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Kathy Griffin
Born	Kathleen Mary Griffin (1960-11-04) November 4, 1960 Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actress, comedian, writer, producer
Years active	1978–present
Spouse	Matt Moline (2001-06)

Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, she moved to Los Angeles in 1978, where she studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and became a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. In the 1990s, Griffin began performing as a stand-up and also appeared as a guest star on several television shows. She achieved recognition in a supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996-2000).

Her breakthrough came on the Bravo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2005-2010), which became a ratings hit for the network and earned her two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program. Griffin has released five comedy albums, with all of them receiving Grammy Award nominations. Her first album, For Your Consideration (2008), made her the first female comedian to debut atop of the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart. In 2009, she released her autobiography Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list. Griffin has also taped stand-up specials with HBO and Bravo. Since 2012, she hosts her own weekly talk show on Bravo called Kathy.

Beside her comedy career, she is an LGBT activist involved in causes such as same-sex marriage and the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell". She has also participated in two USO tours. Influenced by acts such as Joan Rivers and Don Rickles, Griffin is known for her conversational style and controversial statements on celebrities, religion and sexuality. She is recognized as one of the top female comedians in the United States. In 2011, she became the first comedian to have four television specials in a year.

Life and career

1960–1978: Early life and career beginnings

Kathleen Mary Griffin was born in Oak Park, Illinois on November 4, 1960. Her mother, Mary Margaret "Maggie" (née Corbally), and her father, John Patrick Griffin, were first-generation Irish Americans. John was an electronic store manager, and Maggie worked as a cashier in the Oak Park Hospital. The last of five children, her siblings are: Kenny, Joyce, Gary, and John. Griffin described herself during her early years as "a kid who needed to talk, all the time". She would often visit her neighbors to tell them stories about her family; she has referred to these visits as her first live shows. Griffin attended St. Bernadine's Elementary School, and began to develop a dislike for organized religion due to the punishments of the nuns towards her and other "vulnerable" students. After most of her older sibilings moved from the house, she was left alone for hours after school and developed a binge eating disorder. Although eating disorders were not very well known at that time, Griffin felt that her eating behavior was wrong. Griffin, as a young girl, admired her older brother Kenny, who was an actor and musician in Chicago. Kenny used to crawl into bed with Griffin and whisper sweet nothings into her ear. As she got older, Griffin started suspecting that her brother might be a pedophile.

She later attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and sought refuge in musical theatre, where she played roles such as Rosemary on How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof. Her first appearance on television was as an extra on a Chicago White Sox commercial. After it aired, she was quickly signed to numerous local talent agencies. At age eighteen, Griffin convinced her parents that she wanted to become a professional actress, and moved with them to Los Angeles for their retirement.

1979–1989: The Groundlings

After Griffin arrived at Los Angeles, she got temporary jobs as a busgirl and a Kelly girl to support herself. She signed with a talent agency and began working as an extra, appearing in films such as Battle Beyond the Stars, Fade to Black and Streets of Fire. Griffin had the possibility to become a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) due to her face being distinguishable on the Chicago White Sox commercial, as established in the Taft–Hartley Act. Her father John managed to get a scholarship for her at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, where she studied drama full-time for two years.

At age nineteen, Griffin attended a show of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. While watching it, she thought: "This is where I want to be. This is the greatest thing in the world." After the show ended, she went backstage and asked one of the performers of the moment, Phil Hartman, how to get in the school. She started taking classes at The Groundlings following her graduation from Lee Strasberg. Her early characters on the B company show were always variations of herself, something she would later note was more appropiate for stand-up comedy. Her first notorious character was based off an experience Griffin had in a movie theatre, where an African American woman talked to the screen during an entire Sylvester Stallone film. The sketch was a big success; it was performed for six months and got Griffin good reviews. She was promoted to the main company in the mid-1980's, where she had the opportunity to perform a sketch with Hartman. The LA Weekly named him and Griffin the standouts of the show. Towards the end of the decade, Griffin became a teacher at The Groundlings for five years, where she would teach five improv classes a week. Among her students were Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Chris Parnell, Michael McDonald, Mariska Hargitay and Melissa Rivers. Griffin spent around eight years at The Groundlings.

The pressure of the business made her incredibly insecure, as prospective agents often commented negatively on her appearance. She got her first nose job at age twenty-six. Her eating habits also worsened during this time: she returned to binge eating and even tried amphetamine several times to try to lose weight. She fought the disorder by going to meetings at Overeaters Anonymous (OA) and therapy. During her mid-twenties, her brother Kenny became a crack addict and later homeless. He eventually died of pneumonia.

1990–1995: Hot Cup O' Talk

In September 1990, Griffin got her first television guest appearance as a reporter on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After auditioning for "about seventy" national or regional commercials, Griffin finally landed a television spot filmed by Joe Pytka for Kenwood, in which she recited rhythmless the lyrics of the 1970's hit "Play That Funky Music" in a futuristic set. Pytka subsequently hired her in at least seven more commercials, including some Super Bowl advertisements. Griffin met director Quentin Tarantino through mutual friend Julia Sweeney. He cast her in small roles in several of his projects, such as Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms and his episode of ER. In the early 1990s, Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live (SNL), traveled to Los Angeles to watch Griffin, and fellow Groundlings members Lisa Kudrow and Julia Sweeney perform at the main company show. As it was the goal of all Groundlings members to be on SNL, Griffin called it "the biggest audition of our lives". Only Sweeney was cast for the show, which left Griffin devastated. Her friend Judy Toll suggested her to try stand-up comedy. Griffin explains that her first reaction was: "No way. I do characters. I can't tell a joke to save my life. I'd get heckled." Kudrow then told her, "You're okay with characters. But you're really funny as yourself. When you talk to me as you, you're funnier than anybody I know."

Griffin then started to open the Groundlings shows with a five-minute monologue, and eventually secured a spot on a regular night at The Comedy Store. She often struggled to get laughs because of her unusual conversational style and themes. "I realized that I bombed at clubs because I disrupted the standard listening rhythm of setup/punchline, setup/punchline, and the crowd just couldn't or wouldn't switch gears", she said. After a meeting with Toll and Janeane Garofalo in 1995, they decided to do an alternative comedy show together at the Groundlings theater. The result was Hot Cup O' Talk, with a setup of four comics – Griffin, Toll, Garofalo and a rotating comedian – which would talk for fifteen minutes each, and could never repeate material. The show became an instant hit, and along with the Un-Cabaret created by Beth Lapides, it started to attract comics from all over the country to the alternative comedy scene. Griffin described it as "the same two hundred people usually who were fans of the scene, and this was in the pre-blogging days, when what you said in your act didn't necessarily go anywhere, and someone like me could really get away with murder." During this time, she also appeared as a guest star in sitcoms such as Mad About You and Ned & Stacey.

1996–2000: Seinfeld and Suddenly Susan

In early 1996, Griffin starred in the short-lived series Saturday Night Special, and also guest-starred in Ellen and Seinfeld. In the latter, she appeared in the episode "The Doll", where she was cast as George Costanza's fiancée's college roommate Sally Weaver. Although she described the experience as "mind-blowing", she felt that Jerry Seinfeld "was kind of an asshole" after he initially refused to writer a note for her. Griffin added the story to her stand-up act at clubs. She said, "It didn't occur to me to think, 'Okay, Kathy, when you do stand-up in Los Angeles, there are going to be industry people there. Don’t bash the number one sitcom star in the world'". In the next few months, Griffin got her first half-hour comedy special in HBO. Due to suggestions from the network's executives, she included the story in the special after being reassured by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David that "Jerry will never see this in a million years." Seinfeld eventually watched the special and sent Griffin a funny letter as a response. She later learned that he had showed that bit from the special to the Seinfeld audience while they would set up for the next scene. "Jerry not only got the joke, but he was growing my audience!", she stated. The experience inspired a new episode of the series called "The Cartoon", in which Griffin played Sally Weaver as a stand-up comedian who talks about Seinfeld in her act.

During that time, casting directors started to go to Hot Cup O'Talk and the Un-Cabaret in search of new actresses to play sidekick roles in sitcoms, including the part of Susan's (Brooke Shields) colleague Vicki Groener in Suddenly Susan. Griffin was called for numerous sitcom auditions, but seemed to be the only actress in the alternative comedy scene to not be asked for the role. She ended up auditioning three days before the show started production, and is convinced that she was hired "out of desperation", since both Shields and the head of Warner Bros. Television were reluctant to cast her. Suddenly Susan premiered on September 16, 1996. Although it received mixed reviews from critics, it was ranked as the third most watched show of the season (only behind ER and Seinfeld), with an audience of 16.5 million viewers. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said that "Griffin, who's also a tough, jabbing stand-up comic, deserves credit for playing [Vicki] with as much gusto as this accumulation of cliches will allow." During filming, Griffin and Shields became close friends. Griffin explained, "There’s something about working every day with someone for four years where you really get to know them well, and vice versa." She also became friends with her idol Joan Rivers following her appearance as a guest star on the show.

After years of renting and living in small apartments, she bought her first house in the Hollywood Hills in 1997. The wardrobe fittings made Griffin self-conscious about her body, and she got a liposuction in between seasons of the show. She was sent home after the surgery without voiding and was cathetered at the surgeon's office during the next five days. She arrived in pain and sick the last day, where a pacient who was a physician recognized that something was wrong due to the color of her skin. After she was rushed to the emergency room in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, doctors discovered that her urine was going through her organs and back since it was not exiting her body, and her kidneys came close to being permanently damaged. Griffin decided that she would not sue the doctor because she would "simply be outspent" in the end. However, she wrote an article for Glamour called "Lipo Sucks", although she could not name the doctor. Griffin co-hosted the Billboard Music Awards for three years in a row, starting in 1998. The same year, she got her first one-hour special in HBO, which she called Hot Cup of Talk. Griffin met IT consultant Matt Moline through his sister Rebecca in 1999. They started dating and moved together shortly after. She voiced the character of Alice in the animated show Dilbert through its two seasons in 1999 and 2000. In May 2000, she guest-starred in the episode "Fight Club" of The X-Files in a dual role as twins. Both the episode and her performance were critically panned. Following the end of Suddenly Susan in June 2000, Griffin struggled to find work, as television executives told her she was "off-putting" and "too old" to star in a new sitcom. She also appeared as a nurse in the music video for Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady", due to a recommendation from Snoop Dogg.

2001–2004: The Laugh Factory and plastic surgeries

"One time a woman came up to me at an airport and started touching my face, saying, 'You don't look that bad.' I should have just become one of those dames who absolutely swear they've never had any work done. I'm looking at you, Hatcher. [...] Of all the things I thought I'd get out of that experience, getting asked repeatedly about my stand on plastic surgery, or how I felt morally about it, was not one of them. My decision to have more surgery was about as deep as, 'Maybe I'll look younger and be in a magazine!'

—Griffin on the public's reception of her surgeries.

Following the premiere of Survivor and the explosion of reality shows in American television in 2000, Griffin starred in an MTV show about the genre called Kathy’s So-Called Reality. The series began airing in January 2001 and lasted only six episodes, due to low ratings. She said in retrospect in 2009, "I'd like to think it was ahead of its time in tapping into everyone's burning desire for this new type of show". Griffin and Moline married in February 18, 2001. Brooke Shields was the maid of honor and the wedding was attended by celebrities such as Bill Maher, Jenny McCarthy and Jane Krakowski. The same year, Griffin started participating in game show Hollywood Squares and became one of the mainstays of the series until its cancellation in 2004. She also voiced the character of the bully Francine in the episode "Bye Bye Nerdie" of The Simpsons. In 2002, she started to do a stand-up show on Wednesday nights at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. The receptive crowds often translated into the show lasting for two and a half hours. After seeing her act, NBC executive Jeff Zucker offered Griffin to star in a sitcom. The project became trapped in development hell for months. NBC executives then proposed her to star in her own reality show; Griffin was reluctant at first. "You can pick any stripper or little person or freaky Christian who wants to have twelve kids and build a reality show. My training is in stand-up comedy specials and situation comedy", she thought. She ended up accepting the deal, but NBC later refused to do the show. In December of that year, she traveled to Irak for her first USO tour.

In 2003, Griffin participated and won the reality show Celebrity Mole: Hawaii. She explained that winning the series was her defining moment as a "D-list" celebrity (a play on words on the concepts of A-list celebrities). In May and June of the same year, Griffin had a series of plastic surgeries, including a nosejob and liposuctions. The procedures were done free of cost as they were covered by Entertainment Tonight and People. Griffin said in 2009 that she majorly regretted coming clean with the surgeries, as "Every interview I've done from then on trying to promote whatever I had coming up on TV ended up being a detailed and embarrassing rehashing of my plastic surgery." However, she realized her dream of appearing as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show in an special about plastic surgery. Her laser eye surgery was done by doctor Robert Maloney. The complications caused by the procedure left her with a blurry vision in her right eye that could not be corrected with four additional eye surgeries. The same year, she also guest-starred in the episode "Mind Games" of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. Her first stand-up special on Bravo, called Kathy Griffin: The D-List, premiered on March 24, 2004. Her first stand-up DVD, called Kathy Griffin: Allegedly, was released on November 30, 2004. Francis Rizzo III of DVD Talk said that "there's no arguing though that she brings a great energy to the stage, as well as an excellent ability to tell a story. She's a bit too dirty for some, but her tales of being a D-list celebrity in an A-list world are hilarious, if only because of the way she spins them."

2005–2007: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List

Griffin covered the red carpet for E! at the 2004-05 awards season. During the pre-show for the 2005 Golden Globe Awards, Griffin joked that then child actress Dakota Fanning was going to rehab for drug and alcohol abuse. Fanning's team explained to Griffin that they were "extremely upset" about the joke and worried that it would affect the box office for Fanning's upcoming film at the time, War of the Worlds. E! asked Griffin to issue an apology, but she refused. "What idiot would think I was serious about ten-year-old Dakota Fanning going to rehab?", said Griffin. Steven Spielberg's publicist issued a statement saying, "Obviously, to Kathy Griffin it was a joke, but why make a joke out of [Fanning]? She's a terrific young lady who was there with her family, and it was very upsetting." Griffin was fired from the red carpet following the end of the awards season. She eventually decided to make a reality show about her life called Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Griffin pitched the show to TBS, VH1 and Bravo, signing the deal with the latter the same day. The show was filmed for six months, which was edited down to six episodes. It featured characters such as Griffin's husband Matt Moline, her parents John and Maggie, and her assistant Jessica Zajicek. One night after filming, Griffin discovered that Moline had been withdrawing more than $72,000 behind her back from an ATM for months. She filed for divorce on September 15, 2005, citing irreconcilable differences.

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List premiered on August 3, 2005 on Bravo, preceded by the special Kathy Griffin Is... Not Nicole Kidman. The reality show premiered to 850,000 viewers (the second highest-rated premiere on Bravo at the time, after Being Bobby Brown), although Griffin described the ratings as "terrible". It also received mixed reviews by critics. However, she was complimented for the show by a number of celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Lisa Kudrow and Brad Garrett. The first season was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program, but lost to Extreme Home Makeover. The show was renewed for a second season, and Griffin and Moline briefly reconciled while filming; however, their divorce was finalized in May 2006. Her third Bravo special, Kathy Griffin: Strong Black Woman, premiered on May 9, 2006. A reviewer from Star gave it three and a half stars out of four, saying that "If you don't have Bravo, here's the reason you should." The second season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List featured her doing a second USO Tour in Irak for the troops, as well as her working through her relationship with Moline. The show was nominated again for an Emmy Award for the second season, but Griffin actively campaigned for the award unlike the previous time. Her friend and television writer Eric Friedman wrote an acceptance speech for her, as Griffin explains, "I'm not really good at sound-bite-style comedy, that kind of extreme short form, one-liner stuff." On September 9, 2007, Griffin attended the 59th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards and when she won, she took the stage and said:

"A lot of people come up here and they thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn't help me a bit. If it was up to him, Cesar Milan would be up here with that damn dog. So all I can say is suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now!"

Although the speech was well-received at the awards, it generated controversy among conservative and Catholic groups. The Catholic League condemned it as "obscene and blasphemous". E! removed the "suck it, Jesus" comment from their broadcast. Bill O'Reilly named her "Pinhead of the Week" in The O'Reilly Factor. A religious group in Tenessee took out a $90,000 full-page advertisement on USA Today against Griffin. She refused to apologize and released a statement saying "Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?" Following the controversy, she was fired from a guest spot in Hannah Montana as well as a commercial for DirecTV. On February 17, 2007, John Patrick Griffin died of heart failure. Season three of the show premiered on June 5, 2007, preceded by her fourth Bravo special, Kathy Griffin: Everybody Can Suck It. It showcased Griffin as a single woman going on dates with various celebrities, as well as the departure of her ex-husband and the addition of new assistant Tiffany Reinhart and tour manager Tom Vize. The season finale featured Griffin and her assistants going to Ireland to spread John Patrick's ashes. It earned her a second Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program. Following Rosie O'Donnell's departure from The View in May 2007, Griffin was on the short list to replace her on the show. O'Donnell was eventually replaced by Sherri Shepherd later that year. In September 2007, Griffin started dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. It was reported by US Weekly that the pair was engaged, but they neither confirmed or denied the rumors. Her fifth Bravo Special, Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell, premiered on November 29, 2007, to positive reviews. It received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special, but lost to HBO's Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project. Griffin also co-hosted New Year's Eve 2008 live with Anderson Cooper on CNN.

2008–2011: For Your Consideration and Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

In April 2008, Griffin and Wozniak announced they had ended their relationship. Griffin released her first comedy album, For Your Consideration, on June 10, 2008. She crafted the album in hopes of winning a Grammy Award. For Your Consideration debuted atop of the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart, making Griffin the first female comedian to achieve the feat. It was also positively received by critics, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic giving the album four and a half stars out of five. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album, but lost the award to George Carlin's It's Bad for Ya. The fourth season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List premiered on June 12, 2008. It followed the recording and release of For Your Consideration as well as Griffin's relationship with Wozniak. On December 31, 2008, while co-hosting New Year's Eve 2009 live on CNN, Griffin responded to a heckler saying "I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth". The incident was much-publicized. In January 2009, she guest-starred as wedding planner Olivia in the series finale of Privileged. On March 11, 2009, Griffin performed a set at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. According to her, she was banned from the venue for life after saying a joke about Octomom's vagina. Her sixth Bravo special, Kathy Griffin: She'll Cut a Bitch, premiered on April 15, 2009. It was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special, but lost to CBS's The Kennedy Center Honors. A DVD of the special was released on January 12, 2010. It received mixed reviews from critics, who commended Griffin's performance but deemed her material as disposable and felt the show was too short. The fifth season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List premiered on June 8, 2009. It chronicled Griffin's quest for a Grammy Award and the release of her first book. The premiere episode delivered nearly one million total viewers, making it Bravo's highest rated Monday original series telecast in all demographics at the time.

