Sarah Silverman
Jewish Name - Sarah Kate Silverman

Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is a Jewish American comedian, writer, actress, singer and musician. Her satirical comedy addresses social taboos and controversial topics such as racism, sexism, and religion.

Sarah Silverman first gained notice as a writer and occasional performer on Saturday Night Live. Sarah Silverman starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010, on Comedy Central.[1] Sarah Silverman often performs her act mocking bigotry and stereotypes of ethnic groups and religious denominations by having her comic character endorse them in an ironic fashion.[2][3]

Early life

Sarah Silverman, the youngest of four daughters, was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. Sarah Silverman was raised in a secular household, though Sarah Silverman is ethnically Jewish. Her mother, Beth Ann Halpin, was George McGovern's personal campaign photographer and founded the theater company New Thalian Players.[4] Her father, Donald Sarah Silverman, was a social worker by training who ran the discount clothing store Crazy Sophie's Outlet. [5]

Sarah Silverman appeared in community theater at age 12, most notably with Community Players of Concord, New Hampshire in Annie and also appeared on a local television show in the Boston area called Community Auditions at age 15. Sarah Silverman appeared several Derryfield Players productions including: Dulcie in "The Boyfriend"(1987), Rose Alvarez in "Bye Bye Birdie"(1987), and Charity in "Sweet Charity"(1989). At seventeen, Sarah Silverman performed stand-up comedy in a restaurant, singing a song Sarah Silverman called "Mammaries."

After graduating from The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire, Sarah Silverman attended New York University and continued her stand-up in Greenwich Village.[6][7][8][9]

Career

1993–2007: Career beginnings and Jesus is Magic

Sarah Silverman first received national attention in the 1993–94 season of Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a writer and featured player. Sarah Silverman was fired after one season because only one of the sketches Sarah Silverman wrote survived to dress rehearsal, and none aired. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer explained, "I could see how it wouldn't work at SNL because she's got her own voice, she's very much Sarah Silverman all the time. Sarah Silverman can play a character but Sarah Silverman doesn't disappear into the character—Sarah Silverman makes the character her."[6] Sarah Silverman states Sarah Silverman was upset when SNL fired her via fax. Sarah Silverman parodied the situation when Sarah Silverman appeared on The Larry Sanders Show episode "The New Writer" (1996), playing Sanders' new staff writer, whose jokes are not used because of the chauvinism and bias of the male chief comedy writer, who favors the jokes of his male co-writers. Sarah Silverman appeared in three episodes of Larry Sanders during its last two seasons.

Sarah Silverman was a featured performer on the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show (1995–97). Sarah Silverman made TV program guest appearances on Seinfeld, in the episode "The Money"; (1997) on Star Trek: Voyager, in the two-part time travel episode "Future's End" (1996); on V.I.P. in the episode "481⁄2 Hours" (2002); on Greg the Bunny as a series regular (2002); and on the puppet television comedy Crank Yankers, as the voice of Hadassah Guberman (2003, 2007). Sarah Silverman had small parts in the films There's Something About Mary, Say It Isn't So, School of Rock, The Way of the Gun, Overnight Delivery, Screwed, Heartbreakers, Evolution, School for Scoundrels, and Rent, playing a mixture of comic and serious roles.

Sarah Silverman's concert film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, based on her one-woman show of the same name, was released in 2005. Liam Lynch directed the movie, distributed by Roadside Attractions. Rotten Tomatoes gave Jesus Is Magic a "fresh" rating of 64% with 54 positive reviews and 30 negative ones, with the "cream of the crop" giving it a rating of 67%.[10] It made US$124,475 on its opening weekend, showing on seven screens. The box office performance led to an expanded release in as many as 57 theaters, resulting in a box office take of more than US$1.3 million.[11] The DVD was released in June 2006. The soundtrack featured songs and standup from the movie, and previously unreleased songs.[12] As part of the film's publicity campaign, Sarah Silverman appeared online in Slate, as the cover subject of Heeb magazine, and in roasts on Comedy Central of Pamela Anderson and Hugh Hefner.

