Ashley Gavin

Ashley Gavin is a comedian from New York City who studied computer science and helped craft the curriculum for Girls Who Code, before deciding to embark on her own path in comedy in 2012. Gavin says she became Carnival Cruise Line’s first openly gay performer later that decade, and when the pandemic shut down that gig, she pivoted to podcasting and social media, where she has found even greater success. First with a hit podcast, We’re Having Gay Sex, and then accumulating more than 1.4 million followers on TikTok. Gavin’s self-released special, Ashley Gavin: Live In Chicago, has garnered upward of a million views since she uploaded the hour to YouTube in April 2023.

Gavin sat down with me over Zoom to talk about her inadvertent branding of a look, how she applied her coding experience to navigating the new technologies for comedy and show business, the art and science of crowd work, and what she has learned from going viral in both the very best and very worst possible ways. Gavin is bringing her new hour to the Edinburgh Fringe, My Therapist Is Dying, which goes back farther into her childhood. Her comedy may be dark, but she most certainly isn’t. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!