Felipe Esparza is a comedian and actor, best known for his raw, real-life comedy that audiences everywhere can relate to. Recognized for his wild hair and his often-imitated phrase, "what's up, fool?", people are surprised to find out that Felipe is also the same person referred to and imitated in infamous stories by fellow comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. Felipe won NBC's Last Comic Standing in 2010, and soon after, starred in and produced his first 1 hour Showtime special, and is now touring comedy clubs and theaters across the world and working on a new 1 hour special. He also launched a popular new podcast April 1, 2014, entitled, "What's Up Fool?", on the All Things Comedy podcast network.
Felipe also appeared in two advertising campaigns in 2014. The first was for Honda (the 2015 Honda Fit), where they created a campaign with Felipe in mind as the spokesperson. It was the first time Honda had created a campaign for the Fit targeted specifically to the Latino market. This campaign involved a heavy social media component and earned it a place in the top 5 Latino social media ad campaigns. Adweek also highlighted the ad for the way it targets Hispanic millennials by making fun of the way advertisers try to target Hispanic millennials. The second ad campaign launched during the fall of 2014 for Target Mobile services with three different, quirky, fast-paced commercials co-starring Felipe and Lauren Lapkus (from Orange Is the New Black).
Felipe is a product of the streets of East Los Angeles (Boyle Heights, to be exact) and much of his material is the result of seeing the humor in the struggles of everyday life. "Over the years, I've noticed so many changes in all the neighborhoods around me. Gentrification starts to happen and bad neighborhoods start to become good but I like to show the other side of it... I have a joke that kind of shows that. It starts off, 'I know I'm not a tough guy, but I'm pretty sure I can beat up everyone who shops at Trader Joe's'."
In addition to winning the top prize on Last Comic Standing, Felipe has appeared on numerous television shows, including "The Eric Andre Show", "Arsenio Hall", "The Tonight Show", "Lopez Tonight", TruTV's "World's Dumbest", Comedy Central's "Premium Blend" and "Russell Simmons Presents Stand-Up at the El Rey", "Comics Unleashed", Showtime's "Comics Without Borders", BET's "Comic View", and Galavision's "Que Locos" (where he had more appearances than any other comedian). In 2009, he appeared in his first two feature-length films, "The Deported", with Nick Turturro, Talia Shire, and Paul Rodriguez and "I'm Not Like That No More", a film based on his stand-up comedy where he stars as Paul Rodriguez' son.
In 2012, Felipe starred in and produced his first one-hour special, "They're Not Gonna Laugh at You" for Showtime, which is now available on DVD and streaming on Netflix.