Stavros Halkias


Stavros Emmanuel Halkias is an American comedian, writer, actor, and podcaster. Active since the early 2010s, he is a nationally touring comic who came to prominence as a founding co-host of the podcast Cum Town. As of 2024, he co-stars in the Netflix comedy series Tires and in 2025, he acted in the Yorgos Lanthimos film ''Bugonia.''

Early life

Halkias was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, to Greek immigrant parents, a Macedonian mother and Athenian contractor father. He has publicly spoken about being bullied for his weight as a child. Later, Halkias attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a public high school where he played football. He attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, working for Marc Steiner's Center for Emerging Media as an intern. He stated on the podcast Digression Sessions that he was a few credits short of graduating.

Career

Halkias began performing comedy while attending UMBC, at which he hosted a monthly comedy showcase. During this period, he was active in the greater Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia area and, in 2012, was named Baltimore's New Comedian of the Year.
He later moved to New York City, where he has since made numerous radio and podcast guest appearances, notably being co-host of and has written and performed on Adult Swim, IFC, MSG Network's People Talking Sports and Other Stuff. He has appeared in the Comedy Central series Comedy Central Stand Up Featuring, Life Fails, and Sex Fails, and has acted in other internet shorts. He has also performed at venues like the New York Comedy Festival and has opened for acts including Wham City, Tom Papa, and Robert Kelly.
Halkias is known for the podcast Cum Town, which he co-hosted with Nick Mullen and Adam Friedland from 2016 until his departure in June 2022. From 2019 to 2022, he co-hosted the basketball podcast Pod Don't Lie with Sam Morril. Prior to this podcast, he co-hosted White Chocolate NBA Pipecast with Friedland. He also hosted a Twitch series Stavvy Solves Your Problems from 2020 to 2021. In 2022, this series evolved into the podcast Stavvy's World.
In 2022, Halkias released his first comedy special, Live At The Lodge Room, on his YouTube channel, which reached 2 million views in three weeks. His second special, Stavros Halkias: Fat Rascal, was released on Netflix in December 2023.
In January 2023, Halkias modeled and performed at a menswear fashion and comedy show organized by designer Colm Dillane, also known as KidSuper, at the Casino de Paris.
Halkias has become well known for his crowd work, often engaging actively with the audience and riffing on their stories and anecdotes. Many of his stand-up clips on his YouTube channel feature this practice. In 2023, he released a half-hour crowd-work-only comedy special, Four Nights In NYC.
In 2024, Halkias co-starred in the Netflix series Tires. The same year the movie Sweethearts, where he plays a minor role, was released on Max, and he appeared in the talk show John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA. He also starred in the independent comedy film Let's Start a Cult, a film he wrote with director Ben Kitnick and co-star Wes Haney.
In 2025, Halkias played Officer Casey Boyd, a character in the Yorgos Lanthimos film Bugonia, alongside Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.

Personal life

Halkias is single. His tour manager and podcast producer is his childhood best friend Eldis Sula.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Halkias has been on a weight loss journey.
Halkias is a Baltimore Ravens and Olympiacos fan.
Halkias' involvement with Cum Town has occasionally caused controversy, with criticism levied at the podcast's association with the dirtbag left.

Political beliefs

Since Cum Town, Halkias' humor and general content has always marked him as a leftist person.
In 2025, Halkias appeared in a video with Zohran Mamdani to promote the latter's campaign in the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, which Mamdani later won.