Tanmay Bhat is an Indian comedian, YouTuber, writer and producer best known as a co-founder of All India Bakchod (AIB), the comedy collective that helped build his career across online videos, live performance and television. He later developed an independent YouTube presence and has also worked as an investor in startups. His career has moved between scripted comedy, stand-up, livestreams, advertising and screen appearances, with online video becoming a continuing part of his work after AIB.
Quick Facts
| Real Name | Tanmay Arun Bhat |
|---|---|
| Known As | Tanmay Bhat |
| Profession | Comedian, YouTuber, scriptwriter, actor, performer and producer |
| Date of Birth | 23 June 1987 |
| Age | 39 (as of November 2026) |
| Birthplace | Mumbai, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Education | R. D. National College and Jai Hind College; bachelor’s degree in advertising |
| Former Employers | All India Bakchod; Weirdass Comedy |
| Active Since | 2009 |
| Known For | Co-founding AIB and creating comedy videos and livestreams |
| Notable Works | Comicstaan, On Air With AIB, Tanmay Reacts |
| YouTube Channel | Tanmay Bhat |
Early Life and Education
Tanmay Arun Bhat was born in Mumbai on 23 June 1987 and grew up in a Kannada Brahmin family. He attended Cosmopolitan Education Society and Sheth Chunilal Damodardas Barfiwala High School in Andheri. His early education in Mumbai preceded a move into college activities that brought him into contact with student-led media and performance.
He went on to study at R. D. National College and Jai Hind College, completing a bachelor’s degree in advertising. While at R. D. National College, he started Cutting Chai Fest, a student-led media festival. Organising the event involved working on a creative project outside the usual classroom routine, and it offered an early setting for developing ideas for an audience.
Tanmay Bhat’s Career
Bhat began working in television before building a profile in stand-up comedy and online sketches. In 2009, he won Weirdass Ham-ateur Night, a national comedy hunt organised by comedian Vir Das. The competition brought him into a professional comedy setting while he was still developing experience as a television writer.
Early Television Writing and Performance
Tanmay Bhat made his television debut on Hass Ley India, UTV Bindass’s flagship comedy show. The programme used a television competition format built around comic performances, with aspiring performers presenting material to a panel and audience. His first appearance came on a channel associated with youth-focused entertainment, before his writing work broadened across several Indian broadcasters.
He wrote for MTV India’s Wassup and Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan. Wassup was part of MTV India’s youth programming, while Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan was a dance-based television series led by choreographer Saroj Khan. That programme combined instruction and performance, with Khan guiding participants through dance routines. Bhat then worked on story, screenplay and dialogue for television comedies, a role that called for shaping both the situations and the spoken exchanges in scripted episodes.
His writing credits included Disney India’s Kya Mast Hai Life, a sitcom following a group of teenagers and their friendships, and The Suite Life of Karan & Kabir, Disney Channel India’s adaptation of the American series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. The Indian version centred on twin brothers and their life in a hotel, using a family-comedy format for a young audience. Bhat also wrote for NDTV Imagine’s Oye! It’s Friday!, a talk show hosted by Farhan Akhtar. Its weekly format brought Akhtar together with celebrity guests for conversation and entertainment.
Bhat also wrote and produced India’s More Talent, a comedy show connected to Not True. The title played with the familiar television talent-show format, using comedy rather than a conventional search for performers. Alongside television work, he scripted award shows including the Filmfare Awards, Star Parivaar Awards, Balaji Awards, Big TV Awards and Stardust Awards. These live and televised ceremonies rely on presenter links, jokes and scripted segments between awards; his writing credits extended his work from episodic television into event programming.
Weirdass Comedy and Stand-Up
After winning the 2009 Ham-ateur Night competition, Bhat became part of Weirdass Comedy, the comedy company founded by Vir Das. The company developed live comedy performances and events, and Tanmay Bhat’s work there included stand-up. In those shows, he performed material directly for an audience rather than writing dialogue for actors or presenters. He continued performing during the period when he was also writing for television, moving between the live stage and commissioned scripts.
All India Bakchod
In 2013, Bhat co-founded the comedy collective All India Bakchod with Gursimran Khamba, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya. The group began as a YouTube channel, where short spoofs, sketches and mimicry-based videos could circulate beyond television schedules. Its members also performed stand-up and co-wrote live shows, keeping the collective active both on screen and in front of an audience.
