Announcing our 2026 Billy T Awards Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2026 Billy T Award is here!

19 of Aotearoa’s brightest up and coming comedians have been handpicked to bring their sharpest, funniest material, all chasing a shot at becoming a 2026 Billy T Award Nominee.

These incredible artists will all be performing at the Billy T Showcase at Herald Theatre on Saturday 13 September. From there, 5 will be selected as the 2026 Billy T Nominees and will perform during the 2026 NZ International Comedy Festival, with the Billy T Award winner named during the final event of the Festival, Last Laughs. 

Here's the shortlist:

Alayne Dick

Alayne is a writer and comedian. She has previously performed her debut stand-up hour Purple is the Gayest Colour at the NZ Int. Comedy Festival in 2024 (Wellington) and 2025 (Auckland). In 2025 she also toured the show to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne Int. Comedy Festival and Qtopia Sydney Pride Festival, to great reviews.

This year, Alayne performed at the New Zealand Int. Comedy Festival Gala in Wellington, and was featured in the festival’s recorded comedy special Best Comedy Show On Earth (TV3/ThreeNow).

 
Annie Guo

After accidentally making it into the RAW Comedy Quest final in 2023, Annie started her standup comedy journey at full speed. Annie is a unique new voice in the New Zealand Comedy scene. She has a fresh perspective and a wit for precise punchlines - if you can understand the accent. 

 
Anthony Crum

Anthony is an award winning New Zealand Stand Up Comedian, Improviser and Actor. In 2023 he won ‘Best Debut’ at the NZ Comedy Festival alongside Bailey Poching in their critically acclaimed duo show ‘Hot Filthy Garbage’. He also created and performed ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ with Poching for the 2025 NZ Comedy Festival. Crum is also a founding and current member of Improv/sketch group Bull Rush Improv – performing every Friday at Basement Theatre.

 
Clarissa Chandrahasen

Clarissa Chandrahasen (she/her) is an award-winning comedian and theatre-maker of Fijian-Indian and Irish Pākehā heritage, celebrated for her sharp, wry, and subversive humor. Her unique voice blends millennial relatability with cultural depth, addressing themes like identity, queerness, relationships, and societal pressures. 

A standout talent in New Zealand’s comedy scene, Clarissa debuted in 2017 as a Raw Comedy Quest semi-finalist and has performed in professional comedy gigs ever since. Her sold-out shows Committed (Fringe Festival and BATS seasons, 2018) earned her the Parkin Development Award and the Wellington Comedy Awards' "Most Improved Comedian." She has since expanded her reach internationally, performing to enthusiastic audiences in Edinburgh and London.

 
Dr Jo Prendergast

Jo is an Ōtautahi Christchurch based comedian, improviser, and actor. She is also a psychiatrist, Harper Collins published author, and film producer. Jo is often tired.

Jo started stand-up comedy in 2017 at the age of 48. Her award winning debut show ‘Jo Ghastly- The Cool Mum’ toured extensively around Australia and NZ and had a successful season at Gilded Balloon Edinburgh Fringe in 2024.  Jo’s second solo show ‘Cancer and cartwheels’ has just finished a full tour of Australian festivals with sold out shows and great reviews.

 
Henry Yan

Henry Yan is a confident nerd that enjoys the absurdities of his everyday life and the nuances that make him giggle. He loves to delve into his experiences with family and his struggles to comprehend normal life while being cheeky with the audience.

 
Jak Darling and Booth the Clown

2025 Billy T Nominees Booth the Clown and Jak Darling came together in a supernova with their debut show Delightfool. They've been touring their camp, silly, explosive chemistry throughout Aotearoa and about to make their international debut performing in the Melbourne Fringe Festival. They've swept up awards including the Outstanding Theatre, Outstanding Performance (Collective) and various tour ready awards. These genderfluid jesters are rising stars and showcase vaudeville with a contemporary queer twist.

Joel Vinsen

Absurd, dark, and frequently silly; Joel Vinsen approaches stand-up with equal parts respect and contempt. Unpredictable dumb/smart comedy delivered in a deadpan style. A true original. 2022 National Raw Quest Finalist 2022, 2023 & 2024 “Comic Originality” Nominee, New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards. 2024 New Zealand International Comedy Festival - ‘Most unhinged show’ nominee 2024 Finalist - Best Comedy Award, Whangarei Fringe

 
Kajun Brooking

Raised on the gang infested streets of Hastings, Kajun moved to Whanganui in search of a better life. This is where he cultivates cunning comedy and hustles sticky punchlines based on life experience. 

Described as quick witted and punchy, his mission is to make at least one person laugh. If he can do that, his job is done for the night and he can continue to prove to his 17 year old Son that Dad is actually funny.

As seen on TikTok, Te Karere and The Hui. Kajun is a 7x award winning comedian that you need to look out for but not in a Police Ten 7 kind of way.

 
Kipling DC

Kipling DC is the self proclaimed ‘Big Dog’ of Wellington comedy. This jack russell with a microphone uses his quick wit and killer crowdwork to leave his audiences in stitches and constantly guessing about what’s coming next.

