Maria Bamford

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Maria Bamford

Maria Bamford in 2008.
Birth name Maria Elizabeth Sheldon Bamford
Born (1970-09-03) September 3, 1970
Port Hueneme, California, United States
Medium Stand-up, television, film
Nationality American
Years active 1989–present
Genres Observational comedy, character comedy, surreal humor, alternative comedy
Subject(s) Pop culture, personal life, mental health
Website mariabamford.com

Maria Bamford (born September 3, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian, actress and voice actress. She is best known for her portrayal of her dysfunctional family and self-deprecating comedy involving jokes about depression and anxiety. Her comedy style is surreal, and incorporates voice impressions of various character types.

Early life

Bamford was born at the naval base in Port Hueneme, California, where her father Joel was serving as a Navy doctor. She grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, where she attended Chester Park Elementary and The Marshall School. She went on to attend Bates College, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Minnesota, where she earned a degree in Creative Writing. She started doing stand-up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at age nineteen, at Stevie Ray's Comedy Cabaret. Bamford then joined Edinburgh's improvised comedy show The Improverts. Maria has one sister, Sarah Bamford Seidelmann.

Career

Bamford has been in a number of movies and television shows, including voice appearances in cartoons. Most notably, she was the voice of Shriek in CatDog, a huge selection of secondary characters in Cartoon Network's Adventure Time and Mrs. Botsford,Violet,and Leslie on the long running PBS educational series WordGirl. The best-known aspect of her act is her various impersonations (including her mother and her agent). Her stand-up comedy often takes the form of vignettes rather than the standard setup/punchline format.

Bamford was featured in the documentary series The Comedians of Comedy on Comedy Central and Showtime, and appeared in short skits titled "The Maria Bamford Show" broadcast on the now defunct website Super Deluxe. She also appears on the comedy compilation CD Comedy Death-Ray.

Her last album, produced by Comedy Central Records and called Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome, was released in April 2009 and includes a DVD containing "The Maria Bamford Show" episodes.

During the Christmas 2009-2010 shopping seasons, Bamford was featured in a series of Target commercials, portraying an overachieving shopper determined to be first in line.[1]

For Christmas 2009, she released a free stand-up special online as a gift to her fans.[2]

In 2012 she released The Special Special Special for download through Chill.com. The special was recorded with only Bamford's parents as an audience.[3]

In 2013, Maria created and stars in a web series called 'Ask My Mom.' Maria plays both herself and her mom, who answers questions sent in by fans.[4]

Also in 2013, Bamford appeared as herself in one episode of the interview web series All Growz Up with Melinda Hill.[5]

She provides the voice of Pema in Nickelodeon cartoon The Legend of Korra. In 2013, she appeared in season four of Arrested Development as Debrie Bardeaux, Tobias Funke's love interest.[6]

Personal life

Bamford has stated publicly that she has been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder.[7]

Bamford played violin.[8]

Discography

Compilation features

TV show appearances

TV show voice acting

Movie appearances

Web series

  • Bravest Warriors (2012) (Pixel, Gayle, Elves, others)
  • SuperF*ckers (2012) (Princess Sunshine, Computer Fist, others)
  • Ask My Mom (2013) (herself, her mother Marilyn Bamford)

Radio and podcast appearances

References

  1. ↑ Keller, Joel (November 24, 2009). "Maria Bamford plays a demented shopper in new Target ads". TVSquad. AOL Television. Retrieved March 5, 2010. 
  2. ↑ Maria Bamford's One-Hour Homemade Christmas Special! on Vimeo
  3. ↑ "Maria Bamford: the special special special!". Chill. 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2013-07-20. 
  4. ↑ David, Haglund. "Maria Bamford on Arrested Development and Her New Web Series, Ask My Mom!". http://www.slate.com. Slate. Retrieved 10 June 2013. 
  5. ↑ Balthazar, Brian. ""All Growz Up" Talks To Maria Bamford In A Back Alley". Retrieved 15 October 2013. 
  6. ↑ Onion, Rebecca. "Tobias gets served.". Slate. Retrieved May 30, 2013. 
  7. ↑ David Burger (June 22, 2011). "Comic Maria Bamford will cross personal boundaries at Utah show". The Salt Lake Tribune. "I was re-diagnosed (after a three-day stay at the hospital) as Bipolar II" 
  8. ↑ David Haglund (May 10, 2012). "Stand-up Comedy and Mental Illness: A Conversation with Maria Bamford". Slate. "I played the violin from the age of three to 21 and that was on stage, but I didn’t get the same feeling I got from stand-up—just that creative flow that I got into" 
  9. ↑ "December 28, 2002". A Prairie Home Companion. December 28, 2002. 
  10. ↑ "Episode 72: Maria Bamford". WTF with Marc Maron. May 13, 2010. 
  11. ↑ "Comedy Bang Bang: Episode 5". Comedy Bang Bang. May 29, 2009. 
  12. ↑ "TDF EP 71 – Maria Bamford Dork Origin Episode". The Dork Forest. October 21, 2011. 
  13. ↑ "TDF EP 172 – Janeane Garofalo and Maria Bamford". The Dork Forest. May 14, 2013. 
  14. ↑ "Maria Bamford". Nerdist. July 2010. 
  15. ↑ "Maria Bamford Returns!". Nerdist. November 2012. 
  16. ↑ "George Saunders and Maria Bamford". Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. February 12, 2013. 
  17. ↑ "Episode 67: Hard High Five". Sklarbro Country. November 4, 2011. 
  18. ↑ "Episode 122.5: Sklarbro County 27". Sklarbro Country. November 27, 2012. 
  19. ↑ "Paul F. Tompkins, Maria Bamford, Markos Moulitsas, Ice T, Patty". Citizen Radio. February 2, 2011. 
  20. ↑ "Jordan, Jesse, Go! Episode 133: Con Games with Maria Bamford, John Hodgman and Spiderman". Jordan, Jesse, Go!. 
  21. ↑ "Episode 166: Dress Mess with Maria Bamford". Jordan, Jesse, Go!. March 8, 2011. 
  22. ↑ "Episode 95: Maria Bamford". The Mental Illness Happy Hour. January 4, 2013. 
  23. ↑ "Girl on Guy 85: Maria Bamford". Girl on Guy. March 12, 2013. 
  24. ↑ "#159: Live from Bloomington, Indiana!". You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes. June 16, 2013. 

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