| Samantha Bee | |
|---|---|
Bee in February 2011 |
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| Born | October 25, 1969 Toronto, Ontario |
| Residence | New York, NY |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Comedian |
| Television | The Daily Show |
| Spouse | Jason Jones (2001–present) |
| Children | Piper (b. 2006) Fletcher (b. 2008) Ripley (b. 2010)[1] |
Samantha Bee (born October 25, 1969) is a Canadian comedic actress and author best known as a cast member on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
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Bee was born in Toronto, Ontario into an unconventional family. Bee said, "Dating from well before the turn of the 20th century, if there has ever been a successful, happy marriage in my family lineage, I've yet to hear about it."[2]
She studied theatre at the University of Ottawa, McGill University in Montreal and George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. She was one of the four founding members of Toronto-based sketch comedy troupe The Atomic Fireballs, with whom she performed before being hired by the Daily Show in 2003.
Bee has been a correspondent for The Daily Show since July 10, 2003.[3] On that program, Bee has demonstrated an ability to coax people into caricaturing themselves—particularly in segments like "Kill Drill", on hunters and fossil fuel executives claiming to be environmentalists;[4] "They So Horny"[5] on the dearth of Asian men in U.S. pornography; "Tropical Repression," on Ed Heeney, a Florida politician running his campaign based on opposition to gay rights;[6] "The Undecided", an over-the-top look at the infamous undecided voters leading up to the 2004 U.S. presidential elections; and "Samantha Bee's So You Want To Bee A..." report series, which humorously caricatures the way in which one can easily obtain a certain job, like becoming a 527 group. Her segment on "NILFs" ("News I'd Like to F#@k"), discussing the sexiness of news anchors is one of her most memorable: "CNN has the wholesome girl-next-door NILFs, the kind you can bring home to meet your mother. MSNBC has the dirty-over-30 NILFs. Fox has the filthy NILFs who will report anything. They're the Hustler of NILFs."[7]
Bee played the title role in a live action production of Sailor Moon at the Canadian National Exhibition[8] and has had guest appearances on several television shows. She had her first starring role in a feature film in 2004 with the Canadian independent film Ham & Cheese, alongside veteran Canadian comics Scott Thompson and Dave Foley.
In December 2005, on The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly used a clip of Bee from The Daily Show as an example of "The War on Christmas", presenting it as having aired recently. The clip (a parody community events calendar) featured Bee mentioning how Christmas was the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday in the United States, with O'Reilly talking about "Secular Central...excuse me, Comedy Central". Jon Stewart discussed this on the air, claiming he could not recall doing that piece. Stewart invited Bee out, and unlike in the clip that aired on Factor, Bee was visibly eight months pregnant. Though the two were coy insofar as explicitly mentioning her pregnancy, Bee joked it was obvious that the footage O'Reilly showed was a year old (it originally aired in 2004) because she had slightly different highlights in her hair, before stating that her water had just broken.[9][10]
Bee was the sole female correspondent on The Daily Show from 2006 until the debut of Kristen Schaal in March 2008. She was The Daily Show's first non-U.S. citizen correspondent. Bee was recognized with a 2005 Canadian Comedy Award for Best Female TV Performance for her work on The Daily Show. In 2009, she appeared in the original cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore.[11] That same year, she had a cameo role in the comedy Whatever Works, written and directed by Woody Allen.
Bee authored the book I Know I Am, But What Are You?,[12] which was published in 2010.[13] She is currently developing a sitcom about a celebrity chef with her husband Jason Jones.[14]
On January 20, 2008, Bee participated in the CBC game show Test The Nation. She finished as the highest scoring celebrity on the show. She made a guest appearance on the Canadian comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie playing a CSIS agent ("Spy Something or Get Out", episode 15).
Bee also appeared in the 12th episode of Season 20 of Law & Order ("Blackmail", episode 445), which aired on January 15, 2010. She played a minor role on an episode of the HBO series Bored to Death.
Bee appeared as herself on the "Madame President" episode of The Electric Company in which she moderated a debate between two candidates Lisa Heffenbacher and Francine Carruthers running for president of a book club. Later in the show, she appeared as a newscaster announcing the election results finally choosing Lisa to be the winner.
Married to actor and fellow Daily Show cast member Jason Jones since 2001, Bee lives in Manhattan. In late 2005, Jones became a freelance Daily Show correspondent while Bee reduced her workload due to her pregnancy. In January 2006, the couple welcomed their first child, Piper Bee-Jones. Bee returned to The Daily Show in March 2006.
On January 24, 2008, Bee announced a second pregnancy on air during a bit about the media's coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign.[15]
On June 20, 2008, their second child, Fletcher Bee-Jones was born.
In an interview with Kate Fillion in Maclean's magazine (June 7, 2010), Samantha said, "I'm pregnant with my third child." She had previously told the Globe and Mail on May 14, 2010, that she and Jones were, "...just procreating like we're farmers". This was then referenced on the June 3, 2010 episode of the Daily Show, where they made a point of humorously pointing out Bee's third pregnancy in two years. During the report, Bee was referred to as the "always pregnant lady" and Bee and Jones joked about attempting to conceive a fourth child even before the third was born.[16] Their third child, a daughter named Ripley, was born in late 2010 and Bee was scheduled to return to television in November.[1]
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