Carol Leifer (born July 27, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer and actress whose career as a stand-up comedian started in the 1970s when she was in college. David Letterman discovered her performing in a comedy club in the 1980s and she would later be a guest on Late Night with David Letterman over 25 times. She has written many television scripts including for The Larry Sanders Show, Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld.
Leifer's inner-monologue driven, observational style is often autobiographical, encompassing subjects about her Jewish ancestry and upbringing, coming out, same-sex marriage, relationships (having been married previously to a man and now partnered with a woman) and parenting.
Leifer was born in East Williston, New York, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, the daughter of Anna, a psychologist, and Seymour Leifer, an optometrist.
While studying for a theater degree at Binghamton University, Leifer accompanied her then boyfriend Paul Reiser to a comedy club to see him perform at the open mic night at Catch A Rising Star. Later she tried performing at New York's Comic Strip and was introduced by emcee Jerry Seinfeld.
From 1981 to 1987, Leifer was married to comic Ritch Shydner, whose gentile status troubled Leifer's father.
In 1996, Leifer met Lori Wolf, a Jewish real estate executive, when they shared a table at a Project Angel Food charity dinner in Los Angeles. Although Leifer had identified as heterosexual up until then, she later contacted Wolf through the host of their table, though Wolf initially rebuffed Leifer's overtures because Wolf was in a relationship at the time. Wolf contacted Leifer weeks later, after Wolf had ended her relationship, and began one with Leifer. They moved in together in 2005, and in acclimating herself to Wolf's pets, Leifer became an animal rights activist. It was for this reason that she chose North Shore Animal League as her charity when she appeared in The Celebrity Apprentice. In 2006 they purchased a $3.2-million, 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) home in the Santa Monica Hills, as part of their preparations to adopt their nine-month-old son, Bruno Leifer-Wolf, who was born in Guatemala in 2007. That year, Leifer proposed to Wolf over dinner at the Palm Restaurant in Beverly Hills. On December 5, 2015, they were married by Rabbi Ron Stern at the Brentwood Country Club in Los Angeles. In attendance were Jane Lynch, Larry David, Bill Maher, Garry Shandling, Henry Winkler, Larry Miller, Jay Leno and Paul Reiser.
Statistics for this Xoptio
Funny 50
%
50
% Not Funny
Funniest 50
%
50
% Not even Top 100
I love this comedy 50
%
50
% Although funny not a fan
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