AIB developed into a creative agency by early 2015, producing branded content for corporate clients as well as comedy. Its videos included song parodies and the satirical “Honest Indian…” series, which used a direct-to-camera comic approach to satirise familiar aspects of public life. The channel’s short-form sketches and parody videos became central to the group’s online identity. Bhat was a co-founder and held leadership roles as CEO and CFO. He stepped away from the company in October 2018 amid scrutiny over the handling of allegations against a freelancer who had worked with AIB. In May 2019, AIB said he was no longer suspended but had been removed as CEO.
Ragini MMS 2 and Mr. X
Bhat made a brief cameo in the 2014 film Ragini MMS 2, a Hindi supernatural horror film directed by Bhushan Patel and produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor. Starring Sunny Leone, it follows a film crew whose shoot at a haunted house becomes entangled with supernatural events. The movie combined horror with a commercial Bollywood release and continued the story world of the earlier Ragini MMS.
The following year, he appeared in Mr. X, a 2015 science-fiction thriller directed by Vikram Bhatt and starring Emraan Hashmi and Amyra Dastur. The film follows a man who becomes invisible after an accident and uses that ability in a story involving revenge and investigation. These roles added screen appearances to a career that had begun in comedy writing and performance.
Comicstaan
In 2018, Bhat served as a judge on the first season of Comicstaan, an Amazon Prime Video stand-up comedy competition created by Only Much Louder. The series set emerging comedians challenges in different styles of stand-up, with performers appearing before a panel of established comics and judges assessing their routines. It combined a competition structure with episodes focused on particular comedy forms. Tanmay Bhat joined the first-season judging panel as a comedian and writer with experience in both live performance and scripted comedy. He was removed from the judging panel for the second season in the wake of the AIB controversy.
Independent YouTube Channels
In mid-2019, Bhat launched the YouTube channel Tanmay Bhat, posting vlogs, comedy sketches, reaction videos and video essays. The channel’s mix of formats let him move between personal updates, edited comedy and commentary on material found online. He returned to livestreaming in November 2019 with streams of PUBG: Battlegrounds, the online multiplayer battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios. His channel later included gaming streams featuring games such as Among Us, a multiplayer social-deduction game in which players try to identify impostors among a crew.
He also created Honestly by Tanmay Bhat, a second channel for “learning streams” and videos featuring experts in different fields. These sessions took a conversational format, with an invited specialist discussing a subject alongside Bhat. The formats expanded his independent work beyond sketches and reaction content.
TreeMathon 2020
In January 2020, Bhat teamed up with YouTuber Saiman Says for TreeMathon 2020, an eight-hour livestream involving comedians playing Getting Over It. The game, developed by Bennett Foddy, is a physics-based climbing game in which players use a hammer to navigate a difficult course. Its demanding controls made it a natural fit for an extended stream built around comedians reacting to their progress and setbacks. Sorabh Pant, CarryMinati, Kaneez Surka and Zakir Khan were among the participants. The event supported Mission Green Mumbai and raised funds for tree planting in response to the Aarey Forest deforestation drive.
COVID-19 Charity Livestreams
In early April 2020, Bhat and comedian Kaneez Surka hosted an eight-hour livestream on each of two days, raising more than ₹1.7 million for charities working on the COVID-19 pandemic. The broadcasts used online games as a shared activity for comedians joining remotely, with conversation and play unfolding across the long sessions. Tanmay Bhat moderated games involving Rohan Joshi, Surka, Bhuvan Bam, Anuvab Pal, Varun Grover and Kusha Kapila. The format brought several performers together at a time when the pandemic had disrupted in-person events.
Tanmay Reacts
Netflix India began Tanmay Reacts in 2020, a digital series in which Bhat reacted to films and television shows. Released through Netflix India’s online presence, the programme drew on the reaction-video format, with Bhat watching clips and commenting on what was on screen. Episodes also featured him responding to memes and videos on his own channel, sometimes alongside a group of comedian and creator friends referred to as the “OG gang.” Guests included Vicky Kaushal, R. Madhavan, Kunal Kamra and Hanumankind. The guest-led episodes gave the series a conversational quality, with the reactions shaped by the participants watching together.
India’s Got Latent
Since 2024, Bhat has appeared as a guest judge on episodes of the comedy show India’s Got Latent. Created and hosted by Samay Raina, the YouTube series draws on the structure of a talent show while placing comic performances and audience interaction at its centre. Contestants present acts to a panel that includes Raina and guest judges, with the show’s humour built around the performances and the judges’ responses. Bhat’s appearances brought him back to a judging format after his work on Comicstaan.
Business and Brand Work
Advertising and Creative Work
In 2016, Bhat appeared in a Netflix advertisement in which he impersonated Pablo Escobar, the central character of the streaming service’s crime drama Narcos. The campaign used his comic impersonation to promote Netflix’s series to Indian viewers. From 2020 to 2021, he co-wrote scripts for advertisements for the financial services company CRED. The campaigns featured Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Bappi Lahiri, Ravi Shastri, Anil Kapoor, Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev and Neeraj Chopra. Their scripts placed well-known public figures in comic situations, with celebrity personas and familiar images serving as the material for the ads.
Startup Investments
Tanmay Bhat has taken part in startup investing, adding an investor role to his work in comedy and advertising. In October 2026, Indian Startup News and Mint reported that he joined Bessemer Venture Partners and Stride Ventures in an investment in Chapter Home, a home and kitchen brands company founded by former PharmEasy executives. The reported funding round was ₹63 crore. Chapter Home’s focus on household products placed the investment outside the entertainment businesses with which Bhat had been most closely associated.
Controversies
In May 2016, Bhat posted a Snapchat video impersonating Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar in a mock argument about who was the better player. The video prompted criticism, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena filed a First Information Report against him. Mumbai police also wrote to Google and YouTube requesting that the video be deleted. The outcome of the FIR was not reported in the cited coverage.
In 2017, an FIR was filed against Bhat over a meme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he posted on Snapchat.
In October 2018, writer and comedian Mahima Kukreja accused Utsav Chakraborty, a freelancer who had worked with AIB, of sending lewd messages and images to her and other women. Bhat was AIB’s CEO at the time. The controversy included criticism that comedians in Chakraborty’s circle, including Tanmay Bhat, knew about allegations of harassment but continued working with him. AIB announced on 8 October 2018 that Bhat would step away from his association with the company. Amazon removed him from the judging panel for the second season of Comicstaan.
In 2019, Bhat said in Instagram videos that he had clinical depression. Kukreja and comedian Aditi Mittal criticised his statements and questioned their sincerity. In May 2019, AIB announced that Bhat was no longer suspended but had been removed as CEO.
Recent Developments
A season two episode of India’s Got Latent featuring Bhat was released on YouTube in October 2026. His guest appearance placed him within a later run of the series, whose episodes bring contestants and a changing panel of judges together for comic performances.
Personal Life
Tanmay Bhat’s parents are Arun Bhat and Jaya Bhat.
Tanmay Bhat Net Worth
Tanmay Bhat Net Worth: What is the estimate?
Tanmay Bhat net worth has been estimated at approximately ₹665 crore, or about US$80 million. This is a reported estimate rather than a figure Bhat has publicly confirmed. His work has included comedy, writing, digital content, advertising and startup investment.
Social Media Presence
Bhat’s verified Instagram account, @tanmaybhat, had about 2.1 million followers as of November 2026. Its bio describes him as a comedian, entrepreneur and curious person.
Tanmay Bhat’s Official Social Media Profiles
- Instagram: @tanmaybhat
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Tanmay Bhat?
He is 39 as of November 2026. His birthday is 23 June.
What is Tanmay Bhat’s real name?
His full name is Tanmay Arun Tanmay Bhat.
Where did Tanmay Bhat study?
He attended R. D. National College and Jai Hind College, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in advertising.
What is Tanmay Bhat best known for?
He is best known as a co-founder of the comedy collective All India Bakchod and for his comedy and reaction content on YouTube.
What is Tanmay Bhat’s YouTube channel called?
His main channel is called Tanmay Bhat. He also created a second channel, Honestly by Tanmay Bhat.
Did Tanmay Bhat judge Comicstaan?
Yes. He judged the first season of the Amazon Prime Video competition in 2018.
Tanmay Bhat Wife: Is he married?
Bhat has not publicly confirmed that he is married.
What is Tanmay Bhat’s estimated net worth?
A reported estimate puts his net worth at about ₹665 crore, or US$80 million. It is not a publicly confirmed figure.
What was TreeMathon 2020?
TreeMathon 2020 was an eight-hour livestream in which comedians played Getting Over It to support Mission Green Mumbai and raise funds for tree planting.
What is Tanmay Reacts?
Tanmay Reacts is a Netflix India digital series in which Bhat reacts to films, television shows, memes and online videos.
References
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