Maria Bamford — Kelly Writers House Fellows Program

Comedian, actress and writer Maria Bamford was raised in Duluth, Minnesota and began her stand-up career at the age of 19. Her first of four stand-up albums, The Burning Bridges Tour, was released in 2003. She toured with The Comedians of Comedy to promote the album, which also led to a documentary series on Comedy Central and Showtime. Other stand-up albums include How to WIN! (2007), Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome (2009), and Ask Me About My New God! (2013). She has also released two full length stand-up video recordings, most recently The Special Special Special! (2012), and is the first woman to have two Comedy Central Presents specials air. In 2016, Maria was the executive producer and star of a Netflix series based on her own life, Lady Dynamite, in which she plays a fictionalized character version of herself. She has also appeared in cameos and recurring roles on many widely lauded comedy series such as Arrested Development, Louie, The Sarah Silverman Program, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, and more. Maria is also a very talented voice over artist, and has provided recurring character voices for such shows as Adventure Time, BoJack Horseman, The Legend of Korra, CatDog, and many more. In addition to these very prominent stand-up and TV appearances, Maria is widely known for her "cult" web series The Maria Bamford Show and Ask My Mom, in which Maria writes and performs as the sole actor, doing impressions of various other characters. [Note: this program originally occurred on February 6, 2017. Part two of this program, an interview with Maria Bamford, is available here: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/multimedi... For more information: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/fe...]