Kapil Sharma, born Kapil Punj on 2 April 1981, is an Indian stand-up comedian, television host, actor, producer and singer who mainly works in Hindi cinema. He hosts comedy and talk shows, including The Great Indian Kapil Show and The Kapil Sharma Show, and has received five Indian Television Academy Awards.
He was born in Amritsar, Punjab, into a Punjabi family. His father, Jeetendra Kumar Punj, was a head constable in the Punjab Police, and his mother, Janak Rani, is a homemaker. His father was diagnosed with cancer in 1997 and died in 2004 at AIIMS in Delhi. Sharma studied at the Shri Ram Ashram Senior Secondary School and Hindu College in Amritsar, and is listed among the prominent alumni of the Apeejay College of Fine Arts in Jalandhar. He has a brother, Ashok Kumar Sharma, a police constable, and a sister, Pooja Pawan Devgan.
He rose to fame in 2007 by winning the third season of the comedy talent show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, for which he received a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh. He had earlier worked on the Punjabi show Hasde Hasaande Ravo on MH One, and he has said that he originally went to Mumbai to become a singer. He then took part in Sony’s Comedy Circus and went on to win six seasons of the show, appeared in Ustaadon Ka Ustaad in 2008, and in 2011 finished as a runner-up in the singing reality show Star Ya Rockstar on Zee TV.
In 2013 he launched Comedy Nights with Kapil on Colors TV under his own banner, K9 Productions, playing Bittu Sharma, the host of a fictional family show. The same year he hosted the dance show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa season 6 and the comedy show Chhote Miyan, and at the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year awards he was given the award in the entertainment category by Amol Palekar. In 2014 he was made brand ambassador by the Delhi Election Commission for the Lok Sabha elections, and in 2015 he co-hosted the 60th Filmfare Awards with Karan Johar.
He made his Bollywood debut as the male lead in the romantic comedy Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon (2015), directed by Abbas Mustan, which opened strongly. Comedy Nights with Kapil ended on 24 January 2016, and he started The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony Entertainment Television on 23 April 2016, which drew a positive response. His second film, the period drama Firangi, which he also produced, was released on 1 December 2017 and was a box-office flop, earning about Rs 10 crore on a Rs 25 crore budget, according to Wikipedia. A show called Family Time with Kapil Sharma ended after three episodes in April 2018.
He produced the Punjabi film Son of Manjeet Singh in 2018 and his show returned with a new season on 29 December 2018, produced by Salman Khan. He lent his voice to the Hindi dub of The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) and announced a children’s comedy show for Sony Yay in 2020. In January 2020 he performed a live show in Dubai with Krushna Abhishek and other cast members.
He married Ginni Chatrath in Jalandhar on 12 December 2018, and they have two children, a daughter and a son. His later work includes the film Zwigato (2023) and Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon 2 (2025). He also performs live stand-up shows in India and abroad, including in Oman and the United States. Wikipedia also records periods of difficulty in his career, including health problems and a legal dispute with an event organiser in the United States over live shows in 2015, which was pending at the time of writing.
Sharma’s path, from a policeman’s son in Amritsar to the host of one of India’s best-known comedy shows, has made him one of the most recognisable faces on Indian television.
Featured image: Kapil Sharma at a press conference for The Great Indian Kapil Show (file photo). Photo by Bollywood Hungama, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
