Alex Edelman

Alex Edelman (born 1989) is an American stand-up comedian based in New York. His show "Millennial" won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe,[1] the first American to do so since Arj Barker won in 1997.[1]

Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Boston, spending a year in a Yeshiva in Jerusalem before returning to the US to study English at New York University. His father is Elazer Edelman, a biomedical engineer, physician, professor, and inventor. His brother is Israeli Olympian Adam Edelman.[2]

He has performed stand-up since the age of 15.[3] He first performed in the UK in 2012[4] and in Australia in 2015.[5]

Edelman's 2015 Edinburgh Fringe show was titled "Everything Handed to You", and was the second most well-reviewed show at that year's festival.[6] His 2018 show, Just For Us, was nominated for the Best Show award at the Edinburgh Fringe.[7] He has appeared in the UK on television shows such as The John Bishop Show, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, Live from the BBC, Roast Battle, and contributed several anecdotes about his experiences as a comedian to the 2015 book Off the Mic, by Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur. He has done a BBC Radio 4 comedy series called "Alex Edelman's Peer Group".

Edelman was the head writer for Saturday Night Seder, a virtual celebrity Passover seder held during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also trained Rabbis to infuse humor in to the High Holiday services as part of the Jewish communal response to the pandemic.[8]