He Was a Famously Anti-Woke Podcaster. Now He's Starring in A-List Movies.

"In August, at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, the stars of -the latest film from Yorgos Lanthimos-posed for a photo on the red carpet. A-listers Emma Stone and Alicia Silverstone looked resplendent in slinky evening gowns, but standing between them, with two big arms clasped around their waists, was Stavros Halkias, a stand-up comedian most famous for a mythically profane podcast called . This was a watershed moment for a contingency of extremely online comedy nerds."

"Stav, as he's affectionately known, had amassed himself a cultlike fandom on the fringes of the stand-up ecosystem throughout the 2010s. His style-fratty, self-effacing, and joyfully unencumbered by political prudence-made him a star among young, disaffected men, who especially savored his anti-woke curiosities. On Cum Town, Halkias and his co-hosts Adam Friedland and Nick Mullen resurrected long-deprecated slurs (the R-word was a favorite) and batted around racialized mock accents (all three of them had a Steve Harvey impression). It was a reaction to that moment in time, perhaps one of the earliest signs that the Obama-era social contract had started to crumble. In earlier world orders, when strict liberal politeness dictated the customs of pop culture, it seemed unthinkable that Halkias would someday breach the image-conscious sanctum of Hollywood. But nobody knows what the rules are in 2025, and that's exactly how Halkias found himself sharing screentime with Emma Stone, of all people."

Stavros Halkias rose from a cultlike following on an abrasive, profanity-laced podcast to appearing on the red carpet at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival between Emma Stone and Alicia Silverstone. Halkias built a fanbase among online comedy nerds and young disaffected men with a fratty, self-effacing style and anti‑woke provocations that included resurrecting slurs and racialized mock accents on Cum Town. That provocateur persona signaled broader cultural shifts away from Obama‑era liberal politeness. Despite the shock of his Hollywood visibility, Halkias holds left‑wing political commitments, aligning with Bernie‑style politics and supporting Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. He blends democratic socialist beliefs with fluency in MAGA rhetoric.

Read at Slate Magazine