Bess Kalb is an American

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-nominated writer for the ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

'' television show and journalist with ''

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'' magazine. She is the author of the best-selling book ''Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story'', which recounts the life of her grandmother, Bobby Bell.

Early life

Kalb was raised in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and Westchester. She later moved to San Francisco, California where she contributed articles to ''Wired'', GQ.com, ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'',

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and other publications. In 2012, Kalb moved to Los Angeles to begin a comedy career. She is Jewish.

Career

Kalb began writing comedy for ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' in 2012; the show airs on the ABC Network. In addition, she wrote for the 2012

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s ceremony with Kimmel as the host. In 2013, she was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for her work alongside the rest of the writing team of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' including

Tony Barbieri Anthony J. Barbieri (born August 26, 1963) is an American comedic writer and performer. He is known for his appearances as the ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' character "Jake Byrd", and as "Walter "Mole" Molinsky" in the Comedy Central tv movie, '' Win ...

, Jonathan Bines, Joelle Boucai,

Gary Greenberg Gary Greenberg is an American author and comedian. He is known for writing comedic material for Comedy Central. He has appeared on Comedy Central and Bravo. , he is a staff writer on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' on ABC Television. In 2012, he won a Prod ...

Sal Iacono Sal Iacono (born July 5, 1971), also known as Cousin Sal, is an American comedian, writer, podcaster, and game show host. He is known for his roles on ''The Man Show'' and the late night television show ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. He is Jimmy Kimmel' ...

, Eric Immerman, Josh Halloway,

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967), known professionally as Jimmy Kimmel, is an American television host, comedian, writer, voice actor, and producer. He has been the host and executive producer of '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-n ...

, Jeff Loveness, Molly McNearney, Bryan Paulk, Danny Ricker and

Rick Rosner Richard Rosner (born c. 1941) is an American television producer best known for creating the television show ''CHiPs''.Staff report (September 15, 1977). CHiPs Debuts on NBC. He's also famous for being related to the one and only, Mark Rosner, ...

. Three years later, with Kimmel once again hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards, Kalb was part of the writing team. Her work with ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' earned her a Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy-Variety Talk Series that year as well. Working with

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, Kalb wrote for the Senator's Al Smith Dinner speech in February 2016. On May 28, 2017, Kalb's political-themed tweets gained the attention of President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

, who blocked her account from his Twitter feed. In 2018, Kalb did a stand-up comedy routine introducing Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and then-candidate

Lucy McBath Lucia Kay McBath (née Holman; born June 1, 1960) is an American politician who has served in the United States House of Representatives from a district in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, since 2019. She represented from 2019 to 2023 and since ...

(now a congresswoman). On March 17, 2020, Kalb released her first book, ''Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story'', from Knopf. The book tells the story of her grandmother, Bobby Bell, from her own mother's migration from Russia, her birth on a kitchen table in a Brooklyn tenement, to her life in upscale New York suburbs of Westchester to her death at age 90. Kalb adds her own comedic observations of their relationship from their conversations and voicemails. ''Nobody Will Tell You This But Me'' was ranked No. 8 on the

American Booksellers Association The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to ...

Indie Bestseller Hardcover Non-Fiction list. The audiobook is narrated by the author and produced by Random House Audio. The film rights for the book were optioned by Sight Unseen Pictures, with

Elizabeth Chomko Elizabeth Chomko (born 1981) is an American filmmaker, actress, and playwright. She is best known for directing and writing the drama film '' What They Had'' (2018), which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Early life Chomko grew up ...

(''What They Had'') set to direct. Kalb will write the screenplay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalb, Barbara 1987 births Living people American women television writers Writers Guild of America Award winners American television writers Writers from Manhattan Brown University alumni 21st-century American women Comedians from Manhattan