Laura Ramoso

Legnago, then everywhere else

Ramoso was born in Legnago, in the province of Verona, in October 1995, to an Italian father and a German mother. Her mother's work for the World Health Organization moved the family repeatedly, and her childhood was spent in Cameroon, Azerbaijan, China and Vietnam. The two national registers she now performs — the German one clipped and disapproving, the Italian one loud and wounded — were domestic before they were material.

She moved to Canada for university and graduated from the University of Victoria in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre. Toronto followed, and with it the improv circuit: she was a sixth-season member of the Featured Players programme at The Bad Dog Theatre Company. That grounding matters to how the act reads on stage, because it is closer to clown and sketch discipline than to club stand-up.

Her first solo special, diane, premiered in 2020 and worked through physical comedy, clown and satire to build a run of different women all called Diane. It was a character show before anyone was watching the characters online.

The videos that arrived in 2022

The breakthrough was a set of clips posted in 2022 about American tourists recounting what they had just seen in Europe. From there the recurring cast assembled and stuck: German Mom, Italian Dad, Chiara the immovable Italian airline employee, a Canadian mother-in-law, and the three girls who have just got back from Europe. The following across platforms now stands at more than 3.5 million.

She kept working live through the same period rather than treating the phone as the destination. In 2022 she launched Laura Ramoso & Friends, an improv night at the Social Capital Theatre in Toronto, and appeared in The Night Market, an episode from the fourth season of What We Do in the Shadows.

Frances, and the test of the full hour

The debut Edinburgh Fringe hour, Frances, played the Pleasance in August 2023 in the 8.20pm slot. It hung the sketches on a narrative: a former couple, Frank and Frances, meeting two months after their break-up, with musical numbers, audience participation and an open-mic sequence folded in as the absurdity escalated.

The Skinny gave it four stars, with Sarah Hopkins writing that Ramoso moved freely across a stage after years confined to a phone screen, used small tonal shifts to separate characters, and that "the slickness of the show proves Ramoso's commitment to her craft" — concluding that she was "here for good". whynow also gave four stars on 7 August 2023, praising her recovery when moments went wrong and rating the subtle crowd work among the best material, while judging the connective story weaker than the characters it linked. That criticism — the sketches outrunning the spine holding them together — has been the consistent note on her long-form work.

The run sold out, transferred to London's Soho Theatre, and in the same year she was named a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy.

Sit Up Straight and the jump to real rooms

Her third special, Sit Up Straight, became her first international tour in 2024, running more than 60 sold-out shows through Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the UK and North America. The framing was a dinner party: German Mom and Italian Dad hosting, with the rest of the cast arriving through the evening. The Guardian called her "a stellar performer", The Times "huge talent", and Time Out concluded that "it's hard not to be won over".

The scale-up was the significant part. Within two years of the first Fringe hour she was playing room sizes that most character acts never reach, and she has since opened for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on their Restless Leg tour in Boston. Her personal life stayed offstage: she eloped with Gaelan McMillan in December 2019 and held the formal ceremony on 22 June 2024.

Where she is in autumn 2026

The current show is her fourth special, Calm Down, and she has described it as a series of sketches with a narrative arc over the top, and the most personal thing she has made. The world tour opened at Just for Laughs Vancouver in January 2026.

Australia and New Zealand were announced on 31 October 2025 and played in March: Auckland's Bruce Mason Centre on 1 March, Brisbane Powerhouse on 4 and 5 March, Norwood Concert Hall in Adelaide on 8 March, the Regal Theatre in Perth on 11 March, the Palais in Melbourne on 13 March and the State Theatre in Sydney on 14 and 15 March. The European and British leg followed in spring, taking in 27 cities across that stretch of the tour and reaching the London Palladium on 28 and 29 April.

Live Nation announced the North American leg on 17 March 2026, with artist presale on 18 March and general on-sale on 20 March: 19 cities running from The Wilbur in Boston on 11 September to the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto on 13 November, via the Beacon Theatre in New York on 13 September, Chicago on 25 September, Los Angeles on 17 October and Seattle on 24 October. Demand outran the schedule in Boston — with both announced Wilbur shows close to sold out, a third was added on 2 April for 9 September. As of late September 2026 the run is a fortnight old, with Boston, New York and Chicago played and the western dates still ahead.