Taylor Tomlinson spent years holding onto certain jokes, convinced she wasn’t ready to tell them. On Tuesday, she finally did.
Prodigal Daughter, Tomlinson’s fourth Netflixstand-up special, premiered overnight, and it’s the most personal hour she’s put on camera. Filmed at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the special leans directly into the religious upbringing she’s circled around for most of her career. This time, she faces it head on.
‘I know it’s a lot of God stuff and a lot of gay stuff, and my agents are nervous,’ she tells the audience near the top of the special.
Tomlinson, 32, grew up in Temecula, California, in a devout Christian family and began performing stand-up at 16, first in church basements, then coffee shops and school venues. Her mother died of cancer when she was eight. She left the faith gradually, then processed the fallout over years, in therapy and on stage. Some of that material she wrote long before she felt prepared to perform it. ‘Jokes are kind of like outfits,’ she told Rolling Stone. ‘They have to be age-appropriate and make sense for how people see you.’
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Prodigal Daughter is where those jokes finally found a home. The special covers coming out as bisexual in her 30s, religious trauma, her complicated relationship with death, and the results of growing up in abstinence culture. She also gets into dating, her dream assistant, and why Easter beats Christmas: ‘It’s where all our merch comes from.’
She directed the special herself and executive produced alongside Judi Marmel, Rachel Warden, and John Bravakis. It was filmed December 13, 2025, at Fountain Street Church.
The church venue for the show isn’t ironic window dressing. In fact, in a lot of ways it’s the whole point. She performed in rooms like it at 16. Coming back to one at 32, with this material, brings her full circle.
This is Tomlinson’s fourth special for Netflix, following Quarter-Life Crisis (2020), Look At You (2022), and Have It All (2024), the last of which debuted at No. 1 on the platform. In 2023, she was the only woman in the top 10 of the year’s highest-grossing comedy tours worldwide, performing 132 shows, more than any other comic in that group. She stepped away from After Midnight, her CBSlate-night show, in June 2025 after two seasons to return to stand-up.
‘What I love about this special is I feel like it is kind of me in my final form,’ she told Rolling Stone. ‘This special, I feel, knows what it is and what it wants to say.’
Taylor Tomlinson: Prodigal Daughter is streaming now on Netflix.
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This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.