About
DeadAnt is an iconic and terrible joke from the 90s. Geddit? Doesn’t matter.
Standup comedy is here and its time is now, and we believe its potential for impact is massive. So we’re going to do everything we can to keep you up to date on what’s up—news, reviews and interviews; the big fish and the small fry; your favourite comedians RN, who you’re going to be obsessed with next, and where you can watch everyone live.
It’s an effort to chronicle and track the changing landscape of the most exciting space right now in pop culture, without using the words ‘edgy’ or ‘alternative’ (harder than you think). Through this, we hope to also play a small part in engaging and growing the community.
Consider this your all-access pass.
Online Publication | Creative Studio | Events & IPs
WHO WE ARE
RAVINA RAWAL
FOUNDER & EDITOR
Ravina Rawal is the founder and editor of Dead Ant. With 15 years of experience in media and entertainment, Rawal has previously led the voice of brand on digital as Editorial & Social Head for several youth-focussed media including MTV India, Comedy Central, Vh1 India, MTV Beats and Colors Infinity. She is the former editor of Motherland, The Sunday Guardian20, and MTV Noise Factory. She can’t remember the last time she took a nap.
NITA JOSHI
COO • HR HEAD
Nita Joshi is the COO and Head of HR at Dead Ant. She was previously founding partner of K&J Search Consultants—an executive search consultancy with a special focus on recruitment for the New Economy sectors including Media, Communications and Entertainment—for over 20 years. K&J Search Consultants went on to become a leading search firm in their domain, working with a wide range of clients from large established multinational brands to gutsy start ups, like ours. In her spare time… LOL/JK, she has none.
ARJUNA SHANKAR
TECHNICAL ANTMASTER
Arjuna spends his time between code editors and nylon strings. He writes and thinks in Javascript. When not in front of a terminal, he listens to lots of boring music and plays classical guitar. He is currently based in Toronto.
RAVISH RAWAL
MOBILE APPLICATION DEV
Ravish Rawal is our app developer. When he’s not falling off ski lifts in Vermont, he works as a Mechanical Engineer designing smart home infrastructure in New York City. He also enjoys programming, and building digital platforms and apps. The Dead Ant app is ‘Coming Soon’ because it’s still winter in that part of the world, and gloves are inconvenient for coding.
SHANTANU SANZGIRI
FEATURES WRITER
Shantanu Sanzgiri writes articles and struggles to meet his deadlines when he isn’t listening to comedy podcasts or solving crossword puzzles. He is an accomplished air guitarist who previously dabbled in music long enough to produce catchy tunes for ads and short films. He once talked us into giving him a job and now refuses to leave.
AMRITA CHANDA
PRODUCER
Amrita Chanda is a standup comedian by night, producer at DeadAnt by day, and Kolkata’s self-appointed brand ambassador by choice. Before moving to Mumbai, she ran the TopCat Retired Comedy Club in Kolkata and freelanced as a writer. She was profiled in DeadAnt’s publication as the ‘Next Big Thing’ in Indian comedy in 2021; by 2023, she had marched right in and turned our office into her home.
JANANI SURESH
COMMUNITY MANAGER & SPECIAL PROJECTS
When we met Janani Suresh, she was just about giving up her dream of becoming an influencer because she realised it was actually a nightmare. She has previously worked as a campaign manager at a talent management company in India, has experience in influencer marketing with Media Kix (California), and was an assistant to the creative director and head of brand partnerships at YMU (Los Angeles) for multiple artists including Blink-182, Steve Aoki and Rush.
KARAN BAIKAMPADI
HEAD OF BUSINESS
Karan Baikampadi is in cahoots with the founder to build and grow DeadAnt Media into a sustainable business. With 15 years experience in media and entertainment, he brings with him unmatchable expertise in creative and content production for both Indian and global markets. He has previously led creative marketing production at Netflix and branded platforms at Viacom18 and the non-fiction lead at TVF. He has a fluffy af cat called Zuzu that he won’t stop showing us photos of.
