Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman Bio

Sarah Kate Silverman was born on December 1, 1970 in Bedford, New Hampshire to Donald and Beth Ann Silverman. She is the youngest of three girls and has two older sisters - Laura, also an actress, and Jody Speyer, a rabbi.

Silverman's mom, Beth Ann, a photographer and actress, started the New Thalian Players Theater company in 1983 and most likely played a big part in Sarah's interest in show business. Silverman first appeared on stage at the age of 12 and after that, her interest in the entertainment industry grew, especially her interest in comedy.

After graduating from The Derryfield School, a private day school in Manchester, Silverman left New Hampshire to attend New York University. It was in New York where Sarah got her first major gig, but not her first gig ever.

Early Career

Sarah Silverman was only 17 when she first began doing stand up comedy. The teenager took the stage for her very first routine at Stitches in Boston. While attending NYU, she would go to various clubs and bars on open mic nights in her spare time, eventually dropping out of school to pursue her career in comedy. Silverman would spend some time traveling around the country working at comedy clubs and bars until a scout from Saturday Night Live looking for fresh talent discovered the acerbic comic and asked her to come back to New York to join the SNL team. Silverman accepted the position, but her stint at the venerable sketch comedy show wouldn't last long.

Controversy at SNL

Sarah Silverman joined the cast of SNL as a featured writer and performer. None of Silverman's sketches made it to air on the show and a few other jokes that she made on air. They weren't the kind of jokes that were worthy of an inquisition by the FCC, but they were close. Silverman often jokes that she was hurt by how she was fired from the show, claiming it was done by fax.

Keeping Her Career Going

After losing her job at SNL, Silverman returned to stand-up, landing a few small parts on Seinfeld, Star Trek Voyager and The Naked Truth along the way. In 1996, she landed a recurring role on The Larry Sanders Show. It was during this time in which she also made her debut in her fist fillm in Who's the Caboose? Silverman also appeared in:

• There's Something About Mary
• Bullworth
• The Bachelor

Silverman kept landing small parts in big movies until she signed a deal with HBO to write and star in her own show. For unknown reasons, HBO never aired the show. Silverman kept extremely busy though, appearing in big and small roles on television and film. In 2005, she released her own comedic concert film Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. The film, of course, brought Silverman equal amounts of praise and criticism, mired in controversy.

Sarah Silverman's comedy wasn't the only controversy in her life though. Her personal life drew some attention when she started dating fellow comic Jimmy Kimmel.

Personal Life

When Kimmel and Silverman met, he was married with two children. Reports about the beginning of their relationship vary, with some saying that Kimmel and his wife were separated when he and Silverman began dating - while others say they were most definitely not.

The couple recently celebrated their five year anniversary by making video tributes to one another. Silverman started it with a video starring Matt Damon, titled I'm (sleeping with) Matt Damon. She of course used a different term than "sleeping with." Kimmel then shot back with I'm (sleeping with) Ben Affleck. It must be love.