Sarah Silverman played a therapist in a skit for a bonus DVD of the album Lullabies to Paralyze by the band Queens of the Stone Age. Sarah Silverman also appears at the end of the video for American glam metal band Steel Panther's "Death To All But Metal". On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Sarah Silverman parodied sketches from Chappelle's Show, replaying Dave Chappelle's characterizations of Rick James and "Tyrone", as well as a Donnell Rawlings character based on the miniseries Roots. The parody addressed a popular rumor that Sarah Silverman was the planned replacement for Chappelle after he left his popular television show. In 2006, Sarah Silverman placed #50 on Maxim Hot 100 List.[13] In 2007, Sarah Silverman placed #29 and appeared on the cover.[14] Sarah Silverman made the cover of The Observer in the United Kingdom, with an article naming her "the world's hottest, most controversial comedian".[15]

Sarah Silverman's television sitcom, The Sarah Silverman Program, debuted on Comedy Central in February 2007. The show proved to be a ratings success, scoring the highest premiere ratings of any Comedy Central show in three years, with 1.81 million viewers and the highest 18–49 rating of the night on cable.[1][16] It portrays the day-to-day adventures of fictionalized versions of Sarah Silverman, her sister Laura and their friends. A number of comedic actors from Mr. Show have reappeared on The Sarah Silverman Program. Sarah Silverman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award[17] for her acting on the show. At the awards ceremony, Sarah Silverman wore a fake mustache. Comedy Central canceled The Sarah Silverman Program after three seasons.[18]

In June 2007 Sarah Silverman hosted the MTV Movie Awards. During her opening act, Sarah Silverman commented on the upcoming jail sentence of Paris Hilton, who was in the audience, "In a couple of days, Paris Hilton is going to jail... As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I think it is wrong, too. I just worry Sarah Silverman is going to break her teeth on those things."[19] In September 2007 Sarah Silverman appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards. Following the comeback performance of Britney Spears, Sarah Silverman mocked her on stage, saying: "Wow, Sarah Silverman is amazing. I mean, Sarah Silverman is 25 years old, and Sarah Silverman has already accomplished everything she's going to accomplish in her life."[20]

In January 2008 Sarah Silverman appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to show Jimmy Kimmel, her boyfriend at the time, a special video. The video turned out to be a song called "I'm Fucking Matt Damon", in which Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon sang a duet about having an affair behind Kimmel's back. The video created an "instant YouTube sensation".[21] Kimmel responded with his own video a month later with Damon's friend Ben Affleck, which enlisted a panoply of stars, to record Kimmel's song "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck".[22] On September 13, 2008, Sarah Silverman won a Creative Arts Emmy for writing the song "I'm Fucking Matt Damon".[23] Sarah Silverman guest starred in a second season episode of the USA cable program Monk as Marci Maven. Sarah Silverman returned in the sixth season premiere, and for the 100th episode of Monk. According to the audio commentary on the Clerks II DVD, director Kevin Smith offered her the role that eventually went to Rosario Dawson, but Sarah Silverman turned it down out of fear of being typecast in "girlfriend roles". However, Sarah Silverman told Smith the script was "really funny" and mentioned that if the role of Randal Graves was being offered to her Sarah Silverman "would do it in a heartbeat."

In October 2008, Sarah Silverman visited the United Kingdom to promote the release of The Sarah Silverman Program on Paramount Comedy, but her media and stage performances failed to impress audiences. Her debut stand-up performance at the Hammersmith Apollo was widely panned by the critics and audiences alike. The performance bombed when Sarah Silverman's warm-up act failed to appear and Sarah Silverman rushed through a short 35–40 minute set. The heckling audience, who had been charged £40–50 a seat, refused to leave the theatre and Sarah Silverman, sporting a pair of after-show slippers, was forced to return to the stage for an impromptu question and answer session. Steve Bennett from comedy website Chortle declared that "minute for minute, there are sex phonelines that are cheaper than Sarah Silverman."[24][25] In an interview on the How Was Your Week podcast, Sarah Silverman made one of her only public comments on the matter, claiming that the show had been one of the best of her life and that the audience reaction had been misreported by bloggers and the press.[26]

Sarah Silverman also appears in Strange Powers, the 2009 documentary by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara about cult songwriter Stephin Merritt and his band, the Magnetic Fields. Sarah Silverman wrote a comic memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, which was published in 2010, and became a New York Times Best Seller. Sarah Silverman received a $2.5 million advance for the book.

2011–present: Take this Waltz and other projects

Sarah Silverman played a dramatic role alongside Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in the film Take This Waltz, written and directed by Sarah Polley. The film was well received when it premiered in Toronto in 2011[27] and was picked up by Magnolia for U.S. distribution in Summer 2012.[28] Much was made of the fact that the movie features a full-frontal nude scene from Sarah Silverman,[29] which the actress has spoken about on several occasions. At the Toronto International Film Festival, Sarah Silverman told the press she'd deliberately gained weight for the part, emphasizing that Polley wanted "real bodies and real women" rather than impossibly skinny ones.[30] In interviews Sarah Silverman warned fans not to expect too much.[31] However, Sarah Silverman later told podcaster and author Julie Klausner that Sarah Silverman had not really gained weight for the role, and that the statements were meant as self-deprecating humor.[26]

