Maria Bamford - Biography
Maria Bamford is an American stand-up comedian and voice-over actress, and is the first female comic to have two half-hour Comedy Central Presents specials. Bamford was named one of 10 comics to watch by Los Angeles Magazine in 2005 and by Variety in 2007. In 2013 Rolling Stone included her on their list of the 50 Funniest People Now.
Born in California, Bamford grew up in Duluth, Minnesota where she studied classical violin from age 3 until her early 20s. She started doing stand-up at 19 years old and would incorporate violin into her early performances. Today her self-deprecating comedy often involves jokes about mental illness, in particular her own, and her portrayal of her dysfunctional family.
In 2003, Bamford released her debut stand-up album, The Burning Bridges Tour (Stand Up Records), and she toured with The Comedians of Comedy the next year, alongside Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. She has since released three additional standup albums: How to WIN! (Stand Up Records, 2007), Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome (Comedy Central Records, 2009) and her most recent CD/DVD, Ask Me About My New God (Comedy Central Records, 2013).
Bamford is known to television audiences through her stand up specials, late night television appearances, and acting work. She taped her first stand-up special, Comedy Central Presents, in 2001 and went on to star in the Comedy Central series The Comedians of Comedy and Netflix’s Comedians of Comedy: The Movie. She has made multiple appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Bamford has guest starred on Louie and The Sarah Silverman Program and had recurring roles on Tim & Eric: Awesome Show and the 2013 season of Arrested Development, among others. She has also contributed her comedic voice talent to animated television shows including The Legend of Korra, Adventure Time, Unsupervised, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, WordGirl, CatDog and others.
In addition to television, Bamford has had an active presence online, starring in her own web series, The Maria Bamford Show, which aired on the comedy website SuperDeluxe. The episodes are packaged together on DVD alongside the release of Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome. During the 2009 holiday season, a series of television commercials featuring Bamford as an overachieving shopper in Target went viral with millions of combined YouTube views. In 2012, she released Maria Bamford: The special special special! for download, which was originally recorded in her parents' living room.