On August 9, 2009, Griffin appeared with Levi Johnston at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, although the pair confirmed they were just friends. The same day, she appeared as the roast master at The Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. On August 25, 2009, she digitally released her second comedy album, Suckin' It for the Holidays, which debuted at number four on the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart. The album received mixed reviews by critics: some felt it was her best material yet, while others criticized it for its short duration. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album, but lost to Stephen Colbert's A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!. On November 3, 2009, she released the album in its physical form and also premiered her seventh Bravo special, Kathy Griffin: Balls of Steel. On September 8, 2009, Griffin released her autobiography Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, which debuted at number one of The New York Times Best Seller list. The book also received positive reviews from critics. Henry Goldblatt of Entertainment Weekly called it "a terrific read [...] Whether or not you're a fan, you'll respect her tenacity, work ethic, and loyalty to her parents." While co-hosting New Year's Eve 2010 live on CNN on December 31, 2009, Griffin said the word "fuckin'" while making fun of Falcon Heene's name.

Career

Griffin has also guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a lesbian activist.

Since the 2008 presidential election Griffin has made frequent jokes about the Palin family. Shots at Sarah Palin, her husband Todd Palin, and their eldest daughter Bristol Palin have garnered cheers but also boos. Griffin parodied Palin in Glee, wearing a red power-suit and wide-rimmed glasses, posing as a judge at the regionals singing competition. Griffin also poked fun at Christine O'Donnell in the show by stating "Before we start, I would like to say I am not a witch."

On March 15, 2011, Griffin had a guest starring role on Glee in the episode "Original Song" as a Regionals competition judge, "Twitterer and former Tea Party candidate" Tammy Jean Albertson. Her character complained about a duet of Hey Monday's "Candles" between two young men, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson, and automatically accused their school, Dalton Academy, of being a "gay school". She also remarks that the show's primary Glee club's, New Directions, performance of "Loser Like Me" was disgraceful because "when I lost the election, I didn't sing about being a loser, I twittered that Obama is a terrorist"; this remark almost started an argument between her and fellow judge Sister Mary Constance (Loretta Devine). On January 7, 2012, it was announced that—along with having two more stand-up specials on Bravo—Griffin will start a weekly one-hour talk show on the channel, Kathy, which will consist of stand-up routines, "rant about pop culture" and celebrity interviews.

Style of humor

Griffin developed her love for popular culture through her immediate and extended family, who were always commenting about the latest news. She explained that "I may have been into The Brady Bunch like every other kid, but I also wanted to watch John Lennon and Yoko Ono on The Dick Cavett Show, and every minute of the Watergate hearings. It was fear of the dinner table that got me hooked." She has also named her mother Maggie as influential in her consumption of pop culture, calling her "the ideal audience for the Hollywood dish." Griffin has also named the character of Rhoda Morgenstern of 1970s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show as an influence, saying,

"...[The Mary Tyler Moore Show] gave me the first inkling of what place I could have in the entertainment world. [...] But when Rhoda burst through the door in her Gypsy headscarf, billowy caftan, and hilariously abrasive delivery, I was like, 'Who is that? Oh my God!' That’s when I fell in love with wanting to be the sidekick. Everything out of her mouth was hysterical, yet she was vulnerable and human. I remember my family fell in love with her, too. That’s who I wanted to be. She had all the jokes."

While Griffin established her career with candid observations about everyday life and her dating experiences, later focusing on mainly mocking celebrities, her act currently consists of recounting embellished stories involving celebrities. Though her humor may be wicked, Griffin hopes people understand that no malice is intended by it. "I'm genuinely a fan of most of the people I trash in the act," said Griffin in an interview. "I really, really try and focus on making fun of people for their behavior. I'm not so into making fun of someone for the way they look, or something that's out of their control." Her favorite celebrity topics are plastic surgery, Scientology, drunkenness, substance abuse, snooty attitudes, eating disorders, and stars whose sexual orientation is disputed. Among Griffin's staples are Paris Hilton, Clay Aiken, Barbara Walters, Whitney Houston, Larry David, Celine Dion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jerry Seinfeld, Star Jones, Paula Abdul, Sharon Stone, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears, Ryan Seacrest, Lindsay Lohan, Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, Bravo's Real Housewives, Kirstie Alley, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Uma Thurman and Renée Zellweger.

