Carol Leifer (pronounced LEE-fur; born July 27, 1956) is an American comedienne, writer,
producerThe primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and actor whose career as a stand-up comedian started in the 1970s when she was in college.
David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman...
discovered her performing in a comedy club in the 1980s and she has since been a guest on
Late Night With David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...
over twenty-five times as well as numerous other shows and venues.
She has written many television scripts including for
The Larry Sanders ShowThe Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that originally aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV...
,
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a weekly late-night sketch comedy and variety show filmed in New York City. It made its debut on October 11, 1975, under a slightly different title. The show features a regular cast of comedy actors, joined by a guest host and musical act...
, and most notably,
SeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. The eponymous series was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, with the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
Leifer's "inner monologue" observational style is often autobiographical encompassing subjects about her Jewish ancestry and upbringing,
coming outComing out of the closet, or simply coming out, is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people disclosing their sexual orientation and gender identity...
,
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is a term used to describe a legally or socially recognized marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Other terms used to describe this type of recognition include gay marriage or gender-neutral marriage.Same-sex marriage is a civil rights,...
, relationships (having been married previously to a man and now partnered with a woman) and parenting.
Leifer recently became vegan, saying “I recently became vegan because I felt that as a Jewish lesbian, I wasn’t part of a small enough minority.
Carol Leifer (pronounced LEE-fur; born July 27, 1956) is an American comedienne, writer,
producerThe primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and actor whose career as a stand-up comedian started in the 1970s when she was in college.
David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman...
discovered her performing in a comedy club in the 1980s and she has since been a guest on
Late Night With David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...
over twenty-five times as well as numerous other shows and venues.
She has written many television scripts including for
The Larry Sanders ShowThe Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that originally aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV...
,
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a weekly late-night sketch comedy and variety show filmed in New York City. It made its debut on October 11, 1975, under a slightly different title. The show features a regular cast of comedy actors, joined by a guest host and musical act...
, and most notably,
SeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. The eponymous series was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, with the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
Leifer's "inner monologue" observational style is often autobiographical encompassing subjects about her Jewish ancestry and upbringing,
coming outComing out of the closet, or simply coming out, is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people disclosing their sexual orientation and gender identity...
,
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is a term used to describe a legally or socially recognized marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Other terms used to describe this type of recognition include gay marriage or gender-neutral marriage.Same-sex marriage is a civil rights,...
, relationships (having been married previously to a man and now partnered with a woman) and parenting.
Leifer recently became vegan, saying “I recently became vegan because I felt that as a Jewish lesbian, I wasn’t part of a small enough minority. So now I’m a Jewish lesbian vegan.”
Early life and education
Leifer was born on
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, the daughter of Anna, a psychologist, and Seymour Leifer, an optometrist.
While studying for a theater degree at
Binghamton UniversityBinghamton University is one of the four university centers in New York State's system of post-secondary public education. Since its establishment in 1946, it has undergone a number of changes in name and location. Today, the research university's main campus is located in Vestal, New York, and the...
, Leifer accompanied her then boyfriend
Paul ReiserPaul Reiser is an American stand-up comedian, actor, author and writer.- Early life :Reiser was born in New York City, the son of Helen, a homemaker, and Sam Reiser, a wholesale health food distributor. Reiser attended the East Side Hebrew Institute on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and...
to a
comedy clubA comedy club is a venue, typically a nightclub, bar, or restaurant where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, magicians, ventriloquists and other comedy acts...
to see him perform at the open mic night at
Catch A Rising StarCatch a Rising Star is a chain of comedy clubs, founded in New York City in December 1972 and owned by Rick Newman. It has since spread to other areas, such as Las Vegas and New Jersey....
. Later she tried performing at New York's
Comic StripA comic strip is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story, often humorous, though adventures and soap opera-like dramas are also prevalent. They are written and drawn by a comics artist or cartoonist, and many are published on a recurring basis in newspapers and on the Internet.In the UK and the...
and was introduced by emcee
Jerry SeinfeldJerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American comedian, actor and writer, whose style is often described as observational comedy...
. All three have had successful television and comedy careers.
Career
Leifer is a stand-up comedian, writer,
producerThe primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and actor and has been involved in such television shows as
Seinfeld,
It's Like, You Know...It's Like, You Know... was a short-lived American situation comedy television series broadcast by ABC, starring Jennifer Grey, Evan Handler, Steven Eckholdt, A.J...
,
Alright Already, and
The Larry Sanders ShowThe Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that originally aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV...
. With
Mitchell HurwitzMitchell Hurwitz is an American television writer and producer. He is best known as the creator of the television sitcom Arrested Development as well as the co-creator of The Ellen Show, and a contributor to The John Larroquette Show and The Golden Girls...
, she is the creator of the short-lived
The Ellen ShowThe Ellen Show was a television sitcom starring Ellen DeGeneres that aired during the 2001-2002 season on CBS. It was DeGeneres' second attempt at a sitcom, after These Friends of Mine/Ellen on ABC , but it was unable to garner strong ratings and was quickly cancelled.After coming out of the closet...
