00:00I don't buy stuff like that because I'm a cheapskate.
00:02Hi, I'm Amitha Rao, and I'm on InStyle's 2026 Breakthrough List.
00:06I was a tutor at Kumon for the early learners section.
00:08Sometimes I would do the advanced stuff, but then the kids were better at math than me, and that was
00:11hard.
00:12Realizing I wanted to do comedy was like, oh, I can use my social alienation to make people laugh.
00:17Just felt like a huge, awesome gift.
00:19There's an awesome stand-up comedian in Chicago named Sam Hanley-Rosha.
00:23I think she's so funny.
00:24I feel like Rachel Dratch would be amazing if she was okay with race-blind casting.
00:29A John Paul Gauthier, like, bustier.
00:32I don't buy stuff like that because I'm a cheapskate.
00:34If I could only listen to one song for the rest of my life, it'd be Fireworks by Mitski.
00:37That video of the interviewer asking Ariana Grande if he can be a baby, and then he has a tantrum
00:42in front of her.
00:43That was really awesome.
00:44I don't really know.
00:45I try to stay off reels because they're super evil.
00:48I feel like Doja Cat's entirely bedazzled demon look lives rent-free in my head.
00:54No, I think I would thank my sister and my mother and my father and my brother.
00:59I was going to initially say mother, and then as I listed more family members, I was like,
01:02I can't leave any out.
01:03My first major booking, Nandika and Delhi Boys, and I'm pretty sure I called my sister or my dad.
01:07Your unique sensibility is so much better than anything that you can fit into.
