Comedian/Actress/Playwright
Lisa Lampanelli has been known for more than a quarter-century as Comedy’s Lovable Queen of Mean. Heralded as “more than a standup—a standout,” by comedy legend Jim Carrey and called “a true original and a brilliant comedy mind who’ll steal the show every time” by her hero Howard Stern, Lampanelli is known for saying things that most people are afraid to think. Her raunchy, gut-busting performances are wildly popular at theaters across the US and Canada.
Lampanelli’s fifth stand-up special, 2015’s Back to the Drawing Board, proved the insult comic was new, improved, and funnier than ever. The EPIX special was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album of the Year—the second such nomination for the comedian—and showed off Lisa’s radically different look after having lost more than 100 pounds with the help of gastric sleeve surgery. That weight loss and her love of theater inspired her to write Stuffed: A Big-Boned, Skinny-Ass, All-You-Can-Laugh New Play. Having been every size from 2 to 26, Lampanelli has firsthand knowledge of the food and body-image struggle.
Stuffed had an initial run at the non-profit WP Theater in the fall of 2016, where it was a critical success, and was nicknamed “Love, Loss and What I Ate” by The New Yorker. The New York Times called it “hilarious and heartfelt,” and Theatermania praised the 2017 commercial off-Broadway production at the Westside Theatre by saying, “Stuffed is basically what it would look like if Jean-Paul Sartre produced a show on the Food Network… Lampanelli puts her finger on the intersection of size, race, and class in a way few plays ever do.”
Lampanelli also addresses these subjects and more in her own podcast, Get Stuffed with Lisa Lampanelli. The weekly, hour-long podcast l focuses on the comedic actress’s interest in healthy lifestyle, food, weight, and body image, as well as other issues that are near and dear to her heart. Lampanelli and her co-host, comedian Mike Morse, discuss stories in the news relating to these subjects, as well as other topics that touch on those issues. During the podcast, Lampanelli also fields questions, gives “tough love”-style advice, and features special guests, including weekly correspondent Sirius OutQ and Daily Show alumnus Frank Decaro.
Lampanelli became a household name when she joined 17 other celebrities on the fifth season of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, hosted by current president Donald Trump. The fifth installment of the show, with the largest-ever lineup of famous faces competing for charities of their choice, was a ratings bonanza for NBC. As a final-four contestant, Lisa raised more than $130,000 for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. She also starred as a regular on Bounty Hunters, CMT’s first-ever animated series, and guest starred on a hilarious episode of CBS’s 2 Broke Girls, helmed by Sex and the City creator, Michael Patrick King.
Lampanelli’s rise to the top of the comedy food chain began in 2002 when she was the only female comedian invited to skewer Chevy Chase on the NY Friars Club Comedy Central Roast. She soon became known as the “Queen of the Roasts”, going on to lambaste such names as Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, William Shatner, Flava Flav, David Hasselhoff and, most recently, Donald Trump. Due to her success as a roaster, in 2009, Lisa was asked to serve as Roastmaster for the highly rated Comedy Central Roast of friend and fellow comic, Larry the Cable Guy.
One of the few white comedians to perform on BET’s Comic View and a recurring guest on The Wendy Williams Show,Lampanelli has clearly cemented her huge crossover appeal. In January 2007, Lisa’s second one-hour special, Dirty Girl, debuted on Comedy Central and Warner Bros. Records, and reached #4 on the charts. Soon thereafter, Dirty Girl was nominated for a Grammy Award for 2007’s Best Comedy Album of the Year.
Lampanelli reached new comedic heights with her 2009 HBO comedy special, Long Live the Queen and, that same year, released her autobiography, Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks (Harper Collins). She has also been a monthly contributor for the Women column in Playboy Magazine and has been a writer for the blog for Kripalu, the world-renowned yoga and meditation retreat center.
On the feature film side, Lisa appeared in the David Chase-directed feature film, Not Fade Away. She also appeared in Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and had a featured role in Delta Farce, opposite Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, and D.J. Quall. One of the stars of the hilarious feature film documentary, The Aristocrats, Lampanelli played a more maternal version of herself in the Owen Wilson vehicle, Judd Apatow’s Drillbit Taylor.
She currently resides in New York City and Connecticut. insultcomic.com.
