Lizz Winstead (born August 5, 1961) is an American comedian, radio and television personality, and blogger. A native of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

, Winstead is the co-creator of ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form fr ...

'' along with

Madeleine Smithberg ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

, and served as head writer.

Early life

Winstead was the youngest child born into a conservative

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

, Minnesota.

Career

Winstead made her standup comedy debut in 1983 in Minneapolis at the Brave New Workshop. She was a national headlining comedian appearing on shows like HBO's ''Women of the Night'' and the

Aspen Comedy Festival The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, was a comedy festival that ran from 1995 to 2008. The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component calle ...

. She wrote and performed for early Comedy Central shows like ''Women Aloud'', and produced the syndicated talk series ''

The Jon Stewart Show ''The Jon Stewart Show'' is a late night talk show that was hosted by comedian Jon Stewart. The program premiered on MTV in 1993 as a 30-minute daily offering and became one of the network’s more popular shows. Through a series of events tha ...

'', starring the future ''Daily Show'' host. She also created

Court TV Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former cable television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cov ...

's '' Snap Judgment'' and served as the consulting producer on the pilot of ''

The Man Show ''The Man Show'' is an American comedy television show on Comedy Central that aired from 1999 to 2004. It was created in 1999 by its two original co-hosts, Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison. The pilot ...

''. During her time at ''The Daily Show'' she helped staff the program with signature talents like

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 ...

Beth Littleford Elizabeth Anna Halcyon Littleford is an American actress, comedian and television personality. She was one of the original correspondents on ''The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central from 1996 to 2000. Littleford has also appeared in the shows '' I'm ...

Brian Unger Brian Douglas Unger (born 1965) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and commentator. Biography Born in Dayton, Ohio to Richard ("Rich") Unger and Eleanor ("Ellie") Oprea, Unger grew up in Granville, Ohio. He graduated from Granvill ...

, and

Lewis Black Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series '' Lewi ...

. After ''Daily Show'' host

Craig Kilborn Craig Lawrence Kilborn (born August 24, 1962) is an American comedian, sports and political commentator, actor, and television host. Kilborn began a career in sports broadcasting in the late 1980s, leading to an anchoring position at ESPN's ''Spo ...

publicly made offensive remarks about Winstead, she left the show in January 1998. Winstead has appeared on various shows on CNN and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

as well as a panelist on shows such as ''

Politically Incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

'', ''

Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn ''Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'' is a comedic talk show which aired on Comedy Central from 2002 to 2004. The show featured host Colin Quinn and a panel of comedian guests, discussing politics, current events, and social issues. Show history an ...

'' and the

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

cable TV/ PBS program ''

Mental Engineering ''Mental Engineering'' was a public television series where show creator and host John Forde leads a panel discussion featuring critical and humorous analysis of TV commercials. The show originated as a public-access television cable TV program o ...

'' (where she was notably featured in an episode that aired following

Super Bowl XXXVI Super Bowl XXXVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

in 2002). In 2002, she and

created, wrote and co-hosted ''

O2Be ''O2Be'' is an American comedy television series starring Lizz Winstead and Brian Unger. The series premiered September 22, 2002, on Oxygen. The program is a parody of daytime television with Winstead and Unger as hosts of their own talk show. Cas ...

'', a satire of network morning programs that was broadcast on the

Oxygen network Oxygen (branded on air as Oxygen True Crime) is an American television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, through its Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary. The channel prima ...

. In 2003, she co-founded and served as the program director at

Air America Radio Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left wing alternative to counter ...

. Until March 2005, she was also co-host of ''Unfiltered'' on

, along with

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special e ...

and

Chuck D Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D helped creat ...

. Since May 2005 she has been a contributing blogger at ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

''. In 2006, she served as the executive producer of the '' Weekends with Maury and Connie'' program on MSNBC. The show was canceled later that year and in the last episode

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von B� ...

performed a musical number with lyrics by Winstead that was called "Thanks for the Memories." Since 2007, she has produced and hosted a live show in New York City called ''Shoot the Messenger'', a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

wrap-up of the week's news as seen through the eyes of six-hour morning show ''Wake Up World'', and featuring interviews with such media notables as Rachel Maddow,

Andy Borowitz Andy Borowitz (born January 4, 1958) is an American writer, comedian, satirist, and actor. Borowitz is a ''The New York Times''-bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is known for creating the NBC sitcom ''Th ...

Ted Rall Frederick Theodore Rall III (born August 26, 1963) is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cart ...

Kurt Andersen Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American writer and was the host of the Peabody-winning public radio program ''Studio 360'', a production of Public Radio International, ''Slate'', and WNYC. Early life and education Andersen was bo ...

Paul Rieckhoff Paul (P.J.) Rieckhoff is an American writer, social entrepreneur, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He is the president oRighteous Media Incand the host of thIndependent Americans podcast Prior to that, he was the ...

, and

Mark Crispin Miller Mark Crispin Miller (born 1949) is a professor of media studies at New York University. He has promoted conspiracy theories about U.S. presidential elections, the September 11 attacks and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as well as misinf ...

. On May 10, 2012, her first book, ''Lizz Free or Die'', was published by Riverhead Hardcover; it is a collection of autobiographical essays on her life. In 2012, she founded Lady Parts Justice, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of legislative attempts to block women's reproductive freedoms. On May 20, 2013, she received public backlash after sending tweets joking about a tornado that struck outside of Oklahoma City.‘Daily Show’ co-creator Lizz Winstead sparks outrage with Oklahoma tornado joke about conservatives
FoxNews.com 05-21-2013

References

External links

* *
Shoot the Messenger siteLady Parts Justice site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winstead, Lizz 1961 births American bloggers 21st-century American memoirists American talk radio hosts American women radio presenters American television personalities American women television personalities American television writers HuffPost writers and columnists Living people Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota American women comedians 21st-century American women writers Comedians from Minnesota Screenwriters from Minnesota 21st-century American comedians American women memoirists American women television writers American women columnists