Urzila Carlson

Urzila Carlson's first foray into comedy occurred thanks to a dare from a colleague, who challenged her to enter a stand-up contest in 2008. Two years later, the South African-born and raised Carlson left a career in advertising to become a full time comedian. Carlson is a regular on TV panel series 7 Days, acted in comedy drama Super City and presented TV3 series Road Madness. In 2019, she was one of 47 comedians invited to perform on Netflix's Comedians of the World stand-up series. Carlson also works in Australia; she has appeared in several comedy festivals and on panel show Have You Been Paying Attention?

…I even got a scholarship to go study drama but I never took it, because I’m like ... 'that’s not a job, that’s not a thing'. It’s almost like I did my best to get away from it, but it wouldn’t leave me, you know? It’s like weight loss. I wanna lose it, it doesn’t wanna lose me [laughter]. Urzila Carlson, in her extended interview for 2019 TV series Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy