Patti Harrison
Quick Facts
Biography
Patti Harrison (born 1991) is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where she made jokes about Donald Trump's ban on transgender people in the military. Harrison has a recurring role on the Hulu series Shrill. Harrison was named one of Variety's "10 Comics to Watch" in 2019.
Life and career
Harrison's mother is Vietnamese and her father, from Detroit, was white. Her father was in the Army, and met her mother during the Vietnam War. She is the youngest of seven children and was raised in a rural conservative community in Ohio. Her father died from a heart attack when she was six.
She came out as trans at the end of college and moved home to her family, who she described as supportive of her transition.
Harrison began to do improv comedy in college, and moved to New York to pursue comedy full-time in 2015. She stated that her stand-up comedy style has changed drastically since her early days performing, when she dealt with internalized transphobia by making jokes about her sexuality. In an interview with Vogue she described her comedic persona: “I’m a nasty stupid person—that’s my voice. I’m an evil shitty person on stage, in a very conscious way—the evil is punching up.”
Harrison has appeared in the HBO series High Maintenance, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,Broad City, Search Party, and the 2018 film A Simple Favor. In 2019, Harrison appeared in Shrill as Ruthie. Co-creator and star Aidy Bryant contacted her through Instagram to encourage her to audition.
She currently co-hosts Comedy Central's digital series Unsend with Joel Kim Booster. Harrison is also a writer for the forthcoming season of Big Mouth on Netflix.
Personal life
Harrison is an artist and frequently posts her work on her Instagram. She also co-hosts a podcast called A Woman's Smile with Lorelei Ramirez.