Griffin is sometimes the object of her own humor, particularly with regard to her D-list status. While Griffin paints herself as a Hollywood outsider, she has a group of close celebrity friends such as Rosie O'Donnell, Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, Gloria Estefan, Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Coolidge, Rachel True, Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Anderson Cooper, Cher and Lance Bass. Griffin's longtime friendship with Bass was the catalyst for a feud between her and gossip blogger Perez Hilton, in which Griffin expressed anger over Hilton's "outing" of Bass on his website, calling Hilton's attacks on Bass "mean" and "unfunny". Hilton responded by saying that Griffin's anger was hypocritical, considering all of the gay jokes she makes about Clay Aiken in her stand-up routines. In 2007, Griffin commented on her aversion to making fun of celebrity friends by saying, "There's nothing I won't do, but on the other hand I'm full of shit because that changes. For example, you know Lance Bass from 'N Sync and how he's gay now? All those years that I knew he was gay, he and I were friends, I would never say, 'Hey, by the way, did you know that Lance Bass is gay?'" Griffin and Hilton ended their feud after the death of Griffin's father, and Hilton appeared on an episode of her show in 2007. Yet in July 2008, he asserted that Griffin's assistant Jessica Zajicek had quit because she could not take Griffin's now hectic career. Griffin dismissed these statements as false as Zajicek is still working for Griffin. However, the season premier of The D-List depicted that Zajicek was no longer working for Griffin; Griffin explained early in the episode that Zajicek "has decided to move on".

Her style has led to a number of controversies. Although some talk show hosts welcome her humor on their programs such as Craig Kilborn, Bill Maher and Howard Stern (who she credits with giving her a "straight fanbase"), Griffin has claimed to be banned from appearing on several TV shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The View. She recently got rebanned from The View because of a joke she made about Barbara Walters. She says Ellen's producers told her they cannot have her on "trashing celebrities," but she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 11, 2007. One of the most notable controversies occurred when she made a joke during a 2005 E! televised event that the child actress Dakota Fanning, then age 11, had entered rehab. This incident got Griffin fired from hosting duties on E!'s red-carpet award show coverage. Nevertheless, E! purchased rights to air My Life on the D-List for its British channel, a fact she noted in an episode of season 3.

In a July 2009 episode of My Life on the D-List, after using profanity in an Octomom joke during her routine at New York's legendary Apollo Theatre, Griffin claimed that she received a letter banning her from the venue.

LGBT rights and political advocacy

Griffin is an outspoken supporter for LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage. She has protested with fellow proponents in West Hollywood, California, and showcased the footage of such protests on her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Her mother Maggie Griffin is also a supporter of LGBT rights and is seen in Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List protesting alongside her daughter. Prior to the Proposition 8 ballot results, Griffin volunteered for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s "Vote for Equality" campaign, going door-to-door asking Los Angeles residents for their opinion of LGBT marriage rights.

In March 2010, Griffin helped organize a rally in Washington DC to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." She stated that she organized the rally after meeting with several closeted gay people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Griffin held meetings with several Members of Congress to encourage its repeal; she also organized a rally in Freedom Plaza.

Griffin caused controversy when she confronted Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann over her anti-gay views at the 2010 Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, while in town for her rally against DADT. According to Griffin, she asked Bachmann "if she was naturally a bigot or if that's just the way she legislates." Griffin claimed that Bachmann replied by saying, "That's a good question, I'll have to think about it." Bachmann's office confirmed the exchange but claimed that Griffin confronted Bachmann after Bachmann approached Griffin to compliment her appearance.

Griffin has been a long-time supporter of the Aid For AIDS annual fundraiser, Best In Drag Show in Los Angeles, and hosted the opening of the show for more than five years. In November 2009, Aid For AIDS presented Kathy Griffin with an AFA Angel Award at their silver anniversary celebration.

Griffin has been a long-time critic of Sarah Palin, and has made fun of Palin's daughter, Bristol Palin, using the Palin family as material in her comedy routines. In March 2011, Sarah Palin responded to Griffin by calling her a "bully." Palin went on to dare Griffin to "come up to Alaska and pick on me." In connection with her reality TV show, Griffin visited the Palin family home in Wasilla and invited Palin to attend her stand-up show in Anchorage. Griffin has also poked fun at Willow Palin. Although Willow Palin is a minor, Griffin stated that she poked fun at Willow as a result of her repeated anti-gay slurs and use of the word "faggot" on Facebook.

Personal life

Griffin describes herself as a "militant atheist". While in high school, she fell away from the Roman Catholic Church and wanted to become a Unitarian. Said Griffin: "I'm not really sure what that is, but it sounds better." In a 2006 interview, Griffin said she does not drink alcohol.

