Monica Padman

Monica Padman is an Indian-American podcaster, actor, and producer. She is best known for co-creating, co-hosting, and editing the podcast Armchair Expert alongside co-host Dax Shepard.[1] As an actor, she has appeared in films and television shows including CHiPs, The Good Place, and Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television.[2]

Monica Padman
Born (1987-08-24) August 24, 1987
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Georgia (BA)
Occupation
  • Actor
  • writer
  • producer
  • podcast host
Years active2010–present

Early life and education

Padman was born in Atlanta, Georgia to an engineer father and a computer programmer mother. Her mother moved to the United States from India at the age of six, and her father moved to the United States from India as a college student for educational opportunities.[3]

Padman cites her love of the show Friends and the film Good Will Hunting as making her to want to become an actor when she was in eighth grade. She began studying theater in high school, where she was also involved in cheerleading and took Advanced Placement classes. In college at the University of Georgia, she double-majored in theater and public relations, choosing the latter in order to placate her parents.[3]

Career

In 2011, Padman moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She trained in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade[4] and supported herself by babysitting and working at the front desk at SoulCycle. Padman met Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard through social circles, then coincidentally booked an acting job on an episode of House of Lies playing an assistant to Bell's character. Bell subsequently hired Padman to occasionally babysit for them, and Padman eventually became their full-time nanny. Her role gradually evolved into serving as an assistant to Bell and then becoming a professional partner to both Bell and Shepard.[3] In 2019 Bell referred to Padman as her "chief of staff."[4]

Armchair Expert Podcast

Padman is the co-creator and cohost of the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, which evolved from Padman's and Shepard's habit of debating ideas on the back porch of Shepard and Bell's home.[3] The show launched on February 14, 2018, and focuses on in-depth conversations about guests' upbringings, challenges and successes. Episodes typically run 90–120 minutes, ending with a fact check, in which Padman and Shepard discuss the show after Padman has researched any verifiable claims made by Shepard or their guests during the interview. The fact check typically lasts about 30 minutes, often straying into topics and personal anecdotes unrelated to the interview and features Padman much more heavily than does the interview portion of the show, during which Shepard is the dominant voice. Padman has said she felt anxiety early on about whether her voice was being heard enough on the podcast, particularly when their guests were Hollywood figures who could potentially aid her acting career, but eventually she realized, "I don’t need to prove myself to any of these people. I can just be." In addition to her role as co-host, she also edits each episode and books guests.[1]

Featured guests have included celebrities such as Kristen Bell, Ashton Kutcher, Will Ferrell, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. On June 7, 2018 the show released their first episode of "Experts on Expert", a recurring series of interviews in which Padman and Shepard interview experts in their fields. Featured experts on the show have included psychologist Wendy Mogel, comedian and author David Sedaris, speechwriter Jon Favreau, surgeon and writer Atul Gawande.[5] In 2018, Apple named Armchair Expert among its top 15 podcasts of the year.[6] On iTunes, Armchair Expert was the most downloaded new podcast of the year.[4]

On February 14, 2020, the first of a ten-episode series within Armchair Expert was released called Monica and Jess Love Boys. The series follows Padman and her friend and co-host Jess Rowland as they consult a variety of sex and relationship experts to improve their personal love lives.[7] The final episode of the mini-series aired April 15, 2020.[8]

Filmography
Year Title Role
2010 Drop Dead Diva Emma
2014 House of Lies Assistant
2014 HelLA Annoying Actress
2015 This Is Why We're Single Roommate
2016 On the Bright Side Groupie #1
2017 My Boyfriend Is a Robot Waitress
2017 Chips Becky
2017 Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television Barista
2018 The Good Place Eleanor-1
2019 Bless This Mess Danika
2019 Justin & Jill's Drunk History: The Birth Story Lizzie

Awards and nominations

In 2019, Padman received an Emmy Award nomination for her work as a producer on Momsplaining, a web series hosted by Kristen Bell and airing on the YouTube channel of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.[9]

References
  1. Brooke, Eliza (December 30, 2019). "Dax Shepard Is Listening". The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  2. "Monica Padman". IMDb. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  3. Hatmaker, Jen. "ARMCHAIR EXPERT-ISE WITH PODCAST CREATOR AND HOST MONICA PADMAN". For the Love Podcast. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  4. Aguirre, Abby. "Dax Shepard's biggest hit is a podcast he records in his attic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  5. "Episodes". Armchair Expert. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  6. "Apple presents the best of 2018". Apple. December 3, 2018.
  7. "Part 1: Monica & Jess Love Boys with Dax Shepard". Armchair Expert. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  8. "Part 10: Monica & Jess Love Each Other with Dax & Kristen". Armchair Expert. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  9. "THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES ANNOUNCES NOMINATIONS FOR THE 46th ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY® AWARDS" (PDF). The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
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