Russell Peters

Russell Peters is a Canadian comedian and actor. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and won a Gemini Award in 2008.

Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989. His popularity extends to several countries, as he has since also performed in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Afghanistan, Sweden, South Africa, India, the Caribbean, Philippines, Vietnam, mainland China, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Denmark, Norway, Lebanon, Oman, The Netherlands and Malaysia, among other places.

In 1992, Peters met comedian George Carlin, one of his biggest influences, who advised him to get on stage whenever and wherever possible. In 2007, 15 years later, he hosted one of Carlin's last shows before his death the following year.

In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre, with more than 16,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. His show in Sydney, Australia on 15 May 2010 had an audience of 13,880, making it the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history. He broke a UK comedy sales record at London's O2 Arena when he sold over 16,000 tickets to his show on 2009. Russell Peters' performances on May 5–6, 2012 in Singapore also set attendance records for a single stand-up comedian at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, Monsoon House, on CBC Radio One. He was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary in 2008 and 2009.

Peters released his autobiography, "Call Me Russell," co-written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.

His stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humour to highlight racial, ethnic, class and cultural stereotypes. He often refers to his own life experiences growing up in an Indian family and impersonates various English accents of different groups in his act to poke fun at each group.

Peters lives in Los Angeles and owns two homes there. He also owns homes in Las Vegas, Nevada and Vaughan, Ontario.

Peters has appeared in many films, including the 2011 Punjabi-Canadian movie "Breakaway," alongside Camilla Belle, Anupam Kher, and Vinay Virmani. He also appeared in "Senior Skip Day" starring Larry Miller, Tara Reid and Gary Lundy. He also acted in Duncan Jones's movie "Source Code" as an amateur comedian with a bad attitude and starred in National Lampoon's "The Legend of Awesomest Maximus."