Manito was born in the small Essex town of Saffron Walden to an English mother and a Lebanese father where she says she felt like a fish out of water “I was desperate to flee.”
Esther Manito is a Lebanese-British comedian who is 39 years old. This page will tell you more about her.
Who is Esther Manito?
She is qualified from London Metropolitan University in the Politics field followed by a Masters in Communications with a special concentration on Middle Eastern media.
Before her Soho job, she sips cranberry juice and muses on how as a mother of two young children she can see the appeal of her peaceful hamlet. That however is a significant shift in viewpoint.
Esther Manito as a comedian
She was a regional finalist in the 2017 Funny Women Awards a finalist in this year’s Arab British Center’s Award for Culture’s “Individuals” category and the first female comedian to be invited to play in Dubai Opera House. She’s just returned to London after performing her solo show at the Edinburgh Festival for a month when we meet. Not bad for someone who has only been doing stand-up comedy for three years.
She believes that many women are coerced into maintaining unrealistic beliefs about parenthood pointing out that it may be a lonely and isolated experience in today’s splintered societies.
Esther Manito Family
She considers herself fortunate to have a supportive family and spouse but she still has to balance child care with her comedic profession. “I did my act every day during the Edinburgh Fringe” she recalls.
For part of that period my kids were with my in-laws and later my husband but they were with me for almost two weeks”. It was an all-out assault.
Manito has come to terms with her status as a British Arab thanks to stand-up comedy. She claims she was fascinated for years with discovering her Lebanese ancestors and that despite being warmly welcomed by her father’s family in Beirut she could never truly feel Lebanese because she was raised in England. She now values both Lebanon’s rich culture and her British heritage.
Manito is adjusting to the emotional ups and downs of stand-up comedy. Some people are wary of hearing a woman speak openly about subjects that make them uncomfortable but she says she has a lot of support from both men and women especially moms.
