Ria Lina

Winner of the EMMA Award for Best Comedian, Ria Lina makes an impact with her dry wit and bawdy ukulele songs, having been a regular on the international stand-up comedy for the past 14 years. Her most recent show “School of Riason” was nominated for the Amused Moose Laughter Awards at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, contained one of Dave TV’s Top 10 Jokes of the Festival, and was commissioned by Radio 4 as a half-hour special to be aired in 2016.

Previous projects include her critically acclaimed shows “Thpethial” (2013) and “It’s Not Easy Being Yellow” (2012), which travelled to the Brighton Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, and Singapore International Festivals. She also wrote for the Ladyboys of Bangkok “Fantasy & Feathers” 2010 & “Glamorous Amorous” 2013 tours, and wrote/acted for the ITV2 comedy sketch show (Meet the Blogs).

In the past, Ria has written and presented her own documentary for Channel 4 revealing the truth behind the myths that surround oriental women in Britain; other projects include the comedy series, Sweet n’ Sour Comedy and Malai Monologues, for BBC3; The World Stands Up, for Comedy Central (USA), the Paramount Comedy Channel (UK), and the Comedy Network Channel (AUS).

Before becoming a full-time stand up, Ria was a scientist, having a Bsc in Experimental Pathology, MSc in Forensic Science, and a PhD in Viral Bioinformatics. She worked as an IT Forensic Investigator for the Serious Fraud Office and served on the Virus Data subcommittee of the International Committee of the Taxonomy of Viruses.