Sarah Silverman Biography

Sarah Silverman born December 2, 1970 in Bedford, New Hampshire, is a stand-up comedienne, actress, and writer. She is sometimes credited as Big S or Sarah 'Big S' Silverman. Her innocent look and sometimes sing-song delivery is in direct contrast to much of her material, which deals with controversial topics such as racism, abortion, rape, body hair, scatology, and child abuse, among others; her comedy-acts are sometimes performed from a caricatured or stereotypical Jewish-American perspective.

One of Sarah Silverman's earliest roles was as a 12-year-old starring in the title role of a Community Players of Concord production of Annie. She did stand-up in her teens - for an October 2005 profile in The New Yorker, her sister Susan recalled an early gig at a Mexican restaurant where the 17-year-old Sarah sang a song called "Mammaries," about wishing she had breasts. Silverman attended New York University, leaving after a year to concentrate on her stand-up career.

Within three years Sarah Silverman got a major career break she earned national exposure during the 1993-94 season of Saturday Night Live. She was a writer and featured player at this time, but was fired after one season because she had written only one sketch that survived through to dress rehearsal and none which made it to air. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer who knows her from her stand-up in Los Angeles, commented on why Sarah was fired: "I could see how it wouldn't work at SNL because she's got her own voice, she's very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn't disappear into the character–she makes the character her." Silverman states that she was fired by SNL in an undignified manner.

She then moved on to the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David, where she was a featured performer. Silverman made guest appearances on such programs as the two part time travel episode "Future's End" of Star Trek: Voyager and as a series regular on the TV show Greg the Bunny (2002), playing serious characters, as well as the voice of character Hadassah Guberman on the salacious puppet television comedy Crank Yankers. She has also had bit parts in movies such as There's Something About Mary, Say It Isn't So, School of Rock, The Way of the Gun, Screwed, and Heartbreakers, again playing serious roles. On November 11, 2005, her stand-up comedy act was released as a feature film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. As part of the publicity blitz surrounding the movie, Silverman made several high profile appearances, including online in Slate, as the cover subject of Heeb magazine, and performing on Comedy Central's roast of Pamela Anderson.

In Jimmy Kimmel Live, she parodied sketches from Chappelle's Show as a point of view what happens if she plays Rick James, Tyrone, or the Pilot Boy Productions-like logo called Pilot Girl Productions. This segment is based on a rumor that Silverman is replacing Dave Chappelle.