Kathy Griffin

Early life

Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin was born on November 4, 1960, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Mary Margaret "Maggie" Griffin (née Corbally; born June 10, 1920) and John Patrick Griffin (October 29, 1915 – February 17, 2007), both first-generation Irish Americans. Maggie worked as a cashier in the Oak Park Hospital. Griffin has four older siblings: Kenny, Joyce, Gary, and John. Griffin described herself during her early years as "a kid who needed to talk, all the time." She would often visit her neighbors, the Bowens, to tell them stories about her family; she has referred to those visits as her first live shows and the place where she learned "the power of juicy material." After most of her siblings had moved, Griffin often spent hours alone in the house and developed a binge eating disorder. She explained that even though eating disorders were not very well known at that time, she knew her eating behavior was aberrant and always threw the garbage away in the neighbor's can. In her 2009 autobiography Official Book Club Selection, Griffin confessed that she "still suffers [from food issues]" but has learned to "deal with them." In the same book, Griffin discussed her eldest brother, Kenny, who was a drug addict and homeless at various times, and revealed that she was "afraid of him until the moment he died" due to his violent, abusive nature. Griffin states that Kenny would climb into bed with her when he was 30 and she was 7 and "whisper" into her ears; Kathy refused to speak to him or be in the same room as him for years but didn't tell her parents until she was in her twenties, at which point he openly admitted pedophilia to their parents.

As a young girl Griffin attended St. Bernadine's Elementary School and began to develop a dislike for organized religion because of the punishments she and other "vulnerable" students received from the nuns. After graduation, she attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and sought refuge in musical theatre, playing roles such as Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof. During her senior year she began arguing with her parents, who wanted her to attend college, because she wanted to become a professional actress. Her first appearance on television was as an extra on a Chicago White Sox commercial, and she was then signed with several Chicago talent agencies. At 18, Griffin persuaded her parents to move to Los Angeles to help her become famous.

At 19, Griffin attended a show of the California-based improvisational group The Groundlings. She said, "I thought this is where I want to be. This is the greatest thing in the world."

Stand-up comedy, TV, and film

Griffin began performing in the early 1980s in the Los Angeles improv comedy troupe The Groundlings. In an E! True Hollywood Story segment, she stated that she often went to see the Groundlings perform before she joined. She said that, at one show, she went backstage and talked with Groundling member Phil Hartman and asked him what the group was all about. This led to her taking classes there and eventually being asked into the Groundling's main company. While Kathy was a Groundling, she became best friends with Judy Toll.

She went on to perform standup comedy and became part of the alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles. She appeared at Un-Cabaret and ran her own standup night, Hot Cup of Talk, with Janeane Garofalo. That later became the title of her 1998 solo HBO special.

Griffin made an appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction as a pedestrian coming to the aid of Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) after he is hit by a car driven by Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis). In the credits she was listed as herself.

She broke into film in the supporting role of Connie in the horror film The Unborn, starring Brooke Adams.

Griffin gradually amassed a number of TV and film credits throughout the 1990s. She appeared in fellow comedian Julie Brown's Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful, a Showtime parody of the 1991 Madonna film Truth or Dare. Griffin then had two appearances as the character Susan Klein, a reporter, on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, her TV sitcom debut. She appeared in fellow comic Bobcat Goldthwait's film Shakes the Clown and as the enthusiastic leader of a fanatical car club in the Ellen episode "Oh, Sweet Rapture", airing in January 1996. Griffin also played Jerry's nemesis Sally Weaver in two episodes of Seinfeld. Griffin also starred in a dual role in a seventh-season episode of The X-Files and in an episode of ABC's divorce-attorney series Civil Wars, Griffin's dramatic-series debut.

After starring in an HBO Half Hour Comedy Special, Griffin had her first consistent public exposure in 1996, when she was cast as the acerbic colleague of Brooke Shields' title character on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. In 1998, Griffin starred in her first one-hour special, HBO's Kathy Griffin: A Hot Cup of Talk. She honed a comedy and television career that poked fun at her relatively modest place in the Hollywood hierarchy in a self-deprecating manner. She frequently appears in such self-consciously tacky projects as the reality show competition Celebrity Mole Hawaii, in which she won the 2003 edition after undergoing such experiences as walking over hot lava with her bare feet. She identifies her victory as the moment she became a "D-list" celebrity.

Griffin also has a secondary career in voice-over work and has been featured on a variety of projects such as the animated series Dilbert and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series.