A single camera comedy pilot by Sarah Silverman was given the go ahead by television network NBC in 2011 after a bidding war between multiple networks.[32] Arrested Development producer Ron Howard was reported to have been personally involved in the development process of the series.[33] It was to be loosely based on Sarah Silverman's life as a woman who had just ended a decade long live-in relationship.[32] The series was tentatively titled Susan 313 and received a put pilot commitment, which would require the network to pay a large fine if the pilot was not aired.[34] However, NBC did not pick up the series for the fall 2012 season.[35]
Controversy
Racial slur

In a July 2001 interview on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien Sarah Silverman used the ethnic slur "chink" explaining that a friend advised her to avoid jury duty by writing a racial slur on the selection form, "something inappropriate, like 'I hate chinks.'" Sarah Silverman said Sarah Silverman decided that Sarah Silverman did not want to be thought of as a racist, so "I wrote 'I love chinks' – and who doesn't?" Sarah Silverman said that the joke satirizes the racist thought process. Guy Aoki, of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), objected to her use of the slur.[36][37] NBC and O'Brien apologized, but Sarah Silverman did not, later appearing on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher in July and August 2001. Sarah Silverman questioned Aoki's sincerity, accusing him of exploiting the opportunity for publicity. On an episode of the show, Aoki appeared with Sarah Silverman, and stated that he did not accept Sarah Silverman's explanation, saying that it was not successful satire and that comedians should consult with groups such as his before performing such material. Sarah Silverman stated in an NPR's Fresh Air interview that Sarah Silverman was asked to repeat the joke on Politically Incorrect, among other places, but Sarah Silverman eventually dropped the joke from her act because Sarah Silverman felt it was becoming stale.[12] Sarah Silverman has since turned the complaint into grist for her stand-up act, saying that the experience helped teach her the important lesson that racism is bad: "And I mean bad, like in that black way."[38

The Aristocrats

A minor controversy arose over Sarah Silverman's performance in the documentary film The Aristocrats (2005). The film shows Sarah Silverman giving an apparently autobiographical account of her life as a child sex performer and mentions how Joe Franklin, a New York radio and TV personality whose nostalgic programs have aired since the early 1950s, would ask her to perform privately for him in his apartment. Sarah Silverman looks at the camera and, in a deadpan voice, accused Franklin of raping her. The film was edited in such a way that it appears as if Franklin knows what Sarah Silverman said about him. Later, after her clip, Franklin is shown stating "Sarah Silverman is a young lady to watch". After the film came out, Franklin took offense to Sarah Silverman's using his name and considered suing her. A month later the New York Times noted he remained undecided, but said, "the best thing I could do is get Sarah better writers so she'd have funnier material."[39]

"Scissor Sheldon"

On July 16, 2012, Silver set up a website called "Scissor Sheldon" on which Sarah Silverman proposed to perform sexual acts with casino entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson in exchange for his making a monetary contribution to the Barack Obama campaign for re-election. [40] Sarah Silverman stated that her reason for the proposition was that large numbers of wealthy Republicans were already supporting the Mitt Romney campaign for president. The site also has a page which lists some information about Adelson as well as calling him Romney's "sugar daddy" [41][42][43]

Personal life

Sarah Silverman has said that Sarah Silverman does not consume alcohol, because it nauseates her. Sarah Silverman is open about her lifelong battle with clinical depression which at one point led to her developing an addiction to Xanax. Sarah Silverman credited her subsequent emotional health to taking prescription drug Zoloft.[8][44][45] Sarah Silverman struggled with bedwetting from the time Sarah Silverman was young until well into her teens and has stated that the last time Sarah Silverman wet her bed was when Sarah Silverman was fired from Saturday Night Live.[12][45] Her autobiography, published in April 2010, entitled The Bedwetter, explores the subject, among others.

Sarah Silverman talked about having dated Dave Attell on one of her appearances on The Howard Stern Show. Sarah Silverman and Colin Quinn joked about having been romantically linked during her Saturday Night Live career. In her first appearance on the Stern show in June 2001 Sarah Silverman said Sarah Silverman was dating someone named Tom who wrote for SNL. Sarah Silverman was in a relationship that began in 2002 with comedian Jimmy Kimmel.[46] Sarah Silverman referred to the relationship in some of her comedy, "I'm Jewish, but I wear this Saint Christopher medal sometimes; my boyfriend is Catholic—but you know... it was cute the way he gave it to me. He said if it doesn't burn a hole through my skin, it will protect me."[6] In July 2008, Vanity Fair reported that the couple had split, ending their relationship of five years. However, in October 2008 it was revealed by Fox News and People magazine that they were on "the road back to being together."[47] The couple attended the wedding of Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky together,[48] but split again in March 2009.[49]

