JUDY GOLD, born on this date, is an American stand-up comedian, actress, podcaster, television writer, author and producer. She won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work as a writer and producer on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.

She was born in Newark, New Jersey. She first did stand-up on a dare when she was a music student at Rutgers University. She is a lesbian who shared a relationship with Sharon Callahan, her former partner, for almost 20 years. She has two children (Henry and Ben), facts she frequently referenced on the show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Gold is very active in both LGBT and Jewish communities. She was active in support of the 2004 and 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. In an interview with Marc Maron, Gold revealed her comedic influences to be Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and Totie Fields.

Her 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 in October 2006, at St. Luke’s Theater.

In June 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 is 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 in July 2011, to positive reviews. 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 in June 2013, and had a one-month run at the Geffen Playhouse.

Judy Gold began the Kill Me Now with Judy Gold podcast in 2015, and is featured in the Netflix documentary Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution.