Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin

Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, producer, actress, and television host. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, she moved to Los Angeles in 1978, where she studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and became a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. In the 1990s, Griffin began performing as a stand-up comedienne and also appeared as a guest star on several television shows. She achieved recognition in a supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996–2000).
Her Bravo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2005–2010) became a ratings hit for the network and earned her two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program. Griffin has released six comedy albums, all of which received Grammy Award nominations. Her first album, For Your Consideration (2008), made her the first female comedian to debut at the top of the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart. In 2009, she released her autobiography, Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin.
Griffin has taped numerous standup specials with HBO and Bravo. For the latter network, she has recorded 16 television specials, breaking the Guinness World record for the number of aired TV specials on any network, by any comedian in the history of comedy.^[1][2] In 2011, she also became the first comedian to have four televised specials in a year. Besides her comedy career, she is an LGBT activist involved in causes such as same-sex marriage and the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell." She has also participated in two USO tours. Griffin is known for her conversational style and controversial statements on celebrities, religion and sexuality. After being nominated for six years in a row for the Grammy for Best Comedy Album, she won the award in 2014, becoming only the third woman to win the category (after Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg).

Early life

Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin was born on November 4, 1960, in Oak Park, Illinois,^[3] to Mary Margaret "Maggie" Griffin (née Corbally; born June 10, 1920) and John Patrick Griffin (October 29, 1915 – February 17, 2007), both first-generation Irish Americans.^[4][5] Maggie worked as a cashier in the Oak Park Hospital.^[6] Griffin has five older siblings: Kenny, Joyce, Gary, and John.^[7] Griffin described herself during her early years as "a kid who needed to talk, all the time."^[4] She would often visit her neighbors, the Bowens, to tell them stories about her family; she has referred to those visits as her first live shows and the place where she learned "the power of juicy material."^[8] After most of her siblings had moved, Griffin often spent hours alone in the house and developed a binge eating disorder. She explained that even though eating disorders were not very well known at that time, she knew her eating behavior was aberrant and always threw the garbage away in the neighbor's can.^[9] In her 2009 autobiography Official Book Club Selection, Griffin confessed that she "still suffers [from food issues]" but has learned to "deal with them."^[10] In the same book, Griffin discussed her eldest brother, Kenny, who was a drug addict and homeless at various times, and revealed that she was "afraid of him until the moment he died" due to his violent, abusive nature. Griffin states that Kenny would climb into bed with her when he was 30 and she was 7 and "whisper" into her ears; Kathy refused to speak to him or be in the same room as him for years but didn't tell her parents until she was in her twenties, at which point he openly admitted pedophilia to their parents.^[11]
As a young girl Griffin attended St. Bernadine's Elementary School and began to develop a dislike for organized religion because of the punishments she and other "vulnerable" students received from the nuns.^[12] After graduation, she attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and sought refuge in musical theatre, playing roles such as Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof.^[13] During her senior year she began arguing with her parents, who wanted her to attend college, because she wanted to become a professional actress. Her first appearance on television was as an extra on a Chicago White Sox commercial, and she was then signed with several Chicago talent agencies. At 18, Griffin persuaded her parents to move to Los Angeles to help her become famous.^[14]
At 19, Griffin attended a show of the California-based improvisational group The Groundlings. She said, "I thought this is where I want to be. This is the greatest thing in the world."^[15]