Hannah Einbinder

She came up through stand-up circuits before landing Hacks, which is the opposite of how most TV careers start. By 2019, she had done the Just for Laughs New Faces showcase and NPR and Vulture both named her a comedian to watch. In March 2020, she made her Late Show with Stephen Colbert debut, reportedly the youngest person to do a stand-up set on that show at the time. Getting cast as Ava Daniels in Hacks (2021) gave her real acting infrastructure to work with. She plays a Gen Z comedy writer colliding with a Las Vegas veteran, a setup that matched what she already knew.

Four straight Emmy nominations in supporting actress comedy before finally winning at the 2025 ceremony, a streak that started to feel like a referendum on the show's overall reception. She used the acceptance speech to criticize ICE by name and call for a free Palestine, which made the speech as newsworthy as the win. Hacks is wrapping up with a fifth and final season, announced the same night. Her debut stand-up special, Everything Must Go (Max, 2024), drew divided reviews, with critics split on whether the theatrical format was a genuine creative swing or a special that didn't quite land as comedy.

Laraine Newman, one of the original Saturday Night Live cast members, is her mother, which means Einbinder grew up around a specific kind of comedy history without being defined by it. She's openly bisexual and has talked about having ADHD. Her comedy tends toward the confessional and the theatrical, with topics like being queer, faith, and climate change. She graduated from Chapman University with a BFA in TV writing and production, which is a more structured route to comedy than most stand-ups would admit to taking.