Griffin's TV production company is called Inappropriate Laughter. On June 12, 2008, Griffin hosted the first ever Bravo! A-List Awards. Included in the show was a scene wherein Griffin mimicked a "wardrobe malfunction" (referring to the Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show controversy in 2004). She also hosted the 2009 Bravo A-List Awards, which aired on April 15, 2009, and her Bravo special Kathy Griffin: She'll Cut a Bitch, taped on March 4, 2009, in Portland, Oregon, aired beforehand. Shout! Factory released an extended version of the show on DVD in early 2010.

On September 8, 2009, Ballantine Books published Griffin's memoir, titled Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin. The book debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list. A week prior, she released her second comedy album, Suckin' It for the Holidays. It was the comedian's second bid to win a Grammy Award.

It was announced on November 3, 2009, that Griffin was to host ABC's new show Let's Dance, which was supposed to premiere immediately after the finale of Dancing with the Stars on November 23. On the show, celebrity contestants would have reenacted famous routines from past music videos, movies, and musicals while competing for a $250,000 grand prize for their favorite charity. However, the show never aired.

Griffin hosted CNN's New Year's Eve Broadcast on December 31, 2009, along with Anderson Cooper. As Cooper talked about the Balloon boy hoax, Griffin said the word "fucking" while making fun of the pronunciation of Falcon Heene, the six-year-old boy who was said to have been trapped in the balloon gondola. Although Griffin was rumored to be banned from future CNN broadcasts, she has co-hosted the show with Cooper every year since. CNN terminated Griffin from their New Year's Eve Broadcast in 2017, after Griffin posted pictures of herself holding a bloody, decapitated model head resembling President Donald Trump.

Griffin has also guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a lesbian activist.

Since the 2008 presidential election Griffin has made frequent jokes about Republican vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin and family. Griffin parodied Palin in Glee, wearing a red power-suit and wide-rimmed glasses, posing as a judge at the regionals singing competition. Griffin also poked fun at Christine O'Donnell in the show by stating, "Before we start, I would like to say I am not a witch."

On March 15, 2011, Griffin had a guest-starring role on Glee in the episode "Original Song" as a Regionals competition judge, "Twitterer and former Tea Party candidate" Tammy Jean Albertson. Her character complained about a duet of Hey Monday's "Candles" between two young men, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson, and automatically accused their school, Dalton Academy, of being a "gay school". She also remarks that the performance of "Loser Like Me" by the show's primary Glee club, New Directions, was disgraceful because "when I lost the election, I didn't sing about being a loser, I twittered that Obama is a terrorist"; this remark almost started an argument between her and fellow judge Sister Mary Constance (Loretta Devine).

On January 7, 2012, it was announced that—along with having two more standup specials on Bravo—Griffin will start a weekly one-hour talk show on the channel, Kathy, which will consist of standup routines, "rant about pop culture", and celebrity interviews. The first show aired on April 19, 2012, on Bravo. Griffin announced via Twitter on July 26, 2012, that the show had been picked up for a second season. On April 8, 2013, during a live standup performance in Cincinnati, Ohio, Griffin reportedly announced that her show would not be renewed for a third season. She later confirmed it on her Twitter account. A source close to the series told FOX 411 that Bravo is planning to film several comedy specials starring Griffin after the show wraps.

On June 13, 2014, it was announced that Griffin was set to host the 41st Daytime Emmy Awards. For the first time in the event's four-decade history, the show bypassed a network television airing for a live online streaming event. The ceremony took place on June 22, 2014. Griffin's performance was well received by critics.

Guest co-host of The View

Kathy Griffin served as the unofficial guest co-host of The View from May 2007 to September 2007 and was considered as a replacement for the recently departed Rosie O'Donnell. However, Whoopi Goldberg was ultimately selected as the permanent replacement. On September 10, 2007, Sherri Shepherd took over the remaining co-host spot that had been vacant since Star Jones's departure. Barbara Walters stated that she was worried about hiring another loose cannon after the troubles with O'Donnell.

Griffin divulged in her standup that she is now banned from The View after talking about the gig on her televised comedy special, Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell. While declining to discuss the ban on Access Hollywood, during the filming of an episode for My Life on the D-List with former View co-host/moderator Rosie O'Donnell, Griffin did talk about the ban, specifically targeting View executive producer Bill Geddie. Griffin had also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Walters when she departed the show. As of August 2009, Griffin had been un-banned from The View and was a guest on September 18, 2009, and June 15, 2010. However, in an interview on The Talk, Griffin has stated she has been re-banned from The View, due to an argument with View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Griffin has since been unbanned once again and has appeared several times on the show, including as a guest co-host.

Various talk shows bans

Although some talk show hosts such as Craig Kilborn, Bill Maher and Howard Stern (whom she credits with giving her a "straight fanbase") welcome her humor on their programs, Griffin said she was banned from appearing on several TV shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The View. She got re-banned from The View because of a joke she made about Barbara Walters. She says Ellen's producers told her they cannot have her on "trashing celebrities", but she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 11, 2007. One of the most notable controversies occurred when she made a joke during a 2005 E! televised event that the child actress Dakota Fanning, then age 11, had entered drug rehabilitation. This incident got Griffin fired from hosting duties on E!'s red-carpet award show coverage. Nevertheless, E! purchased rights to air My Life on the D-List for its British channel, a fact she noted in an episode of season 3.

Emmy Awards controversy

The second season of My Life on the D-List, which premiered on June 6, 2006, earned Griffin the 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program, non-competition, on September 8, 2007. She received it during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which was hosted by Carlos Mencia and aired on E! on September 15. Griffin stirred up controversy with her acceptance speech, saying,

Now, a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn't help me a bit. If it was up to him, Cesar Millan would be up here with that damn dog. So all I can say is suck it, Jesus, this award is my God now!

Griffin later explained that she meant this remark not as a slight on Jesus, but rather as a satire of celebrities who thank Jesus profusely and nonsensically for their awards, especially artists who themselves are controversial in their speech and actions.

The Catholic League urged the academy to "denounce Griffin's obscene and blasphemous comment." The Academy said that her "offensive remarks will not be part of the E! telecast on Saturday night". Griffin later responded, "Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?"

Termination of appearance on Hannah Montana

Griffin said she was fired from an appearance on the show Hannah Montana, on account of her Emmy acceptance speech. According to Griffin "the instructions literally came down, 'We don't want her anywhere near the building.'" Griffin hit back in her comedy act joking that Miley Cyrus "...has been flashing her green bra and posing topless."

Banning from Apollo Theater

In a July 2009 episode of My Life on the D-List, after using profanity in an Octomom joke during her routine at New York's Apollo Theater, Griffin said that she received a letter banning her from the venue.

Depiction of President Trump

On May 30, 2017, Griffin posted a video of herself holding "a mask styled to look like the severed, bloody head" of U.S. President Donald Trump, which was posted on her Instagram and Twitter accounts. She wrote: "I caption this 'there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his…wherever," referencing a past comment Trump had made about Megyn Kelly. The video was from a shoot with photographer Tyler Shields, who is known for producing "shocking" imagery.

Various members of the Trump family responded to the photo, including Trump, his son Donald Jr., and his wife Melania, who said, "As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing. When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it."

Griffin later took down the image, and apologized publicly for the photo, saying she went too far and adding, "I beg for your forgiveness."

She subsequently was dropped by Squatty Potty as a marketing spokesperson. On May 31, 2017, CNN fired her from its New Year's Eve broadcast with Anderson Cooper. CNN said in a statement prior to announcing her termination, "We found what she did disgusting and offensive. We are pleased to see she has apologized and asked that the photos be taken down." Cooper said, "For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate."

All of her remaining tour dates were canceled by their respective venues, and U.S. Senator Al Franken from Minnesota disinvited Griffin from a promotional event for his upcoming book. U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada announced she is going to donate the $1,000 received from Griffin to charity.

Columnist Kyle Smith criticized the reaction to Griffin's actions, writing in National Review, "I don’t want ours to be a country where the freedom to display bad taste, especially bad taste that involves satirizing powerful figures, gradually gets snuffed out by the timidity of the advertising business…I want America to be a place where rodeo clowns can make fun of President Obama and unfunny comediennes can pose for pictures with the fake bloody head of President Trump".

On June 2, 2017, an attorney for Griffin, Lisa Bloom, stated, "Like many edgy works of artistic expression, the photo could be interpreted different ways. But Griffin never imagined that it could be misinterpreted as a threat of violence against Trump. That was never what she intended. She has never threatened or committed an act of violence against anyone." Griffin said the Trump family was "trying to ruin my life forever"

Style of humor

Griffin developed her love for popular culture through her immediate and extended family, who were frequently commenting about the latest news. She explained that "I may have been into The Brady Bunch like every other kid, but I also wanted to watch John Lennon and Yoko Ono on The Dick Cavett Show, and every minute of the Watergate hearings. It was fear of the dinner table that got me hooked." She has also named her mother Maggie as influential in her consumption of pop culture, calling her "the ideal audience for the Hollywood dish." Griffin has also named the character of Rhoda Morgenstern of 1970s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show as an influence, saying,

[The Mary Tyler Moore Show] gave me the first inkling of what place I could have in the entertainment world. [...] But when Rhoda burst through the door in her Gypsy headscarf, billowy caftan, and hilariously abrasive delivery, I was like, 'Who is that? Oh my God!' That’s when I fell in love with wanting to be the sidekick. Everything out of her mouth was hysterical, yet she was vulnerable and human. I remember my family fell in love with her, too. That’s who I wanted to be. She had all the jokes.

