Stanzi Potenza is an American comedian, actress and content creator best known for her Heaven & Hell sketch series on TikTok and YouTube. A trained theatre actor from Massachusetts, she turned a lockdown TikTok habit into a full-time career with more than 4 million TikTok followers and about 2.7 million YouTube subscribers. She turns 31 on October 17, 2026, and she’s also become one of the most open voices online about living with epilepsy.
| Date of Birth | October 17, 1995 |
|---|---|
| Age | 31 years |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac Sign | Libra |
| Occupation | Comedian, Actress & Content Creator |
| Full Name | Stanzi Julianna Potenza |
| Known For | TikTok/YouTube sketch comedy (Heaven & Hell series) |
| Identity | Bisexual, non-binary (she/her, they/them) |
| Education | University of Massachusetts Boston (BA Theatre, 2018) |
| Health | ADHD (diagnosed Aug 2022); right temporal lobe epilepsy since age 15; insomnia |
Stanzi Potenza Biography
Stanzi Julianna Potenza was born on October 17, 1995, and grew up in Massachusetts. Her family moved around before settling in Braintree, a town just south of Boston. She is of Italian descent and has sisters, including a younger sister named Nella.
Her parents divorced when she was five, and that split is what pulled her into acting. Her mother had been a stay-at-home mom and went back to community theatre after the divorce. When babysitters fell through, she brought Stanzi and her sisters along to rehearsals, and the theatre became the girls’ “second home.”
Speaking on Gianmarco Soresi’s podcast The Downside in March 2025, Stanzi joked that her mother needed to earn money after the divorce and theatre got her back to work. Her own stage roles followed, including Maureen in a 2014 production of Rent at the Company Theatre in Norwell and a part in Bat Boy: The Musical.
Stanzi Potenza Education
Stanzi studied theatre at the University of Massachusetts Boston, commuting to class from home with her mother. In 2017 she received the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
She graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and the John J. Conlon Prize in Theatre Arts. She also sang the National Anthem at the graduate commencement ceremony.
In late 2019 she finished a six-week acting course at the William Esper Studio in New York City. Her plan was to move back to Massachusetts and audition for stage work, but the pandemic shut theatres down a few months later.
Stanzi Potenza Career
Stanzi’s TikTok career started in a hospital bed. She told Cure Epilepsy’s Seizing Life podcast in February 2026 that she began filming videos during a 10-day stay in an epilepsy monitoring unit in 2019. “I need to find different ways to entertain myself while I’m in here,” she recalled, and one of those clips pulled about 300,000 views.
Her first video to pass one million views came in January 2020. In December 2020, Jon Ossoff shared her 1980s-style infomercial urging young people to vote in the Georgia Senate runoff. By January 2021 she had 565,000 followers, joined the TikTok Creator Fund and went full-time.
Heaven & Hell is her best-known series. She plays God, Satan and their assistants as they deal with problems in the afterlife, from politicians to K-pop fandoms. Civil War Love Saga, a period romance between two women in the 1800s, was one of her first hits, and other series include Family Dinners, Duke Blackwell, Auntie Stan and Rich Moms Brunch.
YouTube came next. Fellow creator Hassan Khadair pushed her to cross-post to YouTube Shorts in February 2021. Her channel then jumped from 5,000 to 500,000 subscribers in two months after a breakout in December 2021, and it now sits at about 2.7 million subscribers with more than 1.6 billion views.
In January 2022 she launched the podcast What Fresh Hell Is This? with the Pod People network. That same year she released covers of Radiohead’s “Creep” and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” as singles. She later moved from New York to Los Angeles in early 2023.
Two moments pushed her beyond the TikTok crowd. In November 2022, Dr. Phil played her parody of an obsessive Jeffrey Dahmer true-crime fan on his show, seemingly without getting the joke. In March 2023, Lionsgate hired her to promote John Wick: Chapter 4, and she played John Wick’s therapist in the sketch.
Stanzi now does stand-up as well, including a “Work in Progress” show at The EARL in Boston in 2024. She is represented by United Talent Agency. On October 12, 2026, the comedy group Cool Guyz announced on Instagram that she had joined them. “Thanks fellas! Stoked to be one of the bros,” she replied.
Her Instagram, where she has about 1.2 million followers, stays busy. On October 13, 2026, she posted photos from the Sense and Sensibility premiere, thanking Focus Features and YouTube. A day before her birthday, she told fans she would be selling items at a creators’ closet sale on October 17.
Stanzi Potenza Personal Life
Stanzi is bisexual. She once identified as non-binary and used she/her and they/them pronouns, but in August 2026 she said on Threads that she no longer considers herself non-binary and only uses she/her. She keeps her dating life off social media, though she has mentioned an ex-boyfriend on podcasts.
She has lived with epilepsy since she was 15. Her first seizure hit during spirit week in her freshman year of high school, and doctors first called it a seizure disorder. It took about five years and two neurologists before a doctor at Mass General Hospital confirmed epilepsy, and a 2019 hospital stay pinned it down as right temporal lobe epilepsy.
Sleep loss is her biggest trigger. During her first year of college, without a neurologist or medication, she had a seizure every month. She told Seizing Life that she had another seizure just as 2023 began, right before her move to Los Angeles, and that her mother has been “there for like that entire journey and always has been.”
Her advice to other people with epilepsy is simple. “Don’t give up on yourself,” she said on the same podcast, adding that online work can be a path into entertainment that feels more within your control. She has also talked about her ADHD diagnosis, which she shared in August 2022, and her insomnia.
Away from comedy, she has loved sharks since childhood. Discovery Channel’s Shark Week once featured her as a “Shark Week super fan.”
Stanzi Potenza Net Worth
Brand deals are Stanzi Potenza’s main source of income. Sponsored sketches like her Lionsgate John Wick campaign pay well when one post reaches millions of people across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
She also earns from YouTube ad revenue, TikTok creator payments, her podcast, merchandise and stand-up shows. Her exact earnings and net worth are not public.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Stanzi Potenza?
Stanzi Potenza was born on October 17, 1995, so she turns 31 in 2026.
Where is Stanzi Potenza from?
She grew up in Braintree, Massachusetts, south of Boston. She lived in New York before moving to Los Angeles in 2023.
Does Stanzi Potenza have epilepsy?
Yes. She has right temporal lobe epilepsy with tonic-clonic seizures and has had seizures since she was 15.
How did Stanzi Potenza become famous?
Her TikTok sketches went viral in 2020, led by series like Heaven & Hell and Civil War Love Saga. YouTube Shorts then grew her channel past 2.7 million subscribers.
Is Stanzi Potenza non-binary?
Not anymore. She said in August 2026 that she does not consider herself non-binary and uses only she/her pronouns. She is bisexual.
