Russell Peters is a global comedy rock star, actor and Internet sensation. His YouTube clips have been viewed more than 60 million times, and he has performed to sold-out crowds from Toronto’s Air Canada Centre and New York’s Madison Square Garden to the Sydney Opera House and London’s The O2 arena, where he established a new attendance record. Throughout his 20-plus-year career, Peters has headlined comedy festivals throughout North America, won a Gemini Award, hosted The JUNO Awards twice and garnered an unprecedented global following.
Peters has appeared on Showtime, Comedy Central, HBO, NBC, CBS, CBC and CTV. His DVD releases, Russell Peters: Outsourced and Red, White and Brown, have sold more than 300,000 copies. In 2009 and 2010, he was listed on the Forbes list of top-earning comedians in the United States, along with Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld.
Peter’s first book, an autobiography titled Call Me Russell, was a number-one bestseller. He has done USO tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Greenland and Pearl Harbor, on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the HMCS Winnipeg, and has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Lopez Tonight. Peters also adds movie star to his resumé, with film work including roles in Source Code and Breakaway, and stars in The Indian Detective.
Peters has built an entire career on his “outsider” status as an ethnic minority, specializing in comedy that pokes fun at subjects of race, class and culture, often drawing on his own life. He’s well-known for his impersonations and mastery of accents (his website’s tagline is “Some Material May Offend Your Heritage”), and the characters that pepper his act.