While Griffin established her career with candid observations about everyday life and her dating experiences, later focusing on mainly mocking celebrities, her act currently consists of recounting embellished stories involving celebrities. Though her humor may be wicked, Griffin hopes people understand that no malice is intended by it. "I'm genuinely a fan of most of the people I trash in the act," said Griffin in an interview. "I really, really try and focus on making fun of people for their behavior. I'm not so into making fun of someone for the way they look, or something that's out of their control." Her favorite celebrity topics are plastic surgery, Scientology, alcohol intoxication, substance abuse, snooty attitudes, eating disorders, and stars whose sexual orientation is disputed. Among Griffin's staples are Paris Hilton, Clay Aiken, Barbara Walters, Whitney Houston, Larry David, Celine Dion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jerry Seinfeld, Star Jones, Paula Abdul, Sharon Stone, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears, Ryan Seacrest, Lindsay Lohan, Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, Bravo's The Real Housewives, Kirstie Alley, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Uma Thurman and Renée Zellweger.

Griffin is sometimes the object of her own humor, particularly with regard to her D-list status. While Griffin paints herself as a Hollywood outsider, she has a group of close celebrity friends such as Rosie O'Donnell, Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, Gloria Estefan, Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Coolidge, Rachel True, Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Anderson Cooper, Cher and Lance Bass. Griffin's longtime friendship with Bass was the catalyst for a feud between her and gossip blogger Perez Hilton, in which Griffin expressed anger over Hilton's "outing" of Bass on his website, calling Hilton's attacks on Bass "mean" and "unfunny". Hilton responded by saying that Griffin's anger was hypocritical, considering all of the gay jokes she makes about Clay Aiken in her stand-up routines. In 2007, Griffin commented on her aversion to making fun of celebrity friends by saying, "There's nothing I won't do, but on the other hand I'm full of shit because that changes. For example, you know Lance Bass from 'N Sync and how he's gay now? All those years that I knew he was gay, he and I were friends, I would never say, 'Hey, by the way, did you know that Lance Bass is gay?'" Griffin and Hilton ended their feud after the death of Griffin's father, and Hilton appeared on an episode of her show in 2007. Yet in July 2008, he asserted that Griffin's assistant Jessica Zajicek had quit because she could not take Griffin's now hectic career. Griffin dismissed these statements as false as Zajicek is still working for Griffin. However, the season premiere of The D-List depicted that Zajicek was no longer working for Griffin; Griffin explained early in the episode that Zajicek "has decided to move on".

LGBT rights and political advocacy

Griffin is an outspoken supporter for LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage. She has protested with fellow proponents in West Hollywood, California, and showcased the footage of such protests on her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Her mother, Maggie Griffin, is also a supporter of LGBT rights and is seen in Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List protesting alongside her daughter. Prior to the Proposition 8 ballot results, Griffin volunteered for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s "Vote for Equality" campaign, going door-to-door asking Los Angeles residents for their opinion of LGBT marriage rights.

In March 2010, Griffin helped organize a rally in Washington, D.C. to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." She stated that she organized the rally after meeting with several closeted gay people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Griffin held meetings with several Members of Congress to encourage its repeal; she also organized a rally in Freedom Plaza.

Griffin caused controversy when she confronted Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann over her views on homosexuality at the 2010 Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, while in town for her rally against DADT. According to Griffin, she asked Bachmann "were you born a bigot or did you grow into it," a reference to Bachmann's belief that homosexuality is strictly environmental. Griffin said Bachmann replied by saying, "That's a good question, I'll have to think about that." Bachmann's office confirmed the exchange but said Griffin confronted Bachmann after Bachmann approached Griffin to compliment her appearance.

Griffin has been a long-time supporter of the Aid for AIDS annual fundraiser, Best in Drag Show in Los Angeles, and hosted the opening of the show for more than five years. In November 2009, Aid For AIDS presented Kathy Griffin with an AFA Angel Award at their silver anniversary celebration.

Griffin has been a long-time critic of Sarah Palin, and has made fun of Palin's daughter, Bristol Palin, using the Palin family as material in her comedy routines. In March 2011, Sarah Palin responded to Griffin by calling her a "bully." Palin went on to dare Griffin to "come up to Alaska and pick on me." In connection with her reality TV show, Griffin visited the Palin family home in Wasilla, Alaska and invited Palin to attend her stand-up show in Anchorage, Alaska. Griffin has also poked fun at Willow Palin as a result of Palin's Facebook statements on homosexuality.