(2001). In 1988, she had her own special on
CinemaxCinemax is a collection of premium television networks that provide movies, special features, erotica, and other services to consumers. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc....
titled
Carol Doesn't Leifer Anymore, which was produced by
David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman...
. This was shortly followed several more specials, tiled
Carol Leifer Comedy Cruise (1989),
Really Big Show (1990), and
Gaudy, Baudy, and Blue (1992). She was a writer on
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a weekly late-night sketch comedy and variety show filmed in New York City. It made its debut on October 11, 1975, under a slightly different title. The show features a regular cast of comedy actors, joined by a guest host and musical act...
during the 1985/1986 season.
She has performed on
Late Night With David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...
25 times, but has only been on Dave's show once since 1992. Carol has also appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992....
,
Dr. Katz,
Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,
Hollywood SquaresThe Hollywood Squares is an American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by an entertainer seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
,
Late Night with Conan O'BrienLate Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC from 1993 to 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and stand-up comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 a.m....
, and
The Tonight Show with Jay LenoThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno, on NBC. It made its debut on May 25, 1992, following Johnny Carson's retirement as host of The Tonight Show. The nightly broadcast at 11:35 p.m. originated from NBC's studios, in Burbank, California and ran...
. Her hosting duties have included four seasons of
A&EA&E is a cable and satellite television network with headquarters in Manhattan and offices in Stamford, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. A&E stands for Arts & Entertainment, which, for many years, was in the channel's full title...
's
Caroline's Comedy Hour, as well as guest stints on
Talk SoupTalk Soup was a television show produced for cable network E! that debuted on January 7, 1991, as a midseason replacement, and aired until August 2002...
and
LaterLater was a nightly half hour-long talk show that ran on NBC from 1988 until 2001. Later typically aired for half an hour following The Tonight Show and its succeeding program, Late Night with David Letterman or Late Night with Conan O'Brien .-Nominations and awards:The show won the 1993 Primetime...
.
Leifer starred in, created and executive-produced the WB sitcom
Alright Already. called one of the "10 Best New Shows of the New Season" by the
Los Angeles Times and
The Washington Post. Despite good reviews, the show only ran one season.
Her stand-up experience includes opening for
Jerry SeinfeldJerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American comedian, actor and writer, whose style is often described as observational comedy...
and
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
. Sinatra praised Leifer as "one funny broad!" and "I wish my mother had been that funny - I wouldn't have had to work so hard." She continues working the stand-up circuit and is reportedly writing an original picture for
DreamworksDreamWorks, LLC, also known as DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games, and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses...
. Additionally, Leifer is a writer and co-executive producer on the CBS sitcom
Rules of EngagementRules of Engagement is a sitcom that debuted on CBS on February 5, 2007, as a midseason replacement, immediately following Two and a Half Men, in the time slot that was occupied by The New Adventures of Old Christine...
.
In September 2007, Leifer won an auction for the handwritten notes used by
Michael VickMichael Dwayne Vick is a professional American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League...
during his apology for his role in dogfighting.
Leifer is currently in a committed relationship with Lori Wolf, who works in commercial real estate. They share a $3.2-million, 5,000 square foot home in the Santa Monica Hills. They have one son, named Bruno Leifer-Wolf, who was born January 17, 2007.
Her first book of humorous essays, entitled
When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win was released on March 10, 2009. In it, she discusses the moment she discovered she might be gay and how her life has changed for the better.
Carol will begin filming as a contestant for the 3rd season of Celebrity Apprentice in October 2009.
Work on Seinfeld
Leifer joined the
SeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. The eponymous series was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, with the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
writing staff during its fifth season, and wrote six episodes for the show between then and its seventh season. She has been dubbed "the real
ElaineElaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer.Julia Louis-Dreyfus received extensive critical acclaim...
," having the character being partially based on her. Her episodes, listed chronologically, are:
Season five
- "The Lip Reader
"The Lip Reader" is the seventieth episode of the hit sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 6th episode for the 5th season. It aired on October 28, 1993.-Plot:...
"
- "The Hamptons
"The Hamptons" is the eighty-fifth episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 21st episode for the 5th season. It aired on May 12, 1994. This was the final produced episode of the fifth season, although it aired as the penultimate episode of the season.-Plot:The four principal characters...
" (co-written with Peter MehlmanPeter Mehlman is a television writer and producer. He attended the University of Maryland and was a brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. His most famous contributions have been to the popular TV series Seinfeld, where he served as a producer and writer through nearly all of the show's...
)
Season six
- "The Secretary
"The Secretary" is the 95th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 9th episode for the sixth season. It aired on December 8, 1994.-Plot:Jerry is taking his mother's fur coat and his jacket to dry cleaning....
" (co-written with Marjorie GrossMarjorie Gross was a television writer and producer. She wrote for such shows as Newhart, The Larry Sanders Show, Square Pegs and Seinfeld.-Biography:...
)
- "The Beard
"The Beard" is the 102nd episode of the NBC situation comedy Seinfeld. This was the 16th episode for the 6th season. It aired on February 9, 1995.-Plot:...
"
- "The Understudy" (co-written with Marjorie Gross)
Season seven
- "The Rye
"The Rye" is the 121st episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 11th episode for the seventh season. It aired on January 4, 1996.-Plot:...
"
External links