Chelsea Handler

**Chelsea Joy Handler** (born February 25, 1975) is an American stand-up comedienne, humorist, television host, actress, and best-selling author. She hosted the late-night talk show *Chelsea Lately* on the E! Cable Television Network from 2007 to 2015, and released a documentary series, *Chelsea Does*, on Netflix in January 2016. Between 2016 and 2017, Handler hosted the talk show, Chelsea, on Netflix. In 2009, she won a Bravo A-List Award.

## Biography

### Early life

Handler was born in the suburban town of Livingston, New Jersey to Melvin and Sylvia Handler. The youngest of six children, she was raised Jewish by her Mormon mother and Jewish father. Handler has said that while growing up, she felt like an outsider, telling a reporter, "We lived in this nice Jewish neighborhood...Everyone had Mercedes and Jaguars, and I was going to school in a Pinto.”

Her mother died of cancer.

### Performances

Handler has performed nationwide as a stand-up comedian, appeared as a regular on the Oxygen Network series *Girls Behaving Badly* and on other shows, including *Weekends at the D.L.*, *The Bernie Mac Show* and *The Practice*. She is a regular commentator on E! and *Scarborough Country* as well as a correspondent on *The Tonight Show*. She hosted the first episode of the reality TV show *On the Lot*, but quit before the second one was aired, as she later said, "because I smelled the disaster happening before it did." Chelsea Handler hosted "The Chelsea Handler Show" in April 2006, which lasted two seasons. She was a guest on *Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld* and *The View*; she co-hosted *The View* on August 2, 2007, and again on September 5, 2008 — and hosts her own late night talk show on E! titled *Chelsea Lately*. On January 25, 2009, Handler was on the CBS gameshow *Million Dollar Password* as one of the celebrity players. On April 15, 2009, Handler won the 2009 Bravo A-List Award for "A-List Funny".

### Books

Handler has authored two books on the New York Times Best Seller List. Handler wrote *My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands* (ISBN 1582346186 ) as her memoir. Handler also wrote *Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea* (ISBN 0061173398), a collection of humorous essays. *Are You There, Vodka* hit the NYTimes non-fiction best seller list on May 11, 2008; it has already had a print run of over 350,000. She is currently penning her third book titled Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, which is set for release in March of 2010.

### *Comedy Central's Hour Stand-Up Comedy* Tour

In 2007, Handler performed with the Hour Stand-Up Comedy Tour across the U.S.. Her stand-up has been televised on Vh1's Love Lounge, Comedy Central's *Premium Blend*, and HBO's broadcast of the *Aspen Comedy Festival*. Chelsea Handler was the host of the Fox show "On The Lot." The show, produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, is a competition for aspiring filmmakers who are vying for a chance at stardom. She was replaced after one episode by former Robin & Company entertainment anchor, Adrianna Costa.

### *Chelsea Lately*

In July 2007, Handler began starring on her own half-hour late-night comedy series on E! titled *Chelsea Lately*. This series places Handler against a slew of male-dominated talk shows, and adding a considerable amount of sarcasm and ridicule to the format. On the show's 100th episode, Chelsea revealed to viewers that E! had picked up *Chelsea Lately* for another 150 episodes. The show has proved a hit and averaged more than a half-million viewers since its premiere (much more than the average for a late night cable program) and has clips on Youtube with more than a million views. All this success is despite the fact that Handler's guests often are not A-list celebrities. In a 2008 interview Handler said, "The worse the guests are, the more pathetic they are, the funnier the show is.” The *New York Times* reported that *Chelsea Lately* has been renewed by E! to run until December 2009; Handler received another contract extension in March 2009 to keep *Chelsea Lately* on the air through 2012.

### *In the Motherhood*

Since 2007, Handler has appeared in the Internet based program *In the Motherhood* with Leah Remini and (since January 2008) Jenny McCarthy. The comedic series is "about moms, by moms and for moms". On September 8, 2008, it was announced ABC would be turning *In the Motherhood* into a series starring Jessica St. Clair, Megan Mullally, and Cheryl Hines. Handler decided to drop out of the project due to her scheduling commitments to her show *Chelsea Lately*.

### Personal life

In 2006, a leaked sex tape of Handler was being offered for sale. After news of it became public, Handler said on *Chelsea Lately* the tape "was made as a joke" more than 10 years earlier, adding, "I put it on an audition tape for a comedy club, because I'm a comedienne, and I've been showing it at birthday parties for fucking years."

The same year, Chelsea confirmed she was dating Ted Harbert, who, as the CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group, oversees E! Entertainment Television.  On January 25, 2010, Handler confirmed, via her late-night talk show, that she had broken up with Harbert.

On the January 29, 2008, episode of *Chelsea Lately*, she claimed that she was asked to do season six of the hit television series *Dancing with the Stars* but declined.

On October 3, 2013, she confirmed her breakup with her boyfriend hotelier Andre Balazs on her talk show *Chelsea Lately*, after the couple had dated on and off for two years.

Chelsea was ranked #91 on the 2009 *Maxim* Hot 100. Handler is also real life best friends with her assistant Chuy Bravo and good friends with actresses Jennie Garth, Jenny McCarthy and also fellow Chelsea Lately comedians Sarah Colonna and Heather McDonald.

## References

1. ↑ Thank God You're Here Guest Bio: Chelsea Handler. NBC. Retrieved on 2008-08-01.
2. ↑ Ari Karpel (2008-07-11). Too hot to Handler. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-08-01. “The 33-year-old comedian and author...”
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Len Righi (2007-11-01). Chelsea Handler and the responsibility of ridiculing Britney. Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2009-01-03.
4. ↑ Jacob Bernstein (December 2008). Chelsea Handler, Insult Queen. W magazine. Retrieved on 2008-11-19.
5. ↑ Summer Press Tour: Posh Beckham, Chelsea Handler. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2007-07-16). Retrieved on 2009-01-03.
6. ↑ Best-Sellers Non-Fiction. New York Times. May 11 2008]
7. ↑ Carolyn Reidy looks for the next blockbuster. LA Times. Josh Getlin. June 25 2008.
8. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/arts/television/18stel.html?\_r=1&scp=1&sq=chelsea%20handler&st=cse
9. ↑ Chelsea Handler:Too Hot to Handle? ABC
10. ↑ Jacob Bernstein (December 2008). Chelsea Handler, Insult Queen. W magazine. Retrieved on 2008-11-19.
11. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/arts/television/18stel.html?\_r=1&scp=1&sq=chelsea%20handler&st=cse
12. ↑ Chelsea Handler Extends Talk Show Through 2012 Yahoo News, March 23, 2009
13. ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content\_display/news/e3id9a975e26c8545c5a46ec14f6b72102d
14. ↑ http://www.inthemotherhood.com/node/185
15. ↑ Chelsea Handler Sex Tape Sale Stopped. RadarOnline.com (October 18, 2010). Retrieved on June 5, 2012.
16. ↑ Edward Lewine (2007-12-16). Domains: Chelsea Handler. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
17. ↑ Karpel, Ari (July 11, 2008). Too hot to Handler *Entertainment Weekly*..
18. ↑ Edward Lewine. "Domains: Chelsea Handler", December 16, 2007. Retrieved on December 15, 2007.
19. ↑ Chelsea Handler Confirms Split with Andre Balazs. People Magazine. Retrieved on November 30, 2018.

## External links

* Chelsea Handler at FamousFix
* "Chelsea Handler's "Note to Self" (video and article)", CBS News (cbs.news.com), January 37, 2016.
* Chelsea Handler article at *Wikipedia*