During quarantine she did a full tour of drive-in stand-up shows, refined a new hour of material, launched an online cooking show with her husband and secured a book deal.
In 2008, she became the youngest person ever to win NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” Since then she’s written a book, hosted five Netflix stand-up specials, a Freeform late-night talk show and created and starred in a sketch series in addition to regularly touring.
She also auditions constantly and despite a few breaks in films like “Instant Family,” “Spenser Confidential” and “Pieces of a Woman,” is no stranger to rejection.
So she didn’t take it for granted when she clicked with a producer who wanted to make “Good on Paper,” which is her first produced screenplay and first leading role in a film.
She realized he’d been lying about everything from day one, from his college to his job on down.
“It was cathartic, you know? It was a way to make something funny out of something truly horrific,” she said.
In 2018 she met producer Paul Bernon and much to her surprise, when he said he wanted to make the movie, he meant it.
We have a guy who plays the director in the movie who is an actor who is also is my favorite bartender at our favorite restaurant in L.A.
And on set she took her role as the top person on the call sheet seriously, wanting to make a happy, fun work environment for everyone.
Everything I do, I do with the intention of opening a door to get to do bigger and better things on my own creative terms,” she said.