Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman got her big break when, at just 23, she was hired as a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live in 1993. In one memorable skit, she played a Deadhead. But Silverman was not brought back for the next season.
Born on Dec. 1, 1970 in Bedford, New Hampshire, she built a reputation as a raunchy and politically incorrect stand-up comic during her many shows at comedy clubs and theatres around the country. In 2005, Liam Lynch's Jesus Is Magic combined her stand-up act with muscal skits. Silverman famously takes a big bong hit backstage at the end of the movie and then kisses herself in the mirror.
In 2006, after having appeared on such TV series as Mr. Show with Bob and David, The Larry Sanders Show and Greg the Bunny, she signed with Comedy Central to co-write and star in The Sarah Silverman Program. Marijuana popped up regularly on the show; the second season kicked off with "High, It's Sarah" in which she and Brian Posehn smoked pot and protested the corporate takeover of just about everything. In the premiere episiode, she chugged cough syrup. In a 2010 episode, she delivered the classic line: "It's always 420 somewhere, right?"
In 2013 she said, "I have found if I smoke a little pot before I play basketball I become amazing and I hear myself saying things like 'not on my watch' a lot."
Despite Silverman being nominated for an Emmy in 2009, Comedy Central pulled the plug on The Sarah Silverman Program after three seasons.
She's also had roles in such movies as The School of Rock, The Aristocrats, Rent, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, School for Scoundrels, Saint John of Las Vegas, Peep World and Take This Waltz, and was the voice of Venellope in Wreck-It Ralph. She played a prostitute in Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West in 2014 and apperared in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with Andy Samberg in 2016.
Silverman's comedy special We Are Miracles aired on HBO in 2013. She won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. Her Hulu show I Love You, America received Emmy noms in 2018 and 2019. She has 10 nominations and two wins.
Her book, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee, was released on Apr. 20, 2010. A musical based on the book is in the works.
Watch The Sarah Silverman Podcast here.
Silverman has had relationships with Jimmy Kimmel and Michael Sheen. She's currently dating Rory Albanese. Silverman lives in Los Angeles.
