Liz Feldman (born May 21, 1977) is an American

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience dir ...

, actress, producer and writer. She is best known as the creator and executive producer of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

dark comedy series '' Dead to Me''. She also created '' One Big Happy'' and has written for ''

2 Broke Girls ''2 Broke Girls'' (stylized ''2 Broke Girl$'') is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from September 19, 2011, to April 17, 2017. The series was produced for Warner Bros. Television and created by Michael Patrick King and Whitney Cumm ...

'', ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pr ...

'', and ''

Blue Collar TV ''Blue Collar TV'' is an American sketch comedy television series that aired on The WB from July 29, 2004 to July 26, 2006 starring Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and Larry the Cable Guy. The show's humor dealt principally with contemporary Ameri ...

''.

Early life

Feldman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Career

Feldman began her career as a stand-up comic at the age of 16 and made her TV debut as a performer and writer for ''

All That ''All That'' is an American sketch comedy television series created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin. The series originally aired on Nickelodeon from April 16, 1994, to October 22, 2005, lasting ten seasons, and was produced by Tollin/Robbins P ...

'' on

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in 1995. She is a graduate of Boston University and an alumna of

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

and

The Groundlings The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniq ...

. She went on to write for ''

'', ''

Hot in Cleveland ''Hot in Cleveland'' is an American television sitcom on TV Land starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, and Betty White. The series, which was TV Land's first original series, premiered on June 16, 2010, and was TV Land's ...

'', '' The Great Indoors'', the 79th, 86th and

87th Academy Awards The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p ...

, ''

'' and ''

'', for which she won four Emmy awards. She created the NBC sitcom '' One Big Happy'' starring

Elisha Cuthbert Elisha Ann Cuthbert Phaneuf (; born 30 November 1982) is a Canadian actress and model. As a child actress, she made her first televised appearance as an extra in the Canadian horror-themed series for children ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' and ...

, executive produced by

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom '' Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". S ...

. Since 2008, Feldman has been the host of ''This Just Out'', a YouTube talk show that celebrates lesbian culture. The “gay positive” show is filmed at Liz's kitchen table and features LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly actors, comedians, writers and musicians. Liz has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights. In 2008, her joke about same-sex marriage ("It's very dear to me, the issue of gay marriage, or as I like to call it 'marriage,' you know, because I had lunch this afternoon, not gay lunch. I park my car, I didn't gay park it.") went viral, recreated thousands of times across various platforms in the campaign against Prop 8, which sought to outlaw same sex marriage. In 2012, she was named one of ''The Advocate'''s "40 Under 40." In 2016, she signed a multi-year overall deal with

CBS Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

to develop new projects. In 2019, Feldman created and produced the

dark comedy series '' Dead to Me,'' executive produced by

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 20 ...

and Adam McKay. ''Dead to Me'' premiered on Netflix on May 3, 2019. The series was renewed for a second season which was released on Netflix on May 8, 2020. In July 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third and final season. On July 6, 2020, Netflix announced that it had entered into an exclusive multi-year development deal with Feldman, under which all of her future productions will be

Netflix Original Netflix is an American global Internet streaming-on-demand media provider that has distributed a number of original streaming television shows, including original series, specials, miniseries, and documentaries and films. Netflix's original pro ...

series. In 2020, she won the WGA Award for Best Episodic Comedy for the pilot episode of ''Dead to Me''. She was also named to ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

''s "50 Most Powerful LGBTQ Players in Hollywood" list.

Personal life

Liz Feldman is married to musician

Rachael Cantu Rachael Cantu (born June 8, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up in Orange County, California.

. They were married in 2013 and live in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

. They welcomed their first child in October 2022.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Feldman, Liz 1977 births American Internet celebrities American television actresses Television personalities from New York City American women television personalities Television producers from New York City American women television producers American television writers Living people People from Brooklyn Place of birth missing (living people) Video bloggers Women video bloggers American women comedians American women television writers Actresses from New York City American women bloggers American bloggers Jewish American actresses Jewish American screenwriters Screenwriters from New York (state) 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American comedians American lesbian writers LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT Jews 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American Jews