Monica Padman

Monica Padman is an American podcaster, actor, and producer. She co-created and co-hosts the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. As an actor, she has appeared in films and television shows including CHiPs, The Good Place, Rutherford Falls, and Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television.

Early life and education Padman was born in Duluth, Georgia, to a Malayali 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. While attending Duluth High School, Padman took Advanced Placement classes and was on the cheerleading squad- where she served as a flyer. During her time at DHS, Padman and her team secured two state championships in cheerleading. Padman graduated from Duluth High School in 2006 and attended the University of Georgia on the Hope Scholarship, which is a merit-based scholarship funded by the Georgia Lottery.

Padman cites her love of the show Friends and the film Good Will Hunting as making her want to become an actor when she was in eighth grade. She began studying theater in high school and, in college at the University of Georgia, she double-majored in theater and public relations, choosing the latter in order to placate her parents. 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. In 2018, Apple named Armchair Expert among its top 15 podcasts of the year. On iTunes, Armchair Expert was the most downloaded new podcast of the year. The final episode of the mini-series aired April 15, 2020.

In May 2021, Padman and Shepard signed a deal with Spotify to have all episodes of their show exclusively available on the streaming platform.

Padman also co-hosted the podcast Synced, under the Armchair Expert umbrella, with journalist Liz Plank until October 2024.

In 2026, Armchair Expert was nominated for a Golden Globe in the 'Best Podcast' category. Filmography

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.