Iliza Shlesinger

Iliza Shlesinger

Shlesinger at the 2014 ESPY Awards.
Birth name Iliza Vie Shlesinger
Born February 22, 1983
Dallas, Texas, United States
Medium Stand-up, television, web series
Years active 2007–present

Iliza Vie Shlesinger[1] (/ʃlɛsɪnɡər/;[2] born February 22, 1983) is an American comedian. She was the winner of the sixth season of NBC's Last Comic Standing and host of the syndicated dating show Excused.[3]

Early life

Shlesinger is from Dallas, Texas, where she attended the private Greenhill School and participated on the school's improv team. She is Jewish.[4] She performed with ComedySportz Dallas and attended the University of Kansas for her freshman year. She also participated in Semester at Sea. She transferred to Emerson College in Boston, where she majored in film. There, she was a member of the campus' comedy sketch group, Jimmy's Traveling All Stars, and refined her writing and editing skills.

Career

After graduating from college, Shlesinger moved to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up comedy. She was one of the most popular members of the Whiteboy Comedy group of standup comedians in Los Angeles, which brought her to the stage at The Improv in Hollywood.[5]

In 2007, Shlesinger won Myspace's So You Think You're Funny contest and has been featured as the G4 network's Myspace Girl of the Week. Her television credits include E! Network's Forbes Celebrity 100, TV Guide's America's Next Top Producer, Comedy Central Presents Season 14 Episode 18,[6] John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show,[7] Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed, and History Channel's History of a Joke. She has written for Heavy.com and had her own show on GOTV's mobile network.

In 2008, Shlesinger became the first woman, and the youngest, winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing, in the series' sixth season.[8][9] She was twice selected, by other comedians, to compete in the head-to-head eliminations, and won each time.[10] She appeared in The Last Comic Standing Tour.[11]

Schlesinger contributed to Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black, a History Channel holiday special, and narrated the 2009 documentary Imagine It!² The Power of Imagination.[12][13] In 2010, she released an on-demand comedy video, Man Up and Act Like a Lady, and an on-demand comedy album, iliza LIVE, on her website, via The ConneXtion. Around the time of these releases, Shlesinger appeared in a business comedy video series for Slate.[14][15]

Shlesinger hosted The Weakly News on TheStream.tv from July 7, 2007 to April 9, 2012.[16][17] She also hosted Excused, a syndicated American reality-based dating competition series, which ran from 2011 to 2013.[18] She co-stars in the 2013 film Paradise.[19] She recently began a podcast called Truth and Iliza. Featuring guest hosts, the weekly podcast is a forum for discussing things which bother Shlesinger and her friends.

Shlesinger's first comedy album and video, War Paint, was recorded on December 1, 2012 at The Lakewood Theater in Dallas, Texas, and released on Netflix on September 1, 2013.[20][21] Her second stand-up special, entitled Freezing Hot, was recorded in Denver, Colorado and premiered on Netflix in January 23, 2015. [22]

Personal life

Shlesinger was previously in a relationship with former NHL goaltender Jamie McLennan.[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Iliza Vie Shlesinger poses at the Hollywood Improv on March 12 2008 in... - WireImage - 80231988". wireimage.com.
  2. ↑ Episode #488 of The Joe Rogan Experience. April 22, 2014.
  3. ↑ Barone, Matt (September 12, 2011). "Interview: Iliza Shlesinger Talks 'Excused', Dating Show Etiquette, And The Art Of Dissing Men". Complex.
  4. ↑ JRE #68 - Iliza Schlesinger, Brian Redban. Joe Rogan Live (video) (Ustream.tv). January 4, 2011. Event occurs at 1:08:37.
  5. ↑ Kar, Meena (June 5, 2010). "Iliza Shlesinger Has Her Own Half Hour Special After Winning Last Comic Standing". Thaindian News.
  6. ↑ "Amazon.com: Comedy Central Presents: Season 14, Episode 18 "Iliza Shlesinger": Amazon Instant Video". amazon.com.
  7. ↑ "John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show: Season Three Debuts July 20th". TV Series Finale. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  8. ↑ Brown, Joe (August 18, 2008). "Last Comic Standing joins 'Jubilee!' on Sunday". Las Vegas Sun.
  9. ↑ Kohen, Yael (2012). We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy. Macmillan. p. xxxii. ISBN 9781466828117.
  10. ↑ 'Last Comic Standing Season 6 Episode 9', NBC.com.
  11. ↑ 'Last Comic Standing World Tour', NBC.com
  12. ↑ Imagine It!² The Power of Imagination. ImagineItProject.com. via Vimeo.com.
  13. ↑ Leeper, Mark (November 27, 2011). "Imagine It!". Leepers.us.
  14. ↑ "Amazon.com: Iliza Shlesinger: iliza LIVE: Music". amazon.com.
  15. ↑ Up in Your Business, from Slate V: Topical business comedy from Slate featuring host Iliza Vie Shlesinger
  16. ↑ "The Pilot episode of The Weakly News". theStream.tv.
  17. ↑ "Peep Shows, Carnivals, and Sarna". theStream.tv.
  18. ↑ 'Celebuzz Gets 'Excused' by New Dating Show Host Iliza Shlesinger (PHOTOS)' Celebuzz. September 12, 2011.
  19. ↑ Calfas, Jennifer (August 7, 2013). "Diablo Cody Celebrates 'Paradise,' Her Directorial Debut, With Hollywood Premiere". The Hollywood Reporter.
  20. ↑ "Iliza Shlesinger Show". theblacklistnyc.com.
  21. ↑ "Iliza Shlesinger on Twitter". Twitter.
  22. ↑ Todd Spangler. "Netflix Adds Stand-Up Special from Iliza Shlesinger to Comedy Lineup". Variety.
  23. ↑ Shlesinger, Iliza (September 2, 2010). "Lunch w Tyson Nash and Jamie McLennan(my boyfriend) hockey talk and popovers!". Twitter.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Iliza Shlesinger.