'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' comedian Neel Nanda breathes his last at 32

Neel Nanda, a renowned stand-up comedian passed away at the ripe age of 32 on December 23, 2023, with no cause of death revealed.

As reported by Variety, the comedian’s death was confirmed by his longtime manager, Greg Weiss saying that he was a “great comic” and “great human being.”

Nanda was known for his 5-minute set on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2017 as well as Comedy Central’s Adam Devine’s House Party.

He also appeared on Viceland’s Flophouse and the Hulu special Coming to the Stage.

His fellow comedians as well as comedy clubs took to their social media accounts on Saturday to express their grievances over the loss of Nanda.

Representatives of the Port Comedy Club took to the Instagram account of the platform to pay tribute to the now-deceased comedian with the caption, “It is with a very heavy heart we say goodbye to comedy great, Neel Nanda. Absolutely shocked by the news. Such a positive force for comedy and a huge loss to our community.”

“Thank you for gracing our stage and piano, a great headliner, gone too soon,” the caption further read.

Comedian Matt Rife took to his X, formerly Twitter account to tweet, “You were one of the nicest, hardest working comedians I’ve ever called a friend and I hope you can be at peace brother.”

“I didn’t know Neel Nanda personally, but reading several tributes is both heart breaking and eye opening. I echo so many in expressing there is help out there. Please remember you are never alone. People want to help you. There is a path through your pain,” Dane Cook wrote on a separate Tweet on his account, paying tribute to Nanda.

About Neel Nanda and his comedy career:

Neel Nanda was born in Atlanta, to Indian immigrant parents.

His interest in comedy began as a child as he would watch Comedy Central at home and retell his favorite jokes in the middle school.

Revealing to VC in an interview back in 2018, Nanda recalled the story of how he ended up performing at open mics, saying “I didn’t realize I was stealing jokes until I was in high school. When I was in high school I started writing my own jokes using the structure of some of the jokes I had previously stolen.”

“I filled up a notebook of jokes and didn’t realize until college that I could go to an open mic and tell them. I actually had a friend read the notebook and tell me, ‘You know you can just go perform these, right?’ I didn’t know, but after a quick Google search I was off to the Laughing Skull open mic,” he continued.

Nanda used to host the weekly show Unnecessary Evil at the Westside Comedy Theater in Los Angeles as well as performed 5-minute sets on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.

“I would say my proudest accomplishment thus far in comedy is performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Nanda told the outlet.

“I’ve always wanted to do a set on late night, and Jimmy Kimmel was my first choice. So the fact that it came together kind of blew my mind. I’ve performed on other networks like Comedy Central, Hulu, Viceland, etc., but Jimmy Kimmel was the first place I performed where my parents were a fan of the host,” he said, reflecting on the achievement of his comedic career.