Yannis Pappas

Yannis Frederikos Christos Pappas is an American comedian from Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York.

Early life Pappas was born in Brooklyn, New York to Greek parents Chris Pappas, an Army officer, and Anna Pappas née Mamalakis, a lawyer originally from Rethymno, Crete. He was raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope with his two older brothers, Peter and Nikos. The former is a lawyer who worked for the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Pappas attended college at the American University in Washington, D.C. where he studied American Studies and History. He returned to stand-up at the end of 2004. Pappas began pursuing comedy full-time in 2008.

Pappas has been featured doing stand up on AXS TV, TruTV's How To Be a Grown Up, VH1's Best Week Ever, Fox Business, and Good Morning America. He was the first comedian to ever do stand-up comedy on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; it was a test show and did not air.

Beginning in June 2013, Pappas co-hosted the MSG Network show The Bracket with Chris Distefano. Later in 2013, he began co-anchoring the live primetime news show Fusion Live alongside journalists, Marianna Antonio and Pedro Andrade. Focusing on current events, pop culture and satire, the show was one of the first for the then-new Fusion network. The show was canceled in December 2014. Beginning in Spring 2015, Pappas hosted the AOL Original Series, 2 Point Lead, a sports comedy show.

Pappas' first special, part of Comedy Central's The Half Hour series, aired in June 2014. In 2016, he released his comedy album Let Me Be Yannis, which was recorded live in Madison, Wisconsin. The album was awarded Album of the Year for 2016 by SiriusXM Comedy.

Starting in February 2018, Pappas co-hosted the weekly podcast History Hyenas via the Riotcast network with frequent collaborator Chris Distefano. The podcast entered a hiatus on March 24, 2021 and was brought back on November 7, 2024.

In 2019, Yannis released his first hour-long special Blowing the Light on YouTube. It was produced by comedian Andrew Schulz. When he was 21, he was shot in the right thigh outside of a New York nightclub during an armed robbery.

Pappas has lived in Park Slope on-and-off for much of his life. He moved to Miami in 2013 for the show Fusion Live. More recently, he lived in Bay Ridge.

Discography Comedy Specials

Let Me Be Yannis (2016) Blowing the Light (2019) Mom Love (2022) Property Owner (2025) Podcasts

History Hyenas (with Chris Distefano) (February 2018 – March 2021) The Yannis Pappas Hour (January 2021 – present)