Sarah Silverman has stated Sarah Silverman does not want to get married until same-sex couples are able to.[50] Sarah Silverman has also stated Sarah Silverman doesn't want to have biological children to avoid the risk that they might inherit her depression.[51] Sarah Silverman's biological sister Laura plays her sister on The Sarah Silverman Program. Another sister, Susan, is a rabbi who lives in Jerusalem, Israel with her husband and five children.[52][53] Sarah Silverman is a fan of Jenny Lewis and appeared in Lewis' music video for the song "Rise Up With Fists!!" Sarah Silverman is also a fan of comedian Steve Martin, who was one of her major inspirations as a younger comedian.[15] Sarah Silverman enjoys playing Scrabble on the Internet. One of her regular opponents is Alyssa Milano, who lives in the same building that Sarah Silverman does.[44][54] Sarah Silverman credited comedian Tig Notaro as one of her best friends in an interview in The Advocate.[50]

Sarah Silverman considers herself ethnically Jewish, which Sarah Silverman has frequently mined for material, but says Sarah Silverman is agnostic[55] and does not follow the religion, claiming, "I have no religion. But culturally I can't escape it; I'm very Jewish."[56][57] Her humor has also touched on other religions. In 2009, Sarah Silverman suggested the Pope sell the Vatican and use some of the money for luxurious housing and the remainder to stop world hunger, saying he would "get crazy pussy."[58]

Filmography

1997 Who's the Caboose?
1998 Overnight Delivery
1998 Bulworth
1998 There's Something About Mary
1999 The Bachelor
2000 What Planet Are You From?
2000 Screwed
2000 The Way of the Gun
2001 Black Days
2001 Say It Isn't So
2001 Heartbreakers
2001 Evolution
2002 Run Ronnie Run
2003 School of Rock
2003 Bad Santa Deleted scene
2004 Hair High Voice
2005 The Aristocrats Documentary
2005 Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic Concertmovie
2005 Rent
2006 I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
2006 School for Scoundrels
2007 Fired! Documentary
2007 Certifiably Jonathan Documentary
2007 Futurama: Bender's Big Score Voice
2008 Super High Me Documentary, cameo
2009 Funny People Cameo
2010 Saint John of Las Vegas
2011 Peep World
2011 The Muppets Cameo
2011 Take This Waltz
2012 Wreck-It Ralph Voice
Shortfilms
Year Title Notes
2002 Strippers Pole
2004 Nobody's Perfect
2004 Supermarket
20?? Give The Jew Girl Toys Satirical music video
Unknown Death to all but metal Music video
Unknown Confetti Music video
Television
Year TV Role Notes
1993-1994 Saturday Night Live Writer and performer
1995 Mr. Show Various
1994-1996 The Larry Sanders Show Wendy
1996 Star Trek Voyager Rain Robinson Two episodes
1997 Brotherly Love Rosa
1997 Seinfeld Kramers girlfriend
1997 Jag Lt. Schiparelli
1998 Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist herself
1999 Late Last Night Unknown
2000-2007 Futurama Voice Two episodes
2002-2004 Greg the Bunny Alison Kaiser Voice
2002-2007 Crank Yankers Various Voice
2003 Frasier Jane "Maris Returns"
2003-2004 Celebrity Poker Showdown Herself Twice
2004 Pilot Season Unknown Miniseries
2004 Entourage Herself
2004 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Robositter Voice
2004 Drawn Together Cousin Bleh
2004 Monk Marci Maven
2005 American Dad! Voice Stan Knows Best
2005 Tom Goes to the Mayor Voice ("Pipe Camp", episode 11)
2006 Comic Relief Herself Stand-up
2007 Monk Marci Maven Her second episode
2007 The Andy Milonakis Show Herself
2007-2010 The Sarah Silverman Program Sarah Silverman Nominated – Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2009)
2008 Monk Marci Maven Mr. Monk's 100th Case
2008 8 out of 10 cats Herself
2008 Friday Night with Jonathan Ross Herself
2008 The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget Herself Pre-recorded video message
2010 The Simpsons Nikki Stealing First Base
2010 Warren The Ape Herself
2011 Bob's Burgers Ollie Two episodes
2011 The Good Wife (TV series) Stephanie Engler "Getting Off"
2011 The League Heather "Thanksgiving"

Solar energy

At the 2011 Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, in an interview with Yigal Ravid, Sarah Silverman spoke about her support for solar power as a project on which Israelis and Palestinians could work together. Sarah Silverman endorsed solar energy not only as good for the environment but as a peace-building industry as well. Sarah Silverman said:

When I think about peace… and I think about the Jews and the Palestinians…. I think the only real solution is the classic buddy-movie formula… You take two enemies and they are forced to work together on some common goal and in the end they realize they aren’t that different. Right? So they’ve got to come together either for some common goal—how about solar power? [to applause] How about solar power!? How about powering the world with this beautiful sun they share?[59]

References

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