Nov 4, 1960

Oak Park, Illinois, USA

Griffin began performing in the early 1980s with the Los Angeles improv
comedy troupe, The Groundlings. She went on to perform stand-up comedy and
teamed with fellow Groundlings alum Janeane Garofalo on the comedy act
"Hot Cup of Talk"[1], later the title of Griffin's 1998 solo HBO special.
She did some acting, breaking into film with the supporting role of Connie
in the horror movie The Unborn (1991), starring Brooke Adams.
Griffin gradually amassed such early TV and film credits as a rol... ... (read more...) e in
comedian Julie Brown's Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful (1992), an HBO parody
of the backstage film Truth or Dare (1991); two appearances as the
character Susan Klein on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, her TV sitcom
debut; fellow comic Bob Goldthwait's movie Shakes the Clown (1992); and 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's first
consistent public exposure came 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 voiceover work, and has been
featured on a variety of projects such as the Dilbert animated series and
one of the Spider-Man animated series.
In 2005, Griffin starred in her solo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life
on the D-List, on the cable network Bravo. The show also featured
then-husband Matt Moline, her best friends, Dennis Hensley and Tony
Tripoli, her parents, her dogs and her personal assistant Jessica. The
second-season premiered on June 6, 2006. The first season of the program
was nominated for a 2006 Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Reality
Program, non-competition. It has been renewed for a third season which is
set to air June 6th, 2007.