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.[2] Gold hosts the podcast It's Judy's Show with Judy Gold.[3] Her collection of essays, "Yes I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble," was published in 2020.[4] In 2023, she turned her book into a solo show, "Yes, I Can Say That!"[5] directed by BD Wong.
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 Universit y.[6] Gold moved to Manhattan, New York from New Jersey in 1984.
Stand-Up
Gold started stand-up when she was nineteen years old; she did her first set at Rutgers in 1981.[7] She was passed at Catch a Rising Star in 1985, and has been a regular at the Comedy Cellar since the 1980s.[8]
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.[11]
From 1999-2010, Gold hosted HBO's At the Multiplex with Judy Gold. She appears as a commentator on 2007 truTV's World's Dumbest....[citation needed]
Gold is the author of Yes I Can Say That: When They Come For The Comedians, We Are All In Trouble (2020, HarperCollins; ISBN9780062953773), a book about free speech and cancel-culture which was featured in The New York Times Book Review.
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.[12] Their stories are interspersed with anecdotes about her own mother and her life as a lesbian mother of two sons.[13] 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."[14] The New York Post called the show "gleefully self-deprecating".[15] The show subsequently opened in Los Angeles June 18, 2013, and had a one-month run at the Geffen Playhouse.[16]
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.[19] She met her current partner, Elysa Halpern, on a blind date set up by Time Out New York in 2007.[20] Gold is very active in both the LGBT and Jewish communities.[21] She was active in support of the 2004 and 2008 Democratic presidential campaigns.[22] Gold serves on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition Against Censorship.
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