Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, media personality, and LGBT rights advocate. A self-proclaimed "D-list celebrity", Griffin first gained recognition for her supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, and is now the star of the Bravo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, for which she won two Emmy Awards as executive producer. She has also worked as a voice artist and red carpet commentator, in addition to several other career pursuits. In 2008 she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Early life
Griffin was born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, and raised there and in nearby Forest Park. Her family was Irish Catholic; her mother, Margaret "Maggie" (née Corbally), was a hospital administrator, and her father, John Patrick Griffin, was an electronics store manager. She attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, where she graduated in 1978. After highschool she attended Triton College in River Grove, Illinois later dropping out. Griffin is the youngest of five children — she has two older brothers, John and Gary, and an older sister, Joyce. Her other brother, Kenny, is deceased.[citation needed]
In her 2009 autobiography Official Bookclub Selection, Griffin went on the record for the first time about the troubled life of Kenny Griffin. Detailing his history of drug abuse and wife/spousal battering, she also discussed how, though never prosecuted, she believed Kenny was a child molester; and further, how many of his female companions over the years revealed this. She additionally states that when she was a pre-teen, he would climb into bed with her and cuddle, whispering "sweet nothings" to her (though he never actually molested her.) It was at this point that Griffin officially ended her relationship with him.[citation needed]
Career
Stand-up comedy, TV, and film
This section of a biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2008)(Find sources: Kathy Griffin – news, books, scholar)
Griffin began performing in the early 1980s Los Angeles improv comedy troupe, The Groundlings. In an E! True Hollywood Story segment, she stated that she often went to see the Groundlings perform before she joined. She said that at one show, she went backstage and talked with Groundling member Phil Hartman and asked him what The Groundlings were all about. Struggling to make it in the Los Angeles acting scene, she joined the troupe after a failed audition for the lead role in the film version of Harriet the Spy. This led to her taking classes there and eventually being asked into the Main Company.
She went on to perform stand-up comedy and became part of the burgeoning alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles, appearing at Un-Cabaret and her own sho
w "Hot Cup of Talk", later the title of Griffin's 1998 solo HBO special.
Kathy made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Her small role was a pedestrian coming to the aid of Marcellas Wallas (Ving Rhames) after he is hit by Bruce Willis' character's car.
She broke into film with the supporting role of Connie in the horror film The Unborn, starring Brooke Adams.
Griffin gradually amassed such TV and film credits as a role in comedian Julie Brown's Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful, a Showtime parody of the 1991 Madonna film Truth or Dare; two appearances as the character Susan Klein, a reporter, on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, her TV sitcom debut; fellow comic Bob Goldthwait's film Shakes the Clown; as the enthusiastic leader of a fanatical car club on the Ellen episode "Oh, Sweet Rapture", airing in January 1996; and an episode of ABC's divorce-attorney series Civil Wars, Griffin's dramatic-series debut. In addition, she most recently appeared on the show Ugly Betty as a fashion channel reporter.
After starring in an HBO Half Hour Comedy Special, Griffin's first consistent public exposure came in 1996, when she was cast as the acerbic colleague of Brooke Shields' title character on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. In 1998, Griffin starred in her first one-hour special, HBO's Kathy Griffin: A Hot Cup of Talk. She honed a comedy and television career that poked fun at her relatively modest place in the Hollywood hierarchy in a self-deprecating manner. She frequently appears in such self-consciously tacky projects as the reality show competition Celebrity Mole Hawaii—in which she won the 2003 edition after undergoing such experiences as walking over hot lava with her bare feet. She identifies her victory as the moment she became a "D-list" celebrity.
Griffin also has a secondary career in voiceover work, and has been featured on a variety of projects such as the animated series Dilbert and Spider-Man: The New Animated S
eries.
Griffin's TV production company is called Inappropriate Laughter, a reference to her sometimes shocking form of humor.
On June 12, 2008 Griffin hosted the first ever Bravo A-List Awards. Included in the show was a scene where Griffin mimicked a "wardrobe malfunction" (referring to the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show controversy in 2004).
Kathy Griffin's official website has confirmed that she will again host the 2009 Bravo A-List Awards set to be aired on April 15, 2009. Kathy's new Bravo special aired before the A-List Awards on April 15, 2009. Her official website has also confirmed the name of her new special to be, Kathy Griffin: She'll Cut a Bitch. The special was taped on March 4, 2009 in Portland, Oregon.
On September 8, 2009, Ballantine Books published Griffin's memoir titled Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin. A week prior, she released her second comedy album Suckin' It for the Holidays.
Kathy also appeared in Eminem's" The Real Slim Shady" music video as a nurse.
Guest co-host of The View
Kathy Griffin served as the unofficial guest co-host of The View from May 2007 to September 2007. Griffin was considered to join the panel of The View in fall 2007 as a replacement for departing panelist Rosie O'Donnell. Despite running jokes in her act about Executive Producer Barbara Walters not liking her, Griffin co-hosted the show many times after O'Donnell left in May 2007. Whoopi Goldberg was ultimately selected as a permanent replacement. On September 10, 2007, Sherri Shepherd took over the remaining co-host spot, vacant since Star Jones' departure. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that a source tells him that The View was having second thoughts about hiring Shepherd over Griffin, although both The View and Walters' spokespersons deny this. Walters has stated that she was worried about hiring another loose cannon after the troubles with O'Donnell.
Griffin recently divulged in her stand-up that she is now banned from The View after talking about the gig on her televised comedy special, Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell. While declining to discuss the ban on Access Hollywood, during the filming of an episode for My Life on the D-List with former View co-host/moderator Rosie O'Donnell, Griffin did talk about the ban, specifically targeting View executive producer Bill Geddie. Griffin has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Walters in the event she departs the show. As of August 2009 Kathy has been un-banned from The View. She will be co-hosting on September 18, 2009.
