Jackie Kashian

Jackie Kashian (born July 20, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian and is of Armenian descent.

Kashian was born in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised by her father, Elliot, and her stepmother, Nancy, along with her four older brothers and one older sister. She graduated from South Milwaukee High School in 1983.

Kashian discovered her love of stand-up comedy while attending The University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was soon given stage time at a club operated by Bill Kinison, the brother of Sam Kinison, five nights a week.

Kashian has had a half-hour special on Comedy Central and has appeared on CBS, NBC, and the nationally syndicated Radio/TV show Bob And Tom. She tours internationally, spending approximately 25 weeks a year on the road, and has entertained US troops stationed in Africa and the Middle East several times. Her album It is Never Going to be Bread was named as one of the top comedy albums of 2010 by Amazon.com.

After living in Minneapolis, Kashian moved to Los Angeles and resides in Van Nuys with her husband, Andy Ashcraft. She is good friends with Maria Bamford and they often perform together, both in Los Angeles and on the road.

In 2005, Kashian began hosting a podcast, The Dork Forest, with new episodes being released once or twice a week. Recorded in her living room in Van Nuys, the show features 'dork on dork dialog' between Kashian and her guests about their favorite obsessions—commonly referred to by Kashian as 'dorkdoms'. Guests have included Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman, James Urbaniak, Jimmy Pardo, Aisha Tyler, and Mary-Lynn Rajskub. Fans of the show refer to themselves as "Rangers Of The Dork Forest". In 2010, the podcast changed from a live format to pre-recorded, with superior audio quality and a new theme song, "Welcome to The Dork Forest", written by Mike Ruekberg. In 2011, Kashian performed her first live Dork Forest, with more recent live episodes having posted on August 12, 2016 and September 7, 2016.

In early 2016, Kashian and fellow comic Laurie Kilmartin began a new podcast produced by Nerdist Industries called "The Jackie and Laurie Show". The two primarily discuss stand-up comedy in LA and on the road, occasionally covering harassment and the unequal treatment of female comics, Kilmartin's job as a staff writer on the late-night circuit, and Kilmartin's multi-generational family living situation.

• Circus People (2007)
• It Is Never Going to be Bread (2010)
• This Will Make an Excellent Horcrux (2014)