There’s something about comedy that really speaks to lesbians. We love a laugh, and our icons—Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, Fortune Feimster, Tig Notaro, and so many others—keep us giggling through even the worst of times. Lucky for us, these harbingers of lesbian joy have a new member.
Meet Heather Shaw, a rising star of the stage. Shaw is a lesbian, a comic, and a social media savant who went viral for her unique way of providing laughter in the midst of chaos. From season three of Euphoria to the President Trump’s State of the Union address, Shaw regularly shares her opinions on trending topics with her 2.8 million TikTok followers.
This month, Shaw’s debut stand up special premieres on YouTube. In the midst of her whirlwind media tour, I met up with Shaw to discuss gay comedy, TikTok stardom, and life in Kentucky.
Pranking Her Way to the Top
“I look like Jim Carrey. I’ve been told that my whole life,” Shaw explains almost as soon as our interview begins. We’re meeting over dinner al fresco at a vegan Mexican restaurant. Between the shoulder length dark hair, wide brown eyes, and Carrey’s infamous mouth, Shaw’s resemblance to Carrey is uncanny.
Shaw’s ascension on TikTok is due, in part, to that very recognizable face. In 2020, when COVID precautions halted her stand up work and kept us all indoors, she hopped on TikTok. “I convinced people that I was Jim Carrey’s abandoned daughter. I was just like, ‘Please help me find my father,’” she says.
The joke escalated quickly. Viewers believed Shaw and took her side in the fake drama. “Oh, my goodness. People were like, ‘Jim Carrey’s a deadbeat,” she recalls. So she revealed the truth (she has no relation to Jim Carrey) and slowly transitioned her page into a digital home for her own comedy.
“I don’t ever want to be one of those celebrity doppelgangers on TikTok that take it to an extreme,” Shaw says. I know exactly what she means. We’ve both seen Ariana Grande’s and Taylor Swift’s lookalikes on social media. “That’s cool for them, but I’d rather be an accountant than start saying, ‘Alrighty then!’ for fifty bucks,” Shaw says.
Instead, she wants to focus on her growing career. “I’ve always wanted to do stand up comedy. Always. But I was just too scared to do it,” she shares. Shaw says that she spent years pushing that dream down as she worked office and admin jobs that didn’t do anything for her.
“I wrote a lot of jokes, but I wasn’t sharing them. I was obsessing about it for years,” she recounts. Then, one day, she got over her fears. There was no big epiphany or near-death experience, just the realization that if she wanted to be a stand up comedian, she had to get on stage. “I said, ‘Alright, I’m done wanting to do it, I’m just going to do it.”
That was almost twelve years ago. Since then, Shaw’s cultivated a gigantic social media following, launched her own podcast, and graced the Comics Unleashed and Tamron Hall Show with her presence.
In the Name of Love
A few years into her career as a comic, something shifted. “I moved to Austin for a year and did some stand up there. And then? I fell in love like a lesbian,” Shaw says.
Shaw found the love of her life, Lilly Jean Coiner, in the most traditional of queer meeting locations: Instagram. “She slid into my DMs and her bio said ‘UK Law,’ so I thought she was a lawyer in the U.K.,” Shaw says. “Then I found out about the University of Kentucky. I didn’t even know it existed.”
The two met up face to face for the first time a few months later in Nashville on New Year’s Eve. They hit it off immediately, and six months later, they U-Hauled. “She was in law school, so she couldn’t move. So I moved to her,” Shaw says.
It was the right decision. Coiner and Shaw tied the knot last year on the anniversary of that first meeting, ringing in 2026 as newlyweds. Their wedding was featured in People magazine and Queer Kentucky. As we dine, I look at the photo spread in People and can see the joy beaming on Shaw’s face. I ask who did the proposing.
“I did. It was on top of a parking garage in Downtown Lexington. It sounds really not romantic when I say it aloud,” Shaw laughs. She clarifies that it wasn’t a proposal outside of a T.J. Maxx. The top of the garage provided a sweet, scenic view of the city. The whole thing was meant to be a surprise, and Shaw worried that Coiner would guess what she was up to as they drove to the top of the parking garage.
“It was gloomy out and I had candles around. When we pulled up to the spot, she saw the candles and thought somebody had died. She was like ‘Oh God, oh no!’” Shaw recalls. Once they got over to the spot and Coiner saw everything up close, she realized what was happening. “At first she was like, ‘Oh, R.I.P.’ but then it was her proposal. It was a lot of fun.”
Preparing for Takeoff
Shaw’s life now involves a lot of travel. Kentucky doesn’t have the most active comedy scene, so she takes her show on the road. While the minutiae of travel takes a lot out of her—so much time spent in airports and Ubers—she loves what she does. “I’m like a low-rent Lady Gaga,” Shaw jokes, referencing the infamous 2011 interview. “Except it’s like Louiseville. Holiday Inn. Comedy Club. Another club where the lights don’t work. Another Holiday Inn.”
With performances in so many different cities, she does wind up with a straight audience from time to time. I’m curious about how she, a lesbian comedian telling gay jokes, handles those scenarios. “I just teach them. I’m like, ‘Now we’re going to learn about what a tuck is.’ They love it though. They’re there to have fun,” she says.
Most of the time, at least half of the audience gets her references. On the rare occasions where Shaw can’t relate to her audience, she pivots. She recalls an instance with elderly Republicans in Naples, Florida. “They looked at me funny, so I just started doing crowd work. I’d be like, ‘What kind of medication do you take?”
Occasionally, Coiner will travel with her. “She’ll travel if there’s a city I’m going to that she wants to see. She went with me to Detroit. But a lot of times I’m going to like, Tulsa. Do you want to go to Tulsa?” Shaw asks. She pauses for a beat before leaning into the microphone recording our interview. “No offense, Tulsa. I love you.”
The time apart from her wife, the countless airports, the TikTok videos, even the conservative crowds—they all propel Shaw’s career forward. I question what she’s working towards. “I would like to sell out shows on the road and act in a film or series. I’d really love to create a fun YouTube show where we can mix The Wendy Williams Show and Chelsea Handler and a sprinkling of Tyra Banks’ crazy,” Shaw says.
As we finish up the interview and prepare to part ways, a teenage girl breaks from her friends to approach us. “Are you Heather?” She asks, eyes beaming.
When Shaw confirms, the girl giggles excitedly. Her mother explains that her daughter and their friends are huge fans. In part, the mom posits, because her daughter used to have a crush on Jim Carrey. Shaw laughs and comforts the teen, who’s quickly turning red. “I did too! Bring your friends over, let’s take a photo.” They all start chatting and the teens reveal that they’re professional surfers.
I watch Shaw interact with them, and it’s abundantly clear that she doesn’t just make people laugh: she connects with them. Of course she’s funny, and that brings people in, but her ability to stay genuine in every setting—social media, her podcast, her live shows—makes people want to stick around. With a superpower like that, she has nowhere to go but up.