Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Wali Collins reigns as one of New York’s top comedians. In addition, Wali is an accomplished drummer and still performs as a member of the Central Park Djembe drummers. Most notably, Wali has the distinct honor of having been the youngest percussionist to ever join the New England Jazz Society. An Architect by profession, Wali always had a keen sense of humor. With his parents urging, he tried stand-up comedy and there was no turning back. Following his first ever stand-up comedy performance, Wali was convinced that he had bombed, but the manager paid him and asked him to come back every week as a featured act. A move to New York City soon followed when he was hired to host Comedy Central’s “Stand-up Stand-up” which featured the largest funniest, most varied collection of stand-up comedians in the world.It wasn’t long before he took the college market by storm. He was nominated three years in a row as “College Campus Entertainer of the Year”. Corporate events followed and Wali has become one of the most requested host/emcee’s for Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, L’Oreal, Johnson and Johnson and FEDEX. Wali is a regular at all of the main stream Comedy clubs in New York City and Los Angeles and headlines clubs and theatres around the world.
Collins’ television stand-up credits include HBO, ABC’s “The View”, Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd” and Comedy Central. David Letterman caught Wali’s act and recruited him to do warm-up for his show. Later that season Wali was a featured performer on the “Late Show with David Letterman”.
Wali was featured as one of the lead actors in the Independent film, “Claire Makes It Big” and the award winning “Maybe Means No”. He also had a role in the Jerry Bruckheimer film “Coyote Ugly”. Television credits include roles in the hit sitcom “Spin City” and Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show”. He was the host of the recent PBS series special, “Wild TV”. And if Wali’s face looks familiar to you it’s because you’ve seen him in numerous national television commercials.
In the words of Robert Klein, “Wali Collins is versatile, smart and very, very funny. Wali is headed only one way, Stardom.” If you haven’t seen Wali do his thing in either stand up or acting, you’re missing out on one very gifted man.
Check out this recent interview with Wali.
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