Rising comedian Paul Elia is ready to establish an excellent distance from the word RISE and arrive at his destination of SUPERSTARDOM with his debut comedy special Detroit Player, his first-ever shot at the Detroit House of Comedy.
Directed by Elia’s longtime friend Dan Ringey, with whom he previously collaborated on the indie crime thriller Dirty.
Hailing from The LowKey Company & Avesta Entertainment, the special is produced by Bassem Youssef, Azhar Usman and Danny Mooney.
Exec producers are Christina Shams and Matt Rife.
Elia’s new hour was independently financed with help from friends and supporters including Mint Comedy, Assyrian American National Federation, and his childhood friend Nawras Najor’s dental office, Devoted Dental, among others.
In preparation for the tapings, he went on the road with longtime friend Rife, hitting numerous cities across the U.S.
An L.A.-based stand-up comedian, actor, and content creator originally from Detroit, Michigan, Elia is perhaps best known for appearing in over a dozen sketches on TBS’s Conan, as well as on such acclaimed series as Ramy and Lady Dynamite.
Currently, he’s a series regular in longtime friend and former roommate Ramy Youssef’s Amazon/A24 animated series #1 Happy Family USA.
An Iraqi-American artist with over 240,000+ followers on TikTok, Elia produced Rife’s specials Natural Selection and Matthew Steven Rife after serving as an associate producer on his debut special, Only Fans. He’s otherwise best known for his web series Roommates co-starring comedian Ian Edwards, and for Lowkey Outside, his and Rife’s indie L.A. comedy show birthed during the coronavirus pandemic, in response to the halting of live entertainment.
Previously, the show has been featured on The Tonight Show, as well as at Netflix is a Joke Fest, the Dubai Comedy Festival and Just For Laughs.
