Catie Lazarus

Early life

Born in Washington D.C., she attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Career

Lazarus dropped out of her doctoral studies to write comedy after an impromptu improv lesson from Tina Fey at an Empower Program conference in Washington, D.C. Three months later, Lazarus performed for the first time at Stand Up New York, where she won a contest. She then won another stand up contest at the Laugh Factory. She has performed storytelling at The Moth, The Rejection Show at The Bell House, RISK!, Story Collider, and Upright Citizens Brigade Theater's Asscat.

Her first article was a spoof of The New York Times wedding section. Vitamin W described her animated pilot MYC as offering "more than a few good laughs." Her most autobiographical work, according to Tubefilter, is a puppet show. "We get a peek into the devilishly candid and inventive mind of the young performer with her first original series, The on Time Show with Petunia Van De Twirp."

She is also a talk show host. Lazarus has interviewed, hosted shows and moderated panels for Women in Film, Brooklyn Jewish Film Festival, 92nd Y, Writers Guild of America (WGA-East), and the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2004, she created and hosted "Stand for Peace," a now annual comedy benefit for Seeds of Peace. She then produced and hosted the ECNY nominated comedy variety show "The Chosen One" at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater for Heeb Magazine, when she edited the magazine's Kvetch section. In 2006, Comix opened in New York and the booker plucked Lazarus to host the first alternative comedy showcase to feature younger talent and alternative comedy. Fresh Meat ran at Comix weekly for three years and then at Ars Nova. In 2007 she began hosting on the Couch for Tango Mag.

In 2010, Lazarus started the talk show Employee of the Month, praised by The New Yorker for its "extremely notable" guests and Lazarus' "decidedly unorthodox" interview style. It became a podcast in 2012. Lazarus hosts live taping at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and Los Angeles, 92 Y, The Bell House, and Joe's Pub. Lazarus has interviewed numerous comedians, musicians, journalists, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and social activists. Notable guests include Gloria Steinem, Rosie Perez, Wallace Shawn, Martha Plimpton, Dick Cavett and Lewis Black.

After Jon Stewart announced his departure from The Daily Show, the first public comments he made about it were on Lazarus' Employee of the Month show on February 19, 2015. He follows many of his Daily Show collaborators, including Aasif Mandvi, Dave Attell, Wyatt Cenac, Buck Henry, Mo Rocca, David Wain, and Lewis Black, as guests on the show; Lazarus herself appeared in the Daily Show in a sketch about a prequel to Hot Tub Time Machine. Stewart discussed some of his future plans, assuring fans that he was not retiring. Though he plans to spend more time with his family, he suggested that he would continue writing – he joked, "I'm going to be a featured blogger on The Huffington Post'" – and even that he could return to stand-up comedy.

Family

Lazarus wrote about her late godfather Lenny Ross' interview with Mike Wallace for The Daily Beast. She is a descendant of the Lazarus family, who built the first major department store chain and persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to change the date of Thanksgiving. Her paternal great-grandfather Simon Lazarus was President of F. & R. Lazarus, which featured the first escalator, employee commissions, and price tag. Her maternal grandfather Lester Avnet was the CEO of Avnet Inc., and her uncle Jon Avnet is a movie producer. Her father Simon Lazarus III, served as a policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter and brother Ned Lazarus co-founded the Co-Existence Center for Seeds of Peace.

Works