Hailing originally from the mighty Whangārei, this award comedian has taken his jokes up and down Aotearoa and left nothing off the table. He’s a little self deprecating, a little bit cheeky, especially silly, and most of all very very funny!

Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutu

Laser Kiwi

Unique in form, Laser Kiwi (The World’s Only Surreal Sketch Circus) combines off the wall comedy and jaw dropping circus to create wonderfully diverse and bizarre masterpieces. They’re irreverent, they’re funny, with world class circus skills and a knack for breaking the mould. This unique group embodies a simple mission to celebrate a life less serious and to inspire the world to do the same! 

The tight knit trio consists of brothers Zane and Degge, voted the best jugglers in New Zealand and world-class aerialist, Imogen Stone. Their first show as Laser Kiwi as a spontaneous ad-hoc one off in a Canadian Fringe and they’ve been from strength to strength since then. They are circus artists, variety entertainers, comics and street performers.

 
Lily Catastrophe

Lily Catastrophe is a rising star and award-winning comedian based in te Whanganui-ā-Tara. She won Best New Comedian at the Wellington Comedy Awards 2024 before cementing her place in the scene with her debut solo show BOTTOM SURGERY, for which she was nominated Best Newcomer during the New Zealand International Comedy Festival 2025. Her puckish energy, oddball observations, and all-too-personal stories about being a queer immigrant in Aotearoa make her one to watch.

 
Michelle Wiley

Michelle Wiley is an up-and-coming comedian from Tāmaki Makaurau, voted the Best Newcomer (Upper NI) 2023 at the New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards and a RAW Grand Finalist in 2023. A self-proclaimed comedy nerd, she finds the junction of earnest jokes and goofy jokes and plants her flag there.

 
Mike Fowler

Presenting an observational style peppered with a healthy dose of cynicism, Mike has become a regular performer in the Wellington comedy scene since 2017, leading to appearances in multiple Fringe Festivals around NZ, and the NZ International Comedy Festival, where he was awarded Best Debut for Wellington in 2019, and Best Up & Comer in the Wellington Comedy Awards 2020. 

 
Ocean Denham

Ocean Denham is an Auckland based comedian that exploded onto the scene after realising that improv was too much work. Although Ocean has a no holds barred approach to comedy, she brings a warm inviting atmosphere to her shows that feel more like having coffee with a friend then watching a performance.

Opeti Vaka

If you ask him why he started performing comedy, he'll tell you "Well I actually started running out of options.." Born in Wellington, with a dollop of South Auckland styla, add in a sprinkle of life in the fast lane with his very large whanau and their antics, take a pinch of "what the f**k?", and wrap it all up in a person of multiple colours, those colours being 2 shades of brown (Tongan & Maori), well you get a very comedic perspective of his world.

Orin Ruaine-Prattley

Orin Ruaine-Prattley is one of Aotearoa’s most exciting new voices in comedy. Making his name after winning the Wellington Comedy Quest in 2021, he’s since gone from strength to strength, picking up Best Newcomer at the 2023 New Zealand International Comedy Festival for his standout debut show 'I’m Busy'. After two years honing his craft on the competitive Melbourne comedy circuit, Orin has returned to New Zealand, where his sharp humour and playful perspectives continue to shine. 

Orin blends clever observations with a socially conscious, political edge. His comedy balances thought-provoking storytelling and absurdist observations with laugh-out-loud punchlines, earning him a reputation as a fresh and fearless performer to watch. 

Samantha Hannah

Samantha Hannah is a Scottish comedian now based in Wellington. She has created several festival shows, including her debut solo show ‘How to Find a Husband in a Year’ which documented a real-life dating experiment that resulted in her moving to New Zealand for love. ‘How to Find Happiness (in a Year)’ followed and sold out its run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, was a finalist for the Funny Women Best Show Award, and was filmed for NextUp Comedy. 

Since moving to New Zealand, Samantha has had sold-out runs at NZICF with her latest show ‘Female Lady Women Comedians’, been nominated across multiple categories at the Wellington Comedy Awards (including Best Show, Best MC and Best Comedian), and launched two podcasts, ‘Are We Pals?’ (winner of Best Online Production at the NZ Comedy Guild Awards 2024) and ‘Myternity Leave’. She’s also known for her online series ‘101 things to do in Wellington (that don’t need to involve drinking!)’. Her comedy blends storytelling, stand-up and high-concept themes.

 
Sean Collier

Hailing originally from Whangarei, Sean began his comedy career performing to three people in a dingy pub in Christchurch. Since then he has gigged all around the world, recently making waves on the Australian comedy circuit with his sharp and thought-provocative standup. Winner of the Comedy Out West Competition at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (2025) and the Best Newcomer (Auckland, 2025) award at the NZ Comedy Festival.

See them all at the Billy T Applicant Showcase, Saturday 13 September at Herald Theatre, Auckland. Tickets are on sale now from comedyfestival.co.nz.