Kali Varghese formerly known as Charlie George is a British writer, performer, poet and comedian from Swindon. In 2019, she won "The Comedy Bloomers LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year" and was a runner-up in both So You Think You're Funny and Funny Women.
As a scriptwriter, she has written for British comedy shows Have I Got News for You, Death to 2020, Death to 2021, Blankety Blank, Joe Lycett's Got Your Back and Frankie Boyle's New World Order.
Varghese was chosen to feature in Charlie Brooker’s writers' room for Cunk & Other Humans 2019, the BAFTA nominated AntiViral Wipe 2020, Death to 2020 & 2021 for Netflix and BBC’s Emmy nominated Cunk on Life. She has written for the C4 Election night special, 8 out of 10 cats, Hypothetical, Newsjack, The Now Show, Have I Got News For You, Horrible Histories, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, Stand Up to Cancer (C4) Kiri Pritchard-McLean’s Best Medicine (R4) Season 1 and 2 and Mawaan Rizwan’s BAFTA winning Juice (BBC).
She has been published in: Tangled Roots: Real Life Stories from Mixed Race Britain, Stories of Autistic Joy and HNDL Magazine. She currently writes on all things travel, nature, gardening and Decolonial perspectives on healing for our times at her Medium and Substack.
In 2020, she was one of a select group of 14 new writers selected by Penguin Random House UK for their WriteNow editorial programme.
In 2022, she worked with fellow comedian Victoria Comedy (winner of LGBTQ+ Comedian of the Year 2022) on the compilation show "Clandestina: Queer Comedy Triple Bill," which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In 2025, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work as a writer of Cunk On Life (Netflix).
She has written multiple original comedy/comedy-drama scripts and won two New York Festivals Radio Awards for ‘Best Writing’ & ‘Best Regularly Scheduled Comedy Programme’ for her writing contributions to ‘Rockanory’ an original series for Absolute Radio with Unusual Productions.
Varghese was a regular MC/host and spoke and gigged all across the country. She was the host of a large scale touring work in collaboration with artist Amartey Golding in a show called ‘Whose Anthem is it anyway?’ with a full live band, exploring an alternative collective national anthem for England with the public using a voting app.
She also co-hosted an Audible original podcast series exploring evidence-based solutions to improving wellbeing & mental health with anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota called ‘Happiness and how to get it.’ Because her preferred title ‘Despair and how to release its death grip.’ wasn’t “a viable option.” And hosted a podcast for the Tate Modern gallery called ‘The Art of Comedy.’
Varghese has been in the arts in the UK since her early teens, training at Circomedia in Bristol and setting up her own dance company Dark Island Dance where she choreographed and led commercial performances for festivals & large scale events, as well as community dance in care homes and specialist schools for those with disabilities.
In response to a sexist remark made in UK parliament and the creation of the feminist festival Calm Down Dear. Varghese formed the rebel feminist performance collective ‘The Femme Fatales’ exploring themes of sovereignty & bodily autonomy.
Varghese occasionally gigs for and speaks at organisations such as Faith to Faithless and Humanists UK who support people with the trauma of being raised within and leaving high control religious groups.
She is currently working on her first book.
Accolades Finalist, Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year, 2018 Winner, The Comedy Bloomers LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year, 2019 Runner-up, So You Think You're Funny, 2019 Runner-up, Funny Women, 2019 Finalist, Pride's Got Talent, 2019 Nominee, Chortle Awards Newcomer of the Year, 2020
Credits +YearProductionRole2022Latitude FestivalSelf2021Have I Got News For You - Series 62
Special - Have I Got 2021 For YouWriter (Additional Material)2021Death To 2020Writer2021Blankety Blank - Series 18
E7 - Episode Seven E8 - Episode Eight Special - Christmas SpecialWriter (Additional Material)2021Women in Comedy FestivalSelf2021Rhod Gilbert's Growing Pains - Series 2
E6 - Episode SixGuest2021RockanoryWriter (Additional Material)2021Green Man FestivalSelf2021Joe Lycett's Got Your Back - Series 3Writer (Additional Material)2021When you are desperate for a jobEmployee2021Country Mile Comedy FestivalSelf2021Cambridge Comedy FestivalSelf2021Laugh Lessons
E10 - Posh WitchRoo2021Yesterday, Today & The Day Before
E4 - Episode Four Special - Highlights SpecialWriter2021Have I Got News For You - Series 61
E5 - Episode FiveWriter (Additional Material)2021Hypothetical - Series 3
E2 - Episode TwoWriter (Additional Material)2020Death To 2021Writer2020The Now Show - Series 57Writer (Additional Material)2020Newsjack - Series 23
E1 - Episode OneWriter2020Frankie Boyle's New World Order - Series 4
E1 - Episode One Special - Unseen & Best BitsWriter2020Larmer Tree FestivalSelf2020Charlie Brooker's Antiviral WipeWriter (Additional Material)2020Stuart Goldsmith's Infinite Sofa
E15 - Episode FifteenGuest2020Circuit Breakers - 2020Self20208 Out Of 10 Cats - Series 22
E4 - Episode Four Special - Best BitsWriter (Additional Material)2019Cunk & Other Humans On 2019 E1 - Episode One E2 - Episode Two E3 - Episode ThreeWriter2019Women in Comedy FestivalSelf2019Asian Network Comedy - 2019 Specials
E1 - BBC Radio Theatre Special - 2019 Highlights Special, Part 1Self2014Asian Network Comedy
E10 - Asian Network Comedy HighlightsSelf2008Never BetterTom Merchant
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