Today's Out Spotlight is an American comedian, writer, producer and actor whose career as a stand-up comedian started in the 1970s while in college. They were discovered by David Letterman while performing in a comedy club in the 1980s and They have written for some of the most iconic comedy shows on television including for The Larry Sanders Show, Saturday Night Live, and most notably, Seinfeld. Today's Out Spotlight is comedian Carol Leifer.
Carol Leifer was born in East Williston, New York, on July 27, 1956, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, the daughter of Anna, a psychologist, and Seymour Leifer, an optometrist.
As a child, she put on shows for family and friends in her basement, and by the time that she was ready for college, she had come around to seeing entertainment as a possible career.
Leifer enrolled in the theater program at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she dated Paul Reiser, who would also go on to success in acting and comedy. After watching Reiser perform on open mic night at the Catch A Rising Star comedy club in New York, Leifer, then a college sophomore, developed her own routine and also took the stage. The audience loved her, and she loved being there.
In order to have greater access to the clubs of New York, Leifer left Binghamton in 1977 and transferred to Queens College to complete her senior year. After graduating, she continued to work in New York clubs, including the Comic Strip where she was introduced by emcee Jerry Seinfeld.
David Letterman was in the audience for one of Leifer's performances at the Comic Strip in 1979, and he immediately recommended her to the talent coordinator of the Tonight Show. That did not result in an appearance, but when Letterman became the host of his own late-night show in 1982, he remembered her and has since booked her as a guest more than two dozen times.
From the beginning of her career, Leifer's stand-up routines have been based on events in her own life, including especially her family relationships and encounters with others.
Her stand-up experience includes opening for Jerry Seinfeld and Frank
Sinatra. 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."
In the early 1980s Leifer made two important changes in her life: she married a comedian named Ritch Shydner in 1981, and she moved to California to pursue a career in television.
Leifer's career in Hollywood was not limited to stand up she became a writer, producer and actor and has been involved in such shows as
Seinfeld,
It's Like, You Know...,
Alright Already, and
The Larry Sanders Show. With Mitchell Hurwitz, she is the creator of the short-lived
The Ellen Show (2001). In 1988, she had her own special on Cinemax titled
Carol Doesn't Leifer Anymore, which was produced by 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 Live during the 1985/1986 season.
She has performed on
Late Night With David Letterman 25 times, and has appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
Dr. Katz,
Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,
Hollywood Squares,
Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Her hosting duties have included four seasons of A&E's
Caroline's Comedy Hour, as well as guest stints on
Talk Soup and
Later. She has written for the Academy Awards for most of the 21st century.
Leifer joined the
Seinfeld
writing staff during its fifth season (1993–94), and wrote six episodes
for the show between then and its seventh season (1995–96). She has
been dubbed "the real Elaine," the character having been partially based on her.
Her episodes, listed chronologically, are: Season five: "The Lip
Reader "The Hamptons" (co-written with Peter Mehlman); Season six: "The
Secretary" (co-written with Marjorie Gross, "The Beard", "The
Understudy" (co-written with Marjorie Gross); Season seven: "The Rye" She shared an Emmy Award nomination with other writers and producers of Seinfeld for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1996.
The following year she earned another Emmy nomination as both a writer and producer for The Larry Sanders Show.
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.
She was also a force behind The Ellen Show (2001-02), serving as both writer and executive producer of the short-lived second vehicle for Ellen DeGeneres, who had courageously come out during the run of her previous series.
Leifer is a writer and co-executive producer of the CBS sitcom Rules of Engagement, which debuted in 2007 and was recently renewed for a fifth season. While continuing her stand up career she is also a writer and co-executive producer of the CBS sitcom Rules of Engagement, which debuted in 2007 and was recently renewed for a fifth season.
Leifer began filming as a contestant for the 3rd season of
Celebrity Apprentice in October 2009. However, she was the first to be eliminated on the premiere episode which aired on March 14, 2010.
Leifer's "inner monologue" observational style is often autobiographical
encompassing subjects about her Jewish ancestry and upbringing, coming
out, same-sex marriage, relationships (having been married previously to
a man and now partnered with a woman) and parenting.
Leifer had a life-changing experience when, at the age of forty, she met and was attracted to Lori Wolf, a realtor. "I did go into [the relationship] thinking this would be a fun fling and a great story and brief," she stated to Rachel Dowd of The Advocate. "The last thing I expected was to fall in love with this person," she said, but that is what happened.
Shortly thereafter, she had a serious health scare when a mammogram revealed a potentially cancerous tumor. Although the growth was determined to be benign, it needed to be removed, and she went back home to New York for the surgery, accompanied by Wolf, whom she introduced to her family as a friend lending support.
It was some months before Leifer came out to her parents. "The agony was feeling that being gay would disappoint them," but in the event, they were entirely supportive. Leifer recalled her mother's words: "Finding love is a gift from God. There should be tears of joy here."
Leifer felt that it was helpful that Wolf—unlike her ex-husband Shydner—was Jewish. "Add a thousand points,". In 2007 she and Wolf added to their family by adopting a ten-month-old Latino boy. They retained his given name at birth, Bruno, but at his brit chayim, the naming ceremony for a Jewish child, they honored the larger family of which he had become a part by calling him Shmuel Chaim Baruch, incorporating the Hebrew names of Leifer's father and Wolf's grandfather, respectively, along with the word meaning blessing.
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.
Recently she 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.
Leifer and her family live in Santa Monica.