Personal life

Griffin describes herself as a "non-believer". In her book Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, Griffin said that while in high school, she fell away from the Roman Catholic Church. She considered becoming a Unitarian but wasn't sure what that would involve. On March 9, 2008, Kathy Griffin became an ordained minister with the Universal One Church of Carrabelle, Florida.

In a 2006 interview, Griffin said she does not drink alcohol.

She is an outspoken opponent of LASIK eye surgery, having endured a series of operations for her own eyesight that left her partially blind in one eye with a visible eyeball deformity. She is open about her multiple plastic surgeries, and jokes that the fat "was donated to a soup kitchen" after her liposuction procedure.

Her father, John Patrick Griffin, died of heart failure on February 17, 2007, during the shooting of the third season of her reality show; he was 91 years old. The episode related to his death aired on June 19, 2007.

She placed 17th on Oxygen's 2007 list of "The 50 Funniest Women Alive".

In 2009, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

Marriage and relationships

Griffin married Washington, D.C. native Matt Moline on February 18, 2001, atop the 360 Degree Restaurant in Hollywood. Moline appeared on her reality show. They divorced in May 2006. Griffin had her tattooed wedding ring laser-removed after her divorce. On Larry King Live, Griffin accused her husband of stealing $72,000 from her. In a written statement, he declined to respond to the allegations publicly but stated that he was saddened by the accusations.

In July 2007, rumors circulated that Griffin was dating Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. They attended the 2007 Emmy Awards together, and speculation arose when the two were interviewed together on the red carpet. On Tom Green's House Tonight on February 6, 2008, Griffin confirmed her relationship with Wozniak. When asked if she actually targeted Wozniak to make her ex-husband jealous, Griffin stated: "What better way to get back at my ex, who was a tech, than to marry the biggest techno-nerd in the Universe?" Wozniak and Griffin served as King and Queen of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley Fur Ball on April 5, 2008, in Santa Clara, California, and scenes for the fourth season of My Life on the D-List were taped. However, in June 2008, it was confirmed that Griffin and Wozniak were no longer dating.

On August 9, 2009, she attended the Teen Choice Awards with Levi Johnston and subsequently interviewed him in her role as guest host on Larry King Live. In the interview, Griffin and Johnston joked that they were in a serious relationship.

On March 7, 2011, while appearing on Howard Stern's radio show, Griffin announced that she was romantically involved with actor and former NFL practice-squad player Isaiah Mustafa. Mustafa later stated that he was single, though he admitted to finding Griffin "amazing". In the same interview, Griffin also stated that the previous July, she had ended a private romantic relationship that had lasted four years with a man whom she did not publicly identify, only saying that he was "a regular guy with a regular job", and that it was a "messy breakup". It was later revealed that the man was Tom Vize. Vize was Griffin's tour manager and had appeared on several seasons of My Life on the D List.

Since 2012, Griffin has been in a relationship with marketing executive Randy Bick. She resided in the Hollywood Hills from 2004 to 2016. Since then she has resided in Bel Air, where her next-door neighbors are Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West.

Stand-up specials

Discography

On June 10, 2008, Griffin released a comedy CD titled For Your Consideration. It is Griffin's first audio-only release of her stand-up material. The disc was recorded at the ETK Theatre at the Grand Theatre Center For The Arts in Tracy, California on February 17, 2008. Included on the disc are her takes on various celebrities and her personal life. Griffin stated that she decided to release this CD to try to win a Grammy award. On December 3, 2008, Griffin was nominated for a Grammy for Best Comedy Album. However, she lost to George Carlin's It's Bad for Ya.

On August 25, 2009, Griffin released a second comedy album, Suckin' It for the Holidays, in another bid for a Grammy. The album was initially released as a digital download and retail released on November 3, 2009. Despite the album's holiday title, it contains little holiday-related content, and it just barely made the nominations cut-off. On December 2, 2009 it was nominated for Best Comedy Album, making it Griffin's second Grammy nomination.

Griffin received her third Grammy nomination for Kathy Griffin: Does the Bible Belt in 2010 and her fourth in 2011 for Kathy Griffin: 50 And Not Pregnant.

On May 4, 2012, the full length version of "I'll Say It", the theme song of her show Kathy, was released to iTunes as a single. On August 20, 2012, Griffin released a seven-track EP containing dance remixes of "I'll Say It".

On August 14, 2014, Griffin released a third comedy CD titled Look at My Butt Crack.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards
Emmy Awards source:

Grammy Awards

GLAAD Media Awards

PGA Awards

Gracie Awards