She placed 17th on Oxygen's 2007 list of "The 50 Funniest Women Alive".

On March 7, 2011, while appearing on the Howard Stern radio show, Griffin announced that she is currently romantically involved with actor and former NFL practice-squad player Isaiah Mustafa. Upon repeated prompts from Stern, she went on to describe their sex life in graphic detail. Since then Mustafa has announced that he is in fact single, though he admitted to finding Griffin "amazing". In the same interview, Griffin also stated that the previous July, she had ended a private romantic relationship that had lasted four years with a man whom she did not publicly identify, only saying that he was "a regular guy with a regular job," and that it was a "messy breakup".

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1980	Battle Beyond the Stars	Alien Extra	Uncredited
	Fade to Black	Grauman's Chinese Theater Extra
1984	Streets of Fire	Concertgoer
1991	The Unborn	Connie
1992	Shakes the Clown	Lucy
	Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful	Taffy
1994	Pulp Fiction	Hit-and-run Witness
	It's Pat	Herself	Cameo
1995	Big News		TV film
	Four Rooms	Betty
	The Barefoot Executive	Mary	TV film
1996	The Cable Guy	Mother
1997	Who's the Caboose?	Katty
	Trojan War	Cashier
	Courting Courtney	Ona Miller
1999	Can't Stop Dancing	Modeling Agent
	Dill Scallion	Tina
	Muppets from Space	Female armed guard
	Jackie's Back	Herself	TV film
2000	Lion of Oz	Caroline	Voice role
	The Intern	Cornelia Crisp
	Enemies of Laughter	Cindy
	A Diva's Christmas Carol	Ghost of Christmas Past	TV film
	E	Nurse	"The Real Slim Shady", music video collection
2001	On Edge	Karen Katz
2002	Run Ronnie Run	Herself
2003	Beethoven's 5th	Evie Kling
2005	Dirty Love	Madame Pelly
2005	Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone	Rhoga	Voice role
	Her Minor Thing	Maggie
	Love Wrecked	Belinda
2006	Bachelor Party Vegas	She-Elvis	Uncredited cameo
2007	Judy Toll: The Funniest Woman You've Never Heard of	Herself	Documentary
	In Search of Puppy Love
	Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
	Heckler
2009	Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage		Voice role
2010	Shrek Forever After	Taran
	Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work	Herself	Documentary
2011	The Muppets		Scene removed from theatrical release
	Hall Pass
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989–1991	On the Television	Various	Episode: "Beauty and the Beast"
	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
1990		Susan Klein	Episode: "Not With My Pig, You Don't"
1993	Civil Wars	Yvonne	Episode: "Watt, Me Worry?"
	Dream On	Dawn	Episode: "The French Conception"
1995	ER	Dolores Minky	Episode: "Motherhood"
	Dweebs	Sheila	Episode: "The Birthday Party Show"
1995	Mad About You	Brenda	Episode: "New Year's Eve"
1996	Ellen	Peggy	Episode: "Oh, Sweet Rapture"
	Partners	Michelle	Episode: "Can We Keep Her, Dad?"
	Caroline in the City	DMV clerk	Episode: "Caroline and the Movie"
	Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist	Herself	Episode: Koppleman and Katz
	Saturday Night Special		2 episodes
1995–1996	Ned & Stacey	Jeanne	Episode: "Loganberry's Run" and "Accountus Interruptus"
1997	Oddville, MTV		Episode: August 13, 1997
	The Wonderful World of Disney	Mary	Episode: "The New Barefoot Executive"
1996–1998	Seinfeld	Sally Weaver	Episode: "The Cartoon" and "The Doll"
1997–1998	Premium Blend	Herself	Hostess
1999	Rock & Roll Jeopardy!		Celebrity edition
2000	The X-Files	Betty Templeton/Lulu Pfeiffer	Episode: "Fight Club"
2000	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Herself	Episode: "The Pants Tent"
1999–2000	Dilbert	Alice	Voice role (uncredited)
1996–2000	Suddenly Susan	Vicki Groener
2001	The Simpsons	Francine	Episode: "Bye Bye Nerdie"
	Strong Medicine	Matchmaker	Episode: "Silent Epidemic"
	Weakest Link	Herself	Episode: "Comedians Special"
	Kathy's So Called Reality		Hostess
2002	The Drew Carey Show	Kathy	Episode: "The Eagle Has Landed"
	The Anna Nicole Show	Herself	Christmas special
2003	What's New, Scooby-Doo?	Luis Agent Autumn Summerfield	Episode: "The Unnatural" (Voice role)
	Spider-Man: The New Animated Series	Roxanne Gaines	Episode: "Mind Game: Part 1" and "Part 2" (Voice role)
	Crank Yankers	Marion Simons	Episode: "Jim Florentine & Kathy Griffin" (Voice role) sSegment: Marion gets an Estimate
	The Mole	Herself	Season 3 winner
2002–2003	Whose Line Is It Anyway?		4 episodes (5-02, 5–15, 5–19, 5–29)
2002	National Lampoon's Funny Money		Episode 1 (Guest comedian)
2004	Striperella	The Bridesmaid	Episode: "The Bridesmaid" and "Evil Things Come in Small Packages" (Voice role)
	Half & Half	Dr. Morgan	Episode: "The Big Labor of Love Episode"
	Celebrity Poker Showdown	Herself	Two episodes, third tournament
2001–2004	Hollywood Squares		86 episodes
2005	Cheap Seats	Rae	Episode: "1995 SuperDogs! Superjocks!"
	Days of our Lives	Limo driver
2006	Gameshow Marathon	Herself	"Match Game"
2007	Ugly Betty	Fashion TV anchor	Episode: "In or Out"
	Loose Women	Herself
2008	Rosie Live		Impersonated Nancy Grace
	Dog Whisperer		Episode: Season 4, Episode 24
2009	Privileged	Olivia	Episode: "All About a Brand New You"
	Paris Hilton's My New BFF	Herself	Episode: "Must Have Thick Skin" (Special guest)
2008–2010	Larry King Live		Six episodes
2009	The Comedy Central Roast Of Joan Rivers		Roast Master
	The Celebrity Apprentice 2		Special guest
2005–2010	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List		47 episodes Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
2010	Law & Order Special Victims Unit	Babs Duffy	Episode: "P.C."
	RuPaul's Drag Race Season 2	Guest judge	Episode: "Gone With The Windows"
	The Marriage Ref		Episode: "Tracy Morgan, Kathy Griffin, and Nathan Lane"
	Last Comic Standing	Performer	Season 7 finale
	Shep & Tiffany Watch TV: The Best of 2010		Executive Producer
2011	Glee	Tammy Jean Albertson	Episode: "Original Song"
	Same Name	Herself	Season 1, episode 2
	Drop Dead Diva	Jenna Kaswell-Bailey	Episode: "He Said, She Said"
	America's Next Top Model	Guest Judge	Season 17, episode 7
2012	American Dad	TBA	Season 7
	The Rosie Show	Herself	Two Part Episode
	Kathy	Host	Talk show

