, which made me very nervous since LA seemed sleepy and quiet at that time. I however, got to perform to a full house and asked them to warn me if they were feeling sleepy. It felt like I was performing for people who had specially come to watch me; so it was less of a performance and more of a conversation with incredible energy,” she says. The comedy fest, which had a host of different live events including stand-up comedy shows, brought together over 130 people in comedy from across the world. Some comics who took the stage included Ali Wong, Shane Gillis, Nikki Glaser, Matt Rife, Nate Bargatze, Sarah Silverman, and John Mulaney, and the festival also had Dave Chapelle, Conan O’Brian and Bill Bur as a part of their line-up.
Having spent many years in Bengaluru, the comic, who is Tamil, is now based out of Mumbai and juggles stand-up, writing for film and comedy specials, as well as acting. Her last special, Hoemonal, which debuted onstage in 2024, toured across the country as well as at the Edinburgh Fringe. Through her career as a comic, Sumukhi has dealt with a spectrum of themes onstage; if she opened her show in LA with a quip about how not to assume everyone from India is from the North, her shows in the past have featured everything from dealing with singlehood, body image, health, resilience, and more. “I wouldn’t say that this has become easy, but I have got a lot more comfortable with comedy. I have realised that when something makes me uncomfortable onstage, then it is hitting the right note. It should seem like a confession you do not want to make because you know the minute it is out there, all your friends are going to judge you,” she laughs. “I think my honesty is layered, with saying my most obvious feeling out loud.” Sumukhi’s foray into screenwriting has followed an interesting trajectory.
Best known as the creator and writer of the web series Pushpavalli (2017-2020), she more recently joined the dialogue-writing team for the 2024 film Ctrl, Vikramaditya Motwane’s thriller starring Ananya Panday. “Mr Motwane has a tendency to make me write things which I do not usually delve into. When he first mentioned Ctrl, I remember wondering if I was the right person for it,” she recalls. “I thought I was an out-and-out comedy writer until then. I am once again working on something with him which is very different from anything I have done before, and I love writing dialogues for him,” she says. Lights, camera... While Sumukhi waxes eloquent about writing, telling stories, and creating a legacy with Motormouth, her content company, her love for acting too, she says, is something she is more comfortable talking about these days. From shows like Better Life Foundation, Pushpavalli and more recently, The Royals (where she got to shake a leg with a dreamy Dino Morea - “This was for all of us,” she says), Sumukhi was more recently seen in Vir Das’ Happy Patel.
The BriefWire