# Judy Gold

Judy Gold (born November 15, 1962) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, television writer, author, producer, and activist. She won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work as a writer and producer on The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Judy hosts the podcast It's Judy's Show with Judy Gold.

## Early life

Gold was born on November 15, 1962, in Clark, New Jersey. Gold grew up in a Jewish home with her two siblings. She plays piano. She first performed stand-up on a dare when she was a music student at Rutgers University. Gold moved to Manhattan, New York from New Jersey in 1984. In an interview with Marc Maron, Gold revealed her comedic influences to be Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and Totie Fields. Her first television role was on Roseanne in 1991, followed by work as a series regular role from 1994-1995 on Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl.

## Career

Gold's stand-up specials have aired on Comedy Central, LOGO, and HBO. She has been featured in Netflix's Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration, and was featured in their documentary about LGBTQ+ comedians OUTSTANDING: A Comedy Revolution, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. She was a focus of Trevor Noah’s documentary XCLD: The Story of Cancel Culture. In 2007, she was featured in the film Making Trouble, a tribute to female Jewish comedians, produced by the Jewish Women's Archive.
Gold’s recent film acting credits include: Tripped Up, She Came To Me, and Love Reconsidered. Her recent TV credits include Showtime’s City On A Hill and The First Lady, FX’s Better Things, and Apple TV+ Extrapolations. Other guest appearances include Girls5Eva, Broad City, Hulu’s Life and Beth, and recurring roles on Awkwafina, TBS’ Search Party, and Netflix’s Friends from College.
She was also a writer on the final season of FX’s Better Things.
Gold is a subject of the Hulu documentary Hysterical. She has made appearances on The Tonight Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Gold has been a guest on The View, The Today Show, The Drew Barrymore Show, and a free-speech advocate on MSNBC, CNN and NewsNation She has appeared on the Food Network, including competing on Chopped All-Stars and Rachel vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off.
From 1999-2010, Gold hosted HBO's At the Multiplex with Judy Gold. She appears as a commentator on 2007 truTV's TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest.
Gold is the author of Yes I Can Say That: When They Come For The Comedians, We Are All In Trouble (2020, HarperCollins; ISBN 9780062953773), a book about free speech and cancel-culture which was featured in The New York Times Book Review.
Gold's three comedy albums are Kill Me Now, Conduct Unbecoming, and Judith’s Roommate Had a Baby.

## Stage shows

Gold has written and starred in the Off-Broadway shows: Yes I Can Say That!, The Judy Show – My Life as a Sitcom, and 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother. She was a featured player as Gremio in The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park all-female production of The Taming of The Shrew. She also co-starred in Off-Broadway’s Clinton! The Musical, and Disaster! The Musical.
Gold's one-woman show 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, co-written with Kate Moira Ryan, is based on a series of interviews with more than 50 Jewish mothers in the United States. Their stories are interspersed with anecdotes about her own mother and her life as a lesbian mother of two sons. It ran at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City in early 2006 and reopened later that year at St. Luke's Theater.
On June 30, 2011, The Judy Gold Show: My Life as a Sitcom, began previews at Off-Broadway's DR2 Theatre in New York City. This one-woman show was an homage to the classic sitcoms of Gold's youth. The show is written by Gold and Kate Moira Ryan and directed by Amanda Charlton. The show officially opened on July 6, 2011. The New York Times called the show "highly entertaining." The New York Post called the show "gleefully self-deprecating". The show subsequently opened in Los Angeles June 18, 2013, and had a one-month run at the Geffen Playhouse.
In 2011, Gold was named a Givenik Ambassador. In 2015, she appeared off-Broadway as Eleanor Roosevelt in the satiric musical Clinton: The Musical at New World Stages.
Her one-woman show, based on her book, Yes I Can Say That! premiered in March 2023 and was directed by BD Wong at 59E59 Theaters.

## Personal life

Gold is a lesbian. She was in a relationship with Sharon Callahan for nearly 20 years. Together they have two children, Henry and Ben, whom she frequently referenced on the show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. She met her current partner, Elysa Halpern, on a blind date set up by Time Out New York in 2007. Gold is very active in both the LGBT and Jewish communities. She was active in support of the 2004 and 2008 Democratic presidential campaigns. Gold serves on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition Against Censorship.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2001 | The Curse of the Jade Scorpion | Voltan's Participant | |
| 2004 | Our Italian Husband | Nun #2 | |
| 2017 | Gilbert | Herself | Documentary |
| 2021 | Hysterical | Herself | Documentary |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1991 | Roseanne | Amy | 1 episode |
| 1993 | Rumor Has It | Panelist | 1 episode |
| 1994–1995 | All American Girl | Gloria Schechter | 18 episodes |
| 1995 | HBO Comedy Half-Hour: Judy Gold | Herself | |
| 1995 | Here Come the Munsters | Elsa Munster Hyde | TV movie |
| 1995 | The City | Judy Silver | 1 episode |
| 1996 | Wings | Brenda | 1 episode |
| 1997 | Lois Lives a Little | | Short |
| 1998 | Arli$$ | | 1 episode |
| 2000 | The Drew Carey Show | Leslie | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Law & Order | Deborah Patterson | 1 episode |
| 2000 | Sidesplitters: The Burt & Dick Story | Dick's Mother | Short |
| 2001 | The Ballad of Lucy Whipple | Buck McPhee | TV film |
| 2002 | Sex and the City | Barnes & Noble Clerk | 1 episode |
| 2002 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Forensic Gynecologist | 1 episode |
| 2003 | Comic Remix | Herself | 1 episode |
| 2003 | The Gynecologists | Mrs. LeBlanc | Short |
| 2004 | Ed | Judge Fisher | 1 episode |
| 2005 | Here! Family | | 1 episode |
| 2007–2008 | Super Normal | The Roving Eye / Madam Midterm / Granny | 15 episodes |
| 2008–2013 | World's Dumbest | Herself | 114 episodes |
| 2009 | Ugly Betty | Joan | 1 episode |
| 2011 | The Glades | Rebecca Thornquist | 1 episode |
| 2012 | 30 Rock | Judy Gold | 1 episode |
| 2013 | The Big C | Rabbi | 1 episode |
| 2013 | 2 Broke Girls | Jerri | 1 episode |
| 2014 | Melissa and Joey | Janey | 2 episodes |
| 2014 | Teachers Lounge | Gym Teacher | 1 episode |
| 2015 | Louie | Marina | 1 episode |
| 2015 | The Jim Gaffigan Show | Judy Gold | 1 episode |
| 2016 | Broad City | Angela | 1 episode |
| 2016 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Judy | 1 episode |
| 2016 | Crisis in Six Scenes | Phonebooth Woman | 1 episode |
| 2016 | Search Party | Paulette Capuzzi | 2 episodes |
| 2016 | What's Your F#@king Deal?! | Herself | Post-Production |
| 2017 | Nightcap | Deb Hafner | 5 episodes |
| 2018 | Murphy Brown | ICE Agent Lynch | 1 episode |
| 2020–2022 | Better Things | Chaya | 5 episodes |
| 2021; 2023 | Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens | The Librarian | 2 episodes |
| 2022 | Girls5eva | Dr. Madden | 1 episode |
| 2025 | ’’Hell’s Kitchen’’ | Herself | 1 episode |

### Web

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2013 | Real Actors Read Yelp | Herself | 1 episode, streaming on YouTube |
| 2015 | Ambience | Estelle | 1 episode, streaming online |
| 2023 | Around the Sun (audio drama) | Paula | 3 episodes |