GUY BRANUM, born on this date, is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known as the head writer of, and a sketch performer on, X-Play on the G4 network and as a regular panelist on Chelsea Lately on the E! network. He used to host the podcast Pop Rocket on the Maximum Fun network and hosted TruTV’s Talk Show the Game Show.

Branum was born and raised in Yuba City, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley from 1994-1998 where he was a history and political science major. He wrote a column for the Daily Californian, one of which brought the United States Secret Service to his apartment in November 1997 before the Big Game between Berkeley and Stanford University, in which the Associated Press misquoted parts of his article, suggesting that he made suggestions that Berkeley students murder Stanford freshman Chelsea Clinton.

He then moved to Minnesota, where he attended the University of Minnesota Law School, and was on the school’s Quiz Bowl team that placed third at CBI nationals in 1999. During his time in law school, he publicly came out as gay. After graduating, he returned to California.

His book My Life As A Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture was published in 2018 with a foreword by Mindy Kaling. He is a frequent guest on the podcasts Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and Doug Loves Movies with Doug Benson, and is one of the featured comics inthe Netflix documentary Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution.

Branum released his first comedy album, Effable, in 2015 on Aspecialthing Records.