Stand-up specials

Main article: List of Kathy Griffin stand-up specials

• HBO Comedy Half-Hour (1996)
• Kathy Griffin: Hot Cup of Talk (1998)
• Kathy Griffin: The D-List (2004)
• Kathy Griffin: Allegedly (2004)
• Kathy Griffin Is... Not Nicole Kidman (2005)
• Kathy Griffin: Strong Black Woman (2006)
• Kathy Griffin: Everybody Can Suck It (2007)
• Kathy Griffin: Straight To Hell (2007)
• Kathy Griffin: She'll Cut A Bitch (2009)
• Kathy Griffin: Balls Of Steel (2009)
• Kathy Griffin Does the Bible Belt (2010)
• Kathy Griffin: Whores on Crutches (2010)
• Kathy Griffin: 50 and Not Pregnant (2011)
• Kathy Griffin: Gurrl Down! (2011)
• Kathy Griffin: Pants Off (2011)
• Kathy Griffin: Tired Hooker (2011)

Discography

On August 25, 2009, Griffin released a second comedy album, Suckin' It for the Holidays, in another bid for a Grammy. The album was initially released as a digital download and retail released on November 3, 2009. Despite the album's holiday title, it contains little holiday-related content, and it just barely made the nominations cut-off. On December 2, 2009 it was nominated for Best Comedy Album, making it Griffin's second Grammy nomination.

Griffin received her third Grammy nomination for "Kathy Griffin does the Bible Belt".

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2006	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program	Nominated
2007			Won
2008			Won
	Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special	Nominated
2009	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program	Nominated
2010			Nominated
2011			Nominated

Grammy Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2008	For Your Consideration	Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album	Nominated
2009	Suckin' It for the Holidays		Nominated
2010	Kathy Griffin Does the Bible Belt		Nominated
2011	Kathy Griffin: 50 And Not Pregnant		Nominated

GLAAD Media Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2009	Kathy Griffin	Vanguard Award	Won

PGA Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2008	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List	Television Producer of the Year Award in Non-Fiction Television	Nominated
2009			Nominated
2010			Nominated

Gracie Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2009	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List	Outstanding Female Lead – Comedy Series	Won

References

• Griffin, Kathy (2010). Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin (paperback ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0345518569.

External links

• Official website
• Xwomanizerx/Sandbox2 at IMDb