Kathy Griffin
Kathy Griffin is an American comedian and actress.
Griffin was born on November 4, 1960 (Kathy Griffin age: 61) in Oak Park, Illinois, to parents John and Maggie Griffin, who were both first-generation Irish-Americans. Her family also includes siblings: Joyce, John, Gary and Kenny. Joyce and Gary both passed from cancer in 2017 and 2014, respectively.
As a child, she attended St. Bernadine’s Elementary School where her dislike for organized religion was born due to the punishments she and fellow “vulnerable” students faced from nuns.
Nonetheless, Griffin considered herself “a kid who needed to talk, all the time.” Her siblings revealed that she would often circulate through party crowds and tell jokes. She often visited her neighbors, the Bowens, where she claims she learned “the power of juicy material” and told family stories.
On a sadder note, Griffin admitted that she developed a binge eating disorder when she has left home alone while her parents were at work and her siblings moved out. In her 2009 biography Official Book Club Selection, she revealed that she continues to battle these issues, but has learned to manage them.
Additionally, she said her older brother Kenny, was a drug addict and homeless at times, adding that she was “afraid of him until the moment he died.” In her biography, which debuted at number one on The New York Times bestseller list, Griffin relayed that he would climb into her bed when she was 7 and he was 30 to “whisper” into her ears. This caused her to refuse to interact with him no less be in the same room as Kenny. She didn’t tell her parents the truth until she was in her twenties, then he admitted his pedophilia to her parents.
She graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School, where she performed in school plays as Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof. After high school, she moved to California with her retired parents in 1978. Griffin then studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Her first commercial was for the Chicago White Sox as an extra. At 19-years-old, she became a member of The Groundlings, an improvisational comedy troupe. While she was a part of the company, which she frequently visited before joining, she built a strong friendship with Judy Toll.
Later, she started performing stand-up comedy in Los Angeles. Griffin appeared at Un-Cabaret and ran her own standup night, Hot Cup of Talk, with fellow comedian Janeane Garofalo.
She made her film debut with 1991’s The Unborn, a horror film. In the same year, Griffin also appeared in the film Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful, a parody of the Madonna movie Truth or Dare.
In 1994, she starred as a pedestrian who gets hit by Butch Coolidge’s (Bruce Willis) car in Pulp Fiction. In the credits, she was listed as herself.
Griffin’s TV sitcom debut was with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Susan Klein, a reporter. She later made guest appearances on TV series such as Seinfeld, The X-Files, Glee, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Civil Wars. Her first consistent vessel for public exposure was when she landed a role on NBC’s Suddenly Susan in 1996.
In 1998, Griffin had her own one-hour comedy special on HBO called Kathy Griffin: A Hot Cup of Talk. By this point, the comedian had a sure style of delivery and general material. She often made fun of herself for her low standing in the Hollywood hierarchy as both an actress and a comedian. Griffin often subjected herself to cheesy projects and competition shows such as Celebrity Mole in Hawaii. In fact, she won the 2003 season by walking over lava with her bare feet and more. Griffin remembers her win as the moment she became a “D-list” celebrity.
The comedian has also done voice-over work for productions such as the animated series Dilbert and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. She’s also hosted awards shows including the 2008 and 2009 Bravo! A-List Awards and the 41st Daytime Emmy Awards. The comedian also joined Anderson Cooper on CNN’s broadcasts of New Year’s Eve.
For two seasons, Griffin had her own one-hour self-titled talk show to rant and interview celebrities. However, Bravo! canceled the show in 2013. She had her own reality TV show named Kathy Griffin: My Life as a D-List Celebrity, which aired from 2005 to 2010. She won two Emmys for her show.
Griffin also released numerous comedy albums, many of which were Grammy-nominated. In fact, she took home a Grammy for her album Calm Down Gurrl (2013).
Most recently, the comedian launched her “Laugh Your Head Off” world tour, in reference to the picture she posted of a fake Donald Trump head. She began the comedy tour in August 2017, performing at some sold-out venues in Singapore, Australia, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and many more European and Asian cities. In May 2018, she continued the tour with the North American leg, stopping in Canada, New York City and more.
After sharing a photo of herself holding a fake bloody, severed head resembling President Donald Trump, Griffin faced some serious backlash including being fired from hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast.
“I got a great call from Jim Carrey and I was sobbing. I said, ‘Is it over? You can tell me, I’m a big girl,’” Griffin said. “He said ‘Kathy, you have a story that any comedian would give their right arm for. You’re the most famous comedian in the world today, use it.'”
And that’s what she’s doing with her world tour, using the material she collected after being investigated by the FBI for two months following the incident. However, she wanted to make it clear that she wouldn’t simply be lecturing about Trump. She also includes a note she received from Billy Bush and her visit to the Kardashian-West home, her neighbors.
“I tell the Trump stuff because it is the elephant in the room, people do want to hear the gory details but I sort of pepper it throughout the show with comedy because I want to remind people this is stuff we can laugh at now—time has passed, nobody was injured in the taking of this photo, no animals were harmed,” said Griffin.
Griffin married Matt Moline in 2001 atop the 360 Degree Restaurant in Hollywood; however, they divorced in 2006. She had her tattooed wedding ring laser-removed after their divorce.
For a short period of time, Griffin dated Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple. She was also romantically involved with Tom Vize, her tour manager at the time. Now, she’s been dating marketing executive Randy Bick, who is also her tour manager, since 2012. She now resides in her $10.5 million home in Bel-Air.
She’s 5’3″. She can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @kathygriffin.
Quotes:
“The beauty about the D-list is that people who are on it probably don’t know they are.”
“But if something funny happens, I can’t resist. I have to tell the people.”
“I don’t like doing movies, period. Movies are hard. I like TV.”
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