Mona Sharma

Mona Sharma (Birthname: Simone Erica Sharma), (born January 29, 1973, in New Delhi, India) is a German actress, comedian, comedy acting coach, and author.
==Biography==
Mona Sharma was born as the daughter of an Indian journalist and cameraman and a German naturopath. She has two older siblings. After graduating from high school in Cologne in 1992, she studied German language, literature, and media studies for four semesters, took singing lessons and speech training, and worked in various comedy and improvisation workshops. From July 1994, she worked as a stand-up comedian for Living Media and was discovered there by the Bonn cabaret artist Anka Zink. Today, Mona Sharma works as a comedy acting coach in Bonn.
==Television==
From 1995 she worked as a reporter for the WDR television show Lollo Rosso and the radio station 1 Live. Together with Bastian Pastewka, she hosted the show Best of Lollo Rosso and starred in the news comedy Important, which also ran on the WDR youth program. She became known nationwide in 1997 as an ensemble member in the comedy series Switch in the role of the fictitious Polish presenter Heidi Pršblybzçka of "Deutsche Welle Poland." Other well-known roles included "The Nelly van Sale Homeshow" and her parody of Arabella Kiesbauer. From 2007 to 2009 she was part of the ensemble of the new edition Switch reloaded. A selection of her roles there are the parody of Indira, Hadiya Hohmann as QVC presenter, "Astro-TV", Pippi Longstocking, "Melanie Schwakowiak" (with Peter Nottmeier as Schalke fan Herbert Schwakowiak) and her parody of Tatjana Gsell.
==Author==
Since 1996, Mona Sharma has been writing sketches for television and developing concepts and comedy formats. Initially, she wrote numerous humorous commentaries for the WDR youth program, where she developed the news comedy Important together with Bastian Pastewka, Alexander von Eisenhart-Rothe and Michael Schmidt. She has been working as an author for Switch since the pilot episode and wrote mainly sketches for her sections, including "Deutsche Welle Poland", "VIVA Parody", "Nelly van Sale – Fixbesteck" and "Get Wet Boys". She also came up with more sketches for Switch reloaded, especially with her fellow author Georg Weyers-Rojas, including "QVC", "Schwakowiaks" and "Astro-TV". Mona Sharma works as a columnist for the magazine Marco Tozzi Trendguide. Lappan Verlag has published four humorous books by her. On November 6, 2008, the US production company Allan McKeown Presents announced that Mona Sharma would write the German version of Tracey Ullman's sketch comedy show State of the Union under the title Lage der Nation. In 2016, she published the book "Et kütt wie et kütt" with Ralph Ruthe, in which cartoons from the Ruthe "Shit Happens" dialect series were translated into Cologne by Sharma.
==Comedy acting coach==
Since 2005, Mona Sharma has been working as a comedy acting coach. She trains and advises artists and people who want to professionalize themselves on stage and in front of the camera, such as: comedians, actors, presenters, speakers, public figures and people in leadership positions.
==Awards==
* 2007: German Comedy Award as ensemble member of Switch reloaded (Best Sketch Show)
* 2008: German Comedy Award as ensemble member of Switch reloaded (Best Sketch Show)
* 2008: German Television Award as ensemble member of Switch reloaded (Best Comedy Series)
* 2009: Romy as a member of the ensemble of Switch reloaded (Special Jury Prize)
Category:1973 births
Category:People from New Delhi
Category:German actresses
Category:Comedians