Early life
Griffin was born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, and raised there and in nearby Forest Park. Her family was Irish Catholic; her mother, Margaret "Maggie" (née Corbally), was a hospital administrator, and her father, John Patrick Griffin, was an electronics store manager. She attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, where she graduated in 1978. After highschool she attended Triton College in River Grove, Illinois later dropping out. Griffin is the youngest of five children — she has two older brothers, John and Gary, and an older sister, Joyce. Her other brother, Kenny, is deceased.[citation needed]
In her 2009 autobiography Official Bookclub Selection, Griffin went on the record for the first time about the troubled life of Kenny Griffin. Detailing his history of drug abuse and wife/spousal battering, she also discussed how, though never prosecuted, she believed Kenny was a child molester; and further, how many of his female companions over the years revealed this. She additionally states that when she was a pre-teen, he would climb into bed with her and cuddle, whispering "sweet nothings" to her (though he never actually molested her.) It was at this point that Griffin officially ended her relationship with him.[citation needed]
Career
Stand-up comedy, TV, and film
This section of a biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2008)(Find sources: Kathy Griffin – news, books, scholar)
Griffin began performing in the early 1980s Los Angeles improv comedy troupe, The Groundlings. In an E! True Hollywood Story segment, she stated that she often went to see the Groundlings perform before she joined. She said that at one show, she went backstage and talked with Groundling member Phil Hartman and asked him what The Groundlings were all about. Struggling to make it in the Los Angeles acting scene, she joined the troupe after a failed audition for the lead role in the film version of Harriet the Spy. This led to her taking classes there and eventually being asked into the Main Company.
She went on to perform stand-up comedy and became part of the burgeoning alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles, appearing at Un-Cabaret and her own sho
w "Hot Cup of Talk", later the title of Griffin's 1998 solo HBO special.Kathy made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Her small role was a pedestrian coming to the aid of Marcellas Wallas (Ving Rhames) after he is hit by Bruce Willis' character's car.
She broke into film with the supporting role of Connie in the horror film The Unborn, starring Brooke Adams.
Griffin gradually amassed such TV and film credits as a role in comedian Julie Brown's Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful, a Showtime parody of the 1991 Madonna film Truth or Dare; two appearances as the character Susan Klein, a reporter, on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, her TV sitcom debut; fellow comic Bob Goldthwait's film Shakes the Clown; as the enthusiastic leader of a fanatical car club on the Ellen episode "Oh, Sweet Rapture", airing in January 1996; and an episode of ABC's divorce-attorney series Civil Wars, Griffin's dramatic-series debut. In addition, she most recently appeared on the show Ugly Betty as a fashion channel reporter.
After starring in an HBO Half Hour Comedy Special, Griffin's first consistent public exposure came in 1996, when she was cast as the acerbic colleague of Brooke Shields' title character on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. In 1998, Griffin starred in her first one-hour special, HBO's Kathy Griffin: A Hot Cup of Talk. She honed a comedy and television career that poked fun at her relatively modest place in the Hollywood hierarchy in a self-deprecating manner. She frequently appears in such self-consciously tacky projects as the reality show competition Celebrity Mole Hawaii—in which she won the 2003 edition after undergoing such experiences as walking over hot lava with her bare feet. She identifies her victory as the moment she became a "D-list" celebrity.
Griffin also has a secondary career in voiceover work, and has been featured on a variety of projects such as the animated series Dilbert and Spider-Man: The New Animated S
eries.Griffin's TV production company is called Inappropriate Laughter, a reference to her sometimes shocking form of humor.
On June 12, 2008 Griffin hosted the first ever Bravo A-List Awards. Included in the show was a scene where Griffin mimicked a "wardrobe malfunction" (referring to the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show controversy in 2004).
Kathy Griffin's official website has confirmed that she will again host the 2009 Bravo A-List Awards set to be aired on April 15, 2009. Kathy's new Bravo special aired before the A-List Awards on April 15, 2009. Her official website has also confirmed the name of her new special to be, Kathy Griffin: She'll Cut a Bitch. The special was taped on March 4, 2009 in Portland, Oregon.
On September 8, 2009, Ballantine Books published Griffin's memoir titled Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin. A week prior, she released her second comedy album Suckin' It for the Holidays.
Kathy also appeared in Eminem's" The Real Slim Shady" music video as a nurse.
Guest co-host of The View
Kathy Griffin served as the unofficial guest co-host of The View from May 2007 to September 2007. Griffin was considered to join the panel of The View in fall 2007 as a replacement for departing panelist Rosie O'Donnell. Despite running jokes in her act about Executive Producer Barbara Walters not liking her, Griffin co-hosted the show many times after O'Donnell left in May 2007. Whoopi Goldberg was ultimately selected as a permanent replacement. On September 10, 2007, Sherri Shepherd took over the remaining co-host spot, vacant since Star Jones' departure. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that a source tells him that The View was having second thoughts about hiring Shepherd over Griffin, although both The View and Walters' spokespersons deny this. Walters has stated that she was worried about hiring another loose cannon after the troubles with O'Donnell.
Griffin recently divulged in her stand-up that she is now banned from The View after talking about the gig on her televised comedy special, Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell. While declining to discuss the ban on Access Hollywood, during the filming of an episode for My Life on the D-List with former View co-host/moderator Rosie O'Donnell, Griffin did talk about the ban, specifically targeting View executive producer Bill Geddie. Griffin has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Walters in the event she departs the show. As of August 2009 Kathy has been un-banned from The View. She will be co-hosting on September 18, 2009.
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