Kanan Singh Gill is an Indian comedian, actor, author and YouTuber. He won the Punch Line Bangalore Competition. He is known for the YouTube series Pretentious Movie Reviews where he reviews campy Bollywood films along with fellow stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath. He was one of the main personalities behind the YouTube Comedy Hunt and also co-hosted the YouTube FanFest India. In 2017, he released his own one-hour comedy special, Keep It Real on Amazon Prime Video. He made his debut on the big screen with the film Noor, alongside Sonakshi Sinha. In 2018, he was also a judge on Comicstaan, a comedic reality TV show, on Amazon Prime Video. He released his new special Is This It? on YouTube in 2024.
Early life Kanan was born in Bareilly to a Sikh family and spent his early years in Dehradun and Delhi. His father Charanjit Singh Gill, an officer with the Indian Army was also the principal of Rashtriya Military School, Bangalore. At an early age, he moved to Bengaluru with his family. He did his schooling at Ahlcon Public School, New Delhi, and The Frank Anthony Public School, Bengaluru. He pursued a B.E. degree in Computer Science at MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology. He was a part of a band where he later became the lead singer when he started writing humorous songs.
Career Kanan worked as a software engineer at Exeter Group, Inc., for three years. In the meantime, he participated in and won a competition called Punchline Bangalore, followed by another win at the Comedy Store in Mumbai. He then quit his job to pursue a career in comedy.
He gained popularity with a YouTube series, Pretentious Movie Reviews. He reviewed critically panned Hindi movies along with Biswa Kalyan Rath. Kanan also worked in an improvised sketch comedy show, The Living Room, on Comedy Central. Gill made his acting debut in Sunhil Sippy's Noor in 2017, alongside Sonakshi Sinha. The same year, Gill launched his special Keep It Real on Amazon Prime Video. In 2020, his special Yours Sincerely was released on Netflix. He released two more specials, Is This It? (2023) and What Is This? (2025), directly on YouTube, and is currently touring with a show named "Not This Again". In 2023, he also starred in the Norwegian romantic comedy called Christmas As Usual alongside Ida Ursin-Holm.
In 2024, HarperCollins released Acts of God, Gill's debut novel. It is a comedy-science fiction story based on a short story that he wrote in 2016–17.
Filmography Film Year Film Role LanguageNotes2017NoorSaad Sehgal Hindi2023Aachar & CoKannadaCo-writerChristmas As Usual Jashan JoshiNorwegianEnglish
Web Year Name Platform Notes 2017 Keep It Real Amazon Prime VideoStand-Up Comedy Special 2016–2019 Better Life Foundation YouTube Produced by Them Boxer Shorts Released by All India Bakchod 2014–present Pretentious Movie ReviewsI Can Do ThatHow Insensitive 2014–2017 Son of Abish Season 1 Season 2 with Biswa Kalyan Rath Season 3 with Sonakshi Sinha2018The Improvisers: Something From NothingAmazon Prime VideoAlongside Kenny Sebastian, Abish Mathew, Kaneez Surka2018-2019ComicstaanJudge 2019Sketchy Behaviour2020Yours Sincerely, Kanan Gill NetflixStand-Up Comedy Special2023Is This It?Paytm Insider, YouTubeStand-Up Comedy Special 2024Dil Dosti DilemmaAmazon Prime VideoRole: Nasir Akhtar Episode 4: Keeping SecretsEpisode 6: The Celebration2026What is this?YouTubeStand-Up Comedy Special
References
External links