NERD NATION to Play The EXIT Theater as Part of Divafest, 11/5-21

Stand-up comedian and Silicon Valley runaway, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, launches solo show NERD NATION, November 5-21 at The EXIT Theater as part of Divafest.

NERD NATION is a show about the evolution (not creation, because nerds believe in science) of Dhaya's nerd identity. The show also tells the heartbreaking and funny stories of other nerds across the America and the role of true nerds (beware the posers) in modern America. The show is presented by Divafest and the Exit Theater.

"I was a skinny brown kid whose physicist dad moved us to Birmingham, Alabama. How could I not get bullied for being smart?" asks Dhaya sarcastically. "But nerds are all amongst us now. We have arrived. Well kind of." She adds, "We are still a country where Kim Kardashian will always have more name recognition than Neil deGrasse Tyson. Booty still cannot compete with astrophysics although the sun will always be hotter than Kim."

NERD NATION, directed by Kathryn Wood, was developed in part by grants from the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center and was part of the United States of Asian America Festival 2015 celebrating "Sparking Light."

Dhaya is a rising star in stand-up comedy and storytelling. Dhaya has performed at San Francisco Sketchfest, Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, and the Boston Comedy Festival. She has opened for Greg Proops, Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron, and Dick Gregory. She was named "Best Comedian" in the Bay Guardian's 2013 Reader's Poll. She won Comedy Central Asia's "Ultimate Comedy Challenge." She is the monthly host of The Moth StorySLAM at Public Works in San Francisco and a regular storyteller on NPR's "Snap Judgment." She is an MIT graduate, a former management consultant, and reformed venture capitalist.

The EXIT Studio is located at 156 Eddy St, San Francisco, CA 94102. Tickets: $15 -$25 or online at www.divafest.info.