Quick answer: Kat Bird is a stand-up comedian born and raised in Los Angeles, and the host of the weekly Kat Bird Pod. She started doing comedy around 2022, later than most comics, worked the door at The Comedy Store, and went viral with her Don’t Tell Comedy set My Name Could Be Worse in January 2026. Since then she has toured with Bobby Lee and become a headliner herself, with dates in Denver, Tacoma, Irvine, LA, Austin and Minneapolis through early 2027.
At a glance
- Name: Kat Bird (her real name, she says)
- From: Los Angeles, born and raised
- Started stand-up: About 2022
- Known for: Her Don’t Tell Comedy set My Name Could Be Worse; deadpan stand-up about divorce, dating and being broke
- Toured with: Bobby Lee, Marc Maron, Andrew Santino, Theo Von and Iliza Shlesinger
- Podcast: Kat Bird Pod, weekly on YouTube since May 2026
- Home club: The Comedy Store, where she also worked as a door guy
- Instagram: @katbirdcomedy, about 68,000 followers
Kat Bird was one of the names on our list of 10 up-and-coming comedians to watch this month. Here is the longer version: how a born-and-raised LA kid got into comedy late and caught up fast.
Who is Kat Bird?
Kat Bird is an LA comic with a deadpan, slightly giggly delivery and a habit of saying the thing most people would keep to themselves. Jam Comedy, which has filmed several of her sets, describes her style as irreverent, nothing-left-unsaid storytelling. Her favorite subjects: her millennial divorce, dating red flags, creepy DMs, trying to get hotter, being one of the guys among male comics, and her dad.
She is also a regular at the clubs that matter in Los Angeles. Her Comedy Store bio lists The Comedy Store, the Hollywood Improv, the Laugh Factory, the Ice House, Westside Comedy Club and Don’t Tell among her rooms.
Where is Kat Bird from?
Los Angeles. Unlike most of the comics grinding at The Comedy Store, Bird did not move to LA to chase anything. She grew up there, and both the Comedy Works and Comedy Store bios describe her as born and raised in the city.
It was not a Hollywood childhood. On stage she says her family didn’t have much money growing up. On the September 2026 episode of her podcast with Preacher Lawson, she shared more. Her parents divorced when she was 7, and she described the 1990s as running around a little feral because both of her working-class parents were busy working. She was close with her mom, who later moved to the U.K.
Her family is all over her act. In one bit her dad married her babysitter. In another, her younger sibling comes out as non-binary, which leads to a joke she says her sibling loves and hates at the same time.
How did Kat Bird get into comedy?
Late, by comedy standards. When Marc Maron came on her podcast in June 2026, he said that when he first saw her at The Comedy Store, she wasn’t some 20-year-old kid with delusions. She agreed. Asked on her show in September 2026 how long she had been doing comedy, she said four years, which puts her start around 2022.
Before that, she has talked about a semester at sea and a trip to Ghana at 21. And there is the job everyone knows from her act: barista. Her signature bit is about getting fired from a coffee shop over latte art in a very specific shape. It is a joke, so take the details with a grain of espresso.
The real turning point came in 2023, at a Comedians You Should Know show in the Store’s Belly Room, the first time she ever performed at The Comedy Store. Preacher Lawson, who was on that show, remembers her being about a year in.
What did Kat Bird do at The Comedy Store?
She worked the door. Like a long line of comics before her, Bird became one of the Store’s door guys, the staff who run the front of the house on Sunset Boulevard. Her Comedy Store and Don’t Tell bios both list it. It is one of the oldest apprenticeships in stand-up: you work the shows, watch the best comics in the world every night, and get a shot at stage time.
The Store is still home base. Her best friend and frequent podcast co-host, Joel Jimenez, is a Comedy Store door guy too, and she is headlining the club’s Belly Room on Nov. 27, 2026.
What is My Name Could Be Worse?
My Name Could Be Worse is Bird’s Don’t Tell Comedy set, released on the channel’s YouTube page on Jan. 26, 2026. It runs just under nine minutes and was filmed at the Mission Hills venue in San Diego. By mid-October 2026 it had passed 400,000 views and 17,000 likes.
She opens on her name. “My name is Kat Bird. That’s my real name,” she tells the crowd, before a joke about what her mom must have been doing when she picked it. From there she runs through a Mormon ex, getting acne in her 30s, growing up in LA, a DUI stop where she was stone-cold sober, the barista firing, and her divorce, which she says is mostly a custody fight over a NutriBullet because millennials don’t have assets.
The shorter cut-downs went even further. Don’t Tell’s “Sapiosexual” clip, about dating red flags, has passed 600,000 views, and her bit comparing having a kid to owning a gun is near 240,000.
How did touring with Bobby Lee change things?
It put her in front of big crowds. Bird has toured with or opened for Bobby Lee, Marc Maron, Andrew Santino, Theo Von and Iliza Shlesinger, according to her club bios, and she is a familiar face on Lee’s TigerBelly podcast. One of her TigerBelly clips passed 366,000 plays on Instagram this month.
In an Instagram post this fall, she looked back on seven months on the road with that crew: 26 cities, four countries and countless missing hotel room keys. She tagged Bobby Lee, Carlos Herrera and Ramsey Badawi, and called it the most special stretch of her life. On her podcast she credited the people who have brought her along, Lee for taking her on tour and Maron for his support.
Is Kat Bird a headliner now?
Yes, and she is still a little surprised by it. In a recent Instagram post thanking her fans, she asked, half joking, whether she was really a touring headliner now. The calendar says yes. After fall shows in Houston, Irving, Philadelphia, Annapolis and San Diego, she has dates in Denver, Tacoma, Irvine, The Comedy Store, Austin and Minneapolis between now and the end of January 2027. The second Comedy Store show on Nov. 27 was added after the first one nearly sold out.
What is the Kat Bird Pod?
The Kat Bird Pod is her weekly long-form interview show, which launched on YouTube on May 11, 2026 with an episode literally titled “What Should We Call The Pod??” New episodes drop on Mondays, bonus episodes are on Patreon, and Corbin Craft produces and edits. It is her second podcast.
The guest list grew up fast: Doug Benson, Marc Maron, Kevin Nealon, Howie Mandel, Charlotte McKinney, Josh Johnson, Pete Holmes, Zainab Johnson, Preacher Lawson and plenty of Comedy Store regulars. The Josh Johnson episode is the most watched so far. The conversations cover road stories, life off stage and how comics got their breaks, and Bird is unusually open about her own life on them.
Is Kat Bird married?
Not anymore. Bird was married for about seven years, and the divorce is the backbone of much of her stand-up. A 2025 Jam Comedy set is titled “I Enjoy Being Divorced,” and another covers still living with her ex-husband in a studio apartment after the split. In April 2026 she went on Jameela Jamil’s Wrong Turns podcast to talk about dating again after seven years.
The custody arrangement, as she tells it, is mostly about rabbits. She and her ex had as many as seven at one point and split them in the divorce. Her pet reels are some of her most-watched posts.
Kat Bird’s story, year by year
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Childhood | Grows up in Los Angeles; parents divorce when she is 7 |
| About 2022 | Starts doing stand-up |
| 2023 | First set at The Comedy Store, at a Comedians You Should Know show in the Belly Room |
| 2024 | Working LA clubs, including the Ice House in Pasadena |
| 2025 | Jam Comedy sets, including “I Enjoy Being Divorced” |
| Jan. 2026 | Don’t Tell Comedy releases My Name Could Be Worse |
| May 2026 | Launches the Kat Bird Pod; billed at Netflix Is a Joke Fest |
| 2026 | Seven months on the road with Bobby Lee’s crew: 26 cities, four countries |
| Fall 2026 | Headlining run begins, with Denver, Tacoma and Irvine on the calendar |
| Nov. 2026 | Headlines The Comedy Store’s Belly Room twice in one night |
Where can you see Kat Bird live?
- Oct. 30–31, 2026: Comedy Works Downtown, Denver, CO
- Nov. 1, 2026: Tacoma Comedy Club, Tacoma, WA
- Nov. 11, 2026: Irvine Improv, Irvine, CA (Kat Bird & Friends)
- Nov. 27, 2026: The Comedy Store, Los Angeles (7:30 and 9:30 p.m.)
- Dec. 26–27, 2026: Cap City Comedy Club, Austin, TX
- Jan. 27–30, 2027: Acme Comedy Co., Minneapolis, MN
Tickets are on katbirdcomedy.com. Follow @katbirdcomedy on Instagram for new dates and clips, and catch the podcast on her YouTube channel.
Key takeaways
- Kat Bird is a born-and-raised Los Angeles comic who started stand-up around 2022, later than most of her peers.
- She came up at The Comedy Store, where she worked as a door guy and first performed in 2023.
- Her Don’t Tell Comedy set My Name Could Be Worse and its clips have drawn more than a million combined views.
- After touring with Bobby Lee, she is now headlining clubs across the country and hosts the weekly Kat Bird Pod.
Want more? Read our feature on Brittany Ross, and see the rest of our up-and-coming comedians to watch.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Kat Bird?
Kat Bird is a Los Angeles stand-up comedian and the host of the Kat Bird Pod. She is known for her viral Don’t Tell Comedy set, My Name Could Be Worse, and has toured with or opened for Bobby Lee, Marc Maron, Andrew Santino, Theo Von and Iliza Shlesinger.
Where is Kat Bird from?
Kat Bird was born and raised in Los Angeles. She jokes about growing up in LA without much money and still lives and works there.
Is Kat Bird her real name?
Yes, according to Bird herself. She opens her Don’t Tell set by telling the crowd it is her real name, then jokes about where it came from.
When did Kat Bird start doing stand-up?
Around 2022. In September 2026 she said she had been doing comedy for four years, and she first performed at The Comedy Store in 2023, at a Comedians You Should Know show in the Belly Room.
What is the Kat Bird Pod?
The Kat Bird Pod is a weekly interview podcast that launched on YouTube on May 11, 2026. Guests have included Marc Maron, Kevin Nealon, Howie Mandel, Josh Johnson, Pete Holmes, Doug Benson, Zainab Johnson and Preacher Lawson. New episodes come out on Mondays.
What is Kat Bird’s Don’t Tell set called?
It is called My Name Could Be Worse. Don’t Tell Comedy released it on YouTube on Jan. 26, 2026. It was filmed in San Diego and has passed 400,000 views.
Was Kat Bird married?
Yes. She was married for about seven years and is now divorced. The divorce, including a stretch of still living with her ex, is one of the central threads of her stand-up.
Where is Kat Bird on tour?
Upcoming dates include Comedy Works Downtown in Denver (Oct. 30–31, 2026), Tacoma Comedy Club (Nov. 1), the Irvine Improv (Nov. 11), two headlining shows at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles (Nov. 27), Cap City Comedy Club in Austin (Dec. 26–27) and Acme Comedy Co. in Minneapolis (Jan. 27–30, 2027).
Sources
- Kat Bird official website
- The Comedy Store: Kat Bird
- Comedy Works: Kat Bird
- Don’t Tell Comedy: My Name Could Be Worse
- Kat Bird Pod, Ep. 21 with Preacher Lawson
- Kat Bird Pod, Ep. 6 with Marc Maron
- Jam Comedy: I Enjoy Being Divorced
- @katbirdcomedy on Instagram
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