Ahren Belisle
Ahren Belisle is a Canadian stand-up comedian from North Bay, Ontario, best known as a finalist in the eighteenth season of America's Got Talent.
Belisle, who has cerebral palsy and performs his comedy through a speech synthesis app on his phone, was working as a software engineer when, on a vacation in Portugal, he attended a stand-up comedy show where he made the audience and the performers laugh with his witty heckling, and was encouraged to try comedy himself. Later in the year he appeared on Tony Hinchcliffe's Kill Tony podcast, generating such a positive reaction that he was given a "Golden Ticket" to allow him to appear on the show anytime he wanted. He was solicited by the producers of America's Got Talent to participate in the season, which aired in 2023.
He has stated that performing through a text-to-speech app has both negative and positive aspects, as the technology sometimes messes up but the delay as he types builds up an extra layer of comedic tension.
In 2024 he appeared in All Access Comedy, a stand-up comedy special hosted by D.J. Demers for AMI-tv to highlight comedians with disabilities. He and the other performers on the special received an ensemble Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Writing in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series at the 13th Canadian Screen Awards in 2025.