Our Mission
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Our Story
Women Stand Up NYC is a women-led organization that creates a space to empower people of marginalized genders through stand up comedy. WSU NYC creates a supportive community for aspiring comedians by providing a safe space for all jokes to be explored to fruition without judgment. Our services execute this vision by catering both to newcomers and seasoned comics alike, giving them performance opportunities, educational programs, and a lifelong network. We elevate the voices of our comics in order to equalize a field predominantly dominated by cis men.
WSU was started in 2019 by Brittany Raper and Natalie Gifford, with its immediate goal being to create a nurturing and safe community for female identifying people to try stand up for the first time. In keeping with this goal, the program was a cross between a writers’ group and a mentorship. At the time of its start, WSU was the only program of its kind in the city.
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In Fall of 2020 the reigns were then handed over to Alumni Paula J. Leon, Leorah Wood, and Susan Dorf a new team that sought to create a structured curriculum, and appointed Heads of Education, Production, and Media to serve the needs of our new program. Under this leadership, the program has pivoted from serving only female identifying comics, to comics of all marginalized genders. Since Spring 2024 Paula J. Leon took on both Head of Education and Production alongside Alumn Sarah Thomas as Head of Media. Since 2024 WSU NYC has been blossoming being featured in the Knockouts Festival and now a new residency at The Stand, come brunch with us!
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Today, we have a network of 80+ alumni, and have had the pleasure of working with industry talent including Maddie Wiener (Tonight Show/ Comedy Central), Jes Tom (Just for Laughs, Netflix), the El-Salomons (The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Just for Laughs), and Chanel Ali (Comedy Central/MTV).
