Sonya is an award-winning wordsmith and comic, and a longtime poker of technology.
Trained as a linguist, Sonya studies language where it actually lives—off the syllabus and in the wild. Fiercely anti-“proper,” they explore the weird, wonderful depths of language and its history, celebrating the messy, inventive ways people really speak.
As a comic, they bring those truths to the stage—celebrating the weird, wonderful depths of humanity in all its linguistic, cultural, bodily, and neurodiverse forms, and hopefully making the world a little more inclusive for everyone who doesn’t fit the so-called norm.
An American who’s lived abroad for 15 years and speaks Russian as a second language, they tend to joke about what it means to definitely be from a place that also stopped existing the moment you left it. Their sets wander through language gaffes, immigrant-life absurdities, and the disorienting feeling that both “home” and “abroad” are always shifting—plus why you should absolutely never read the news right before bed.
- Chartered Institute for IT
- Test of Russian as a Foreign Language Level IV
- German Embassy Prize for German Language and Culture
- Institute for Irish Studies
- Tiktok nanoinfluencer
- Too tall
About Sonya Mathews:
Sonya in action
Forever on the hunt for new and exciting hobbies, Sonya can be found on a bike or at a rock gym or upside down at a handbalancing class attempting to seem even more tall.
Here are some of their beliefs:
- Dogs are the best people
- All English is Good English
- No such thing as a wrong pronunciation
- Peanut butter is The Food
- My ancestors were Irish, I’m American
- Binaries are deeply boring
- Small museums are the best to visit
