Producer · Actor · Writer

1960-11-04 · Oak Park, Illinois, USA · Male

91 series in the catalog

Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television series, comedy specials and has released multiple comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. She has also appeared in supporting roles in films.

Griffin was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. In 1978, she moved to Los Angeles, 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 comedian and appeared as a guest star on television shows, and then had a supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996–2000).

The 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 nominations at the Grammy Awards. 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. She eventually won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2014. Griffin has recorded numerous standup comedy specials for HBO and Bravo. For the latter network, she has recorded sixteen television specials, breaking the Guinness World record for the number of aired television specials on any network. In 2011, she also became the first comedian to have four specials televised in a year. She has also released an autobiography, Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin (2009).

Griffin is known for her controversial style and statements about celebrities, religion and sexuality, including holding a mask stylized as Donald Trump's severed head in 2017, which provoked a United States Secret Service investigation and later became the basis of her concert film A Hell of a Story (2019).

Early life

Kathleen Mary Griffin was born on November 4, 1960, in the Chicago suburb Oak Park, Illinois, to first-generation Irish-Americans Margaret Mary Griffin (née Corbally) (1920–2020), who was a cashier at a hospital in Oak Park, and John Patrick Griffin (1916–2007), an employee at a RadioShack. She has four older siblings. Griffin grew up Catholic. She described growing up in a "dysfunctional" and "Irish alcoholic" family.

Kathy's eldest brother Kenneth "Kenny" John Griffin (1942–2001) was a pedophile, drug addict and homeless at various times. When Kathy was 7, Kenny, who was 18 years older, sexually abused her and would climb into her bed and whisper into her ears. She did not tell her parents until she was in her 20s, at which point Kenny admitted his pedophilia to them. For many years, Kathy was "shunned" by her own family because she tried to get Kenny arrested after learning he had abused other children. She was "afraid of him until the moment he died" because of his violent, abusive nature. "...two of his girlfriends confessed to me he also physically abused them very violently and I called the LAPD about it twice."

Griffin described herself during her early years as being "a kid who needed to talk, all the time". She would often visit her neighbors to tell them stories about her family; she has referred to those visits as her first live shows where she learned "the power of juicy material". After most of her siblings had moved, Griffin developed a binge eating disorder. In her 2009 autobiography Official Book Club Selection, Griffin said she "still suffers [from food issues]" but has learned to "deal with them".

At elementary school, Griffin began to develop a dislike for organized religion because of the punishments she and other "vulnerable" students received from the nuns. At her high school, she sought refuge in musical theater, playing roles such as Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof. During her senior year, she wanted to become a professional actor. Her first appearance on television was as an extra on a Chicago White Sox commercial, and she was signed with several Chicago talent agencies. At 18, Griffin persuaded her parents to move to Los Angeles to help her become famous.

At 19, Griffin attended a performance by the improvisational group The Groundlings. She said, "I thought this is where I want to be. This is the greatest thing in the world."

Career

Stand-up comedy, television and film

Griffin began performing in the early 1990s in the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. She went on to perform standup comedy and became part of the alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles. With Janeane Garofalo, she created a standup act called "Hot Cup of Talk", which became the title of her 1998 solo HBO special. Griffin earned a number of television and film credits during the 1990s. She appeared in Julie Brown's Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful, a Showtime parody of the 1991 Madonna film Truth or Dare. Griffin twice appeared as Susan Klein, a reporter on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; it was her television sitcom debut.

On June 12, 2008, Griffin hosted the first Bravo! Canada A-List Awards, which included a parody of the "wardrobe malfunction" experienced by Janet Jackson in the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004. She also hosted the 2009 Bravo A-List Awards, which aired on April 15, 2009, and her Bravo special Kathy Griffin: She'll Cut a Bitch aired beforehand. Shout! Factory released an extended version of the show on DVD in early 2010.

On September 8, 2009, Ballantine Books published Griffin's memoir, titled Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, which debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. A week prior, she released her second comedy album Suckin' It for the Holidays; it was her second bid to win a Grammy Award. It was announced on November 3, 2009, that Griffin was to host ABC's new show Let's Dance, on which celebrity contestants would have re-enacted famous dance routines while competing for a $250,000 grand prize for their favorite charity.

Griffin hosted CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast on December 31, 2009, along with Anderson Cooper. As Cooper talked about the balloon boy hoax, Griffin said "fucking". Although Griffin was rumored to have been banned from future CNN broadcasts, she co-hosted the show with Cooper until 2017. In 2017, CNN terminated Griffin from its New Year's Eve Broadcast after Griffin showed pictures of herself holding a bloody, model severed head resembling President Donald Trump. Griffin has also guest-starred in a 2009 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a lesbian activist.

Since the 2008 presidential election, Griffin has made frequent jokes about Republican vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin and her family. On US television program Glee, Griffin parodied Palin posing as a judge at a regional singing competition. Griffin also made fun of Christine O'Donnell in the show by stating, "Before we start, I would like to say I am not a witch".

On January 7, 2012, it was announced that Griffin would host a weekly one-hour talk show on the channel Kathy, which would consist of standup routines, "rant about pop culture", and celebrity interviews. On April 8, 2013, during a live standup performance in Cincinnati, Ohio, Griffin announced that her show would not be renewed for a third season. She confirmed it later on her Twitter account. According to FOX 411, Bravo was planning to film several comedy specials starring Griffin after the show ended.

On June 13, 2014, it was announced that Griffin would host the 41st Daytime Emmy Awards. For the first time in the event's four-decade history, the show bypassed a network television airing for a live online streaming media event. The ceremony took place on June 22, 2014. Griffin's performance was well received by critics.

Guest co-host of The…