Joy Behar

Joy Behar Profile

One of the two founding co-hosts of The View, alongside Barbara Walters, and winner of a Daytime Emmy, Joy Behar is well established as one of the funniest women in America today. Equally at home performing stand-up or interviewing politicians, she brings a wealth of life experience and a wry view of the modern world to everything she does.

Ms. Behar hosts her own show on HLN, The Joy Behar Show, interviewing guests who are in the news and debating the issues of the day, from pop to politics. She has appeared on her own HBO special and made numerous other TV appearances, including as a regular on the series Baby Boom as well as on Dr.Katz, Real Time with Bill Maher, Last Comic Standing, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Cathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She has also been a judge for the Miss America Pageant.

Ms. Behar has also brought her comic talents to bear on radio, hosting a popular call-in radio show on WABC, in addition to appearing in a number of films. These have included This Is My Life, working with Nora Ephron, and Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery. She enjoyed considerable success in the off-Broadway theatre hit The Food Chain and in The Vagina Monologues.

Amongst the many awards with which her work has been acknowledged, Ms. Behar has received the “Excellence in Media Award” from GLAAD, an award for media professionals who have raised the profile, and helped promote understanding, of the LGBT community. When working on The View she won a Daytime Emmy for outstanding talkshow host. She has also been honored with the Real Beauty Award from AWRT and Dove, the Safe Horizon Champion Award, the Gracie Allen Tribute Award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television and the Special Advocate Award from the New York City Public Advocate for outstanding friendship to the Gay community.

In stand-up, Ms. Behar has sold out the Lincoln Centre during the New York Comedy Festival and achieved the same audiences at the Zipper Theatre with her one-woman show Bitchin’ with Behar. She has published two New York Times bestselling children’s books, Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog and Sheetzucacapoopoo: Max Goes to the Dogs. Another bestseller came with Joy Shtick: or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments?

• View Extended/Alternate Bio

  Daytime Emmy^® Award-winner Joy Behar, one of the two original co-hosts of ABC’s The View, along with Barbara Walters, is among today’s leading comic talents. Whether performing standup comedy or interviewing politicians and artists, she is a comedic original and a leading woman both on stage and screen.

  During her presentations, Joy talks about her career from high school teacher to television host, juggling family and work, current events, etc. She can incorporate and customize some material appropriate to the audience. Joy is always entertaining and engaging!

  Armed with an MA in English education from SUNY at Stony Brook, Ms. Behar originally began a career in teaching. She then set out to pursue comedy professionally and immediately received bookings from such famous New York clubs as Caroline’s and Catch a Rising Star. She went on to win three MAC Awards and a CableACE Award.

  On television Ms. Behar is host of The Joy Behar Show on HLN which features newsworthy guests and examines today’s water cooler issues, from pop culture to politics and everything in between. The show, which premiered in 2009, received its first GLAAD Media Award nomination for “Outstanding Talk Show Episode” with Ms. Behar interviewing Academy Award^®-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. She headlined her own HBO special and was a regular on the series Baby Boom. Some of her television appearances include the voice of a hilariously neurotic patient on Dr. Katz, which won the CableACE Award, Real Time with Bill Maher, Last Comic Standing, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 2011, Ms. Behar served as a judge for the 90th annual “Miss America Pageant.”

  For three years Ms. Behar hosted a popular call-in radio show on WABC, where she discussed politics with a deadly humorous bent. Her film appearances include Hall Pass, directed by the Farrelly Brothers, Cookie, with Peter Falk, This Is My Life, directed by Nora Ephron, Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery, a cameo in Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail. In theater she had a successful run in the off-Broadway hit The Food Chain, earning rave reviews in the starring role, and also in the critically-acclaimed The Vagina Monologues.

  In September 2010, she was featured as a stand out “Topical Talker” in the Variety Women’s Impact Report. Ms. Behar received GLAAD’s “Excellence in Media Award” presented to media professionals who have increased the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. She took home her first Daytime Emmy^® Award as Outstanding Talk Show Host for The View. This historic win was the first time in NATAS’ 36-year history that multiple talk show hosts received this honor. She is the recipient of the Real Beauty Award from AWRT and Dove, the Safe Horizon Champion Award, the Gracie Allen Tribute Award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television, and the New York City Public Advocate’s Special Advocate Award for her outstanding friendship to the Gay community. Ms. Behar was chosen by TV Guide as a “Personality of the Year” nominee for the Third Annual TV Guide Awards.

  Ms. Behar performed to a sold out crowd at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center as part of the annual New York Comedy Festival and, most recently, during her one woman show Bitchin’ with Behar at New York’s Zipper Theater.

  Ms. Behar’s second children’s book, Sheetzucacapoopoo: Max Goes to the Dogs (Dutton Juvenile), is the follow-up to her New York Times bestseller Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog (Dutton Juvenile). She is also the author of The New York Times bestseller Joy Shtick: or What Is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments? (Hyperion).