Mona Shaikh

Transforming Stand-Up

Mona Shaikh, a Muslim-American stand-up comedian, was so determined to expose the sexual abuse and harassment that often goes on unchecked behind the scenes at comedy clubs that she recruited 51 female comedians to speak on the record for a documentary she was developing. Her male producing partner, a well-known figure in the documentary world who had previously worked with Gloria Allred, began sexually harassing her. When she spurned him, he took legal measures to stop the documentary going ahead. She is not giving up. Not by a long shot.

Mona teamed up with Tower26 to tell her story and out of the gate she was featured in The Hollywood Reporter's coveted yearly Comedy Issue with a stirring narrative of an out of control industry: Why #MeToo Hasn’t Transformed the Stand-Up Scene

We are just beginning our campaign to hold sexual harassers and abusers in the comedy world to account.