Chelsea Handler Biography

Chelsea Joy Handler (born February 25, 1975) is an American comedian, actress, author, talk show host and producer. She hosts a late-night talk show called Chelsea Lately, on E! Entertainment Television.

Early life

Handler was born in Livingston, New Jersey, the youngest of six children of Rita (née Stoecker) and Seymour Handler. Her American father is Jewish; her German-born mother, who came to the United States in 1958, was a Mormon. Handler was raised in Reform Judaism. Handler has said that while growing up, she felt like an outsider, and told a reporter, "We lived in this nice Jewish neighborhood...Everyone had Mercedes and Jaguars, and I was going to school in a Pinto." Despite this, her family had a summer house on Martha's Vineyard. In a June 2011 episode of her show, she and author James Van Praagh discussed the death of her brother, Chet, when she was nine years old. Handler had an abortion at age 16, which she discussed during an interview in 2011. At age 19, she moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career, and two years later, decided to become a stand-up comedian after telling her story about a DUI to a class of other offenders, who found it funny.

Career

Chelsea Lately

In July 2007, Handler began starring on her own half-hour, late-night comedy series on E! Entertainment Television titled Chelsea Lately. On the show's 100th episode, she revealed to viewers that the network had picked up Chelsea Lately for another 150 episodes. The show has proved to be a hit by averaging more than a half-million viewers since its premiere (much more than the average for a late night cable program) and having clips on YouTube with more than one million views. In a 2008 interview, Handler said, "The worse the guests are, the more pathetic they are, the funnier the show is." Handler's most recent contract extension will keep Chelsea Lately on the air through 2014. Chelsea Lately is broadcast daily on the E! Network in the US, UK, Australia, Germany and New Zealand.

After Lately

After Lately is a mockumentary in which the various cast members, writers, crew and even "hangers-on" of Chelsea Lately are shown bickering over trivial matters and competing for air time on the show. They also seek personal approval from Handler, who usually appears in very few scenes of the program, and is always portrayed as having open and utter disdain for everyone beneath her. After Lately began airing on E! Entertainment Television on March 6, 2011. Guest stars include: Reese Witherspoon (in seasons one and two), Jennifer Aniston, Jay Leno, Tori Spelling, Jenny McCarthy, Sharon Osbourne, Dave Grohl, Johnny Knoxville and Jane Fonda.

Books

Handler has authored four books on the New York Times Best Seller List, three of which have been number one. Her first book, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (2005), describes the variety of sexual encounters she went through throughout her life. Handler also wrote Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea (2008), a collection of humorous essays that hit the New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller List on May 11, 2008, with a print run of over 350,000. She went on a nationwide tour to promote her third book, titled Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, which was released on March 9, 2010.

On November 15, 2010, it was announced that Handler's publishers gave her her own publishing imprint (Borderline Amazing/A Chelsea Handler Book). She also signed a three-book deal with the imprint, the first of which is called Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me, where her coworkers and family members discuss what Handler has done, which was released in May 2011 and also hit number one.

Performances

Handler has performed nationwide as a comedian and appeared as a regular on the Oxygen Network series Girls Behaving Badly, as well as on other shows like Weekends at the D.L., The Bernie Mac Show, My Wife and Kids, and The Practice. She is a regular commentator on E! and Scarborough Country, as well as a correspondent on The Tonight Show. She hosted the first episode of the reality TV show On the Lot, but quit before the second one was aired, saying later, "Because I smelled the disaster happening before it did." The show, produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, is a competition for aspiring filmmakers who are vying for a chance at stardom. Handler was replaced by former Robin & Company entertainment anchor, Adrianna Costa. Handler also began hosting The Chelsea Handler Show in April 2006, which lasted two seasons. She was a guest on Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld and The View, and she co-hosted The View on August 2, 2007, and again on September 5, 2008. On January 25, 2009, Handler was on the CBS gameshow Million Dollar Password as one of the celebrity players.

On August 18, 2010, it was announced that Handler would be the host of the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. The announcement was surprising to many, including MTV representatives, who claimed that the final decision was unexpected. This makes Handler only the second woman in the history of the VMAs to be the sole host of the ceremony, behind Roseanne Barr, who hosted in 1994. The event took place at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on September 12, 2010.

In 2007, Handler performed with Comedy Central's Hour Stand-Up Comedy Tour across the United States. Her stand-up comedy has also been televised on VH1's Love Lounge, Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and HBO's broadcast of the Aspen Comedy Festival.

In the Motherhood

In 2007, Handler appeared in the Internet-based program In the Motherhood with Leah Remini and Jenny McCarthy (since January 2008). On September 8, 2008, it was announced that ABC would be turning In The Motherhood into a series starring Jessica St. Clair, Megan Mullally and Cheryl Hines. Handler decided to drop out of the project due to scheduling commitments to her show Chelsea Lately.

Are You There, Chelsea?

Are You There, Chelsea? is an NBC sitcom, based on Handler's 2008 best-selling book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, which aired from January 11 to March 28, 2012. On May 11, 2012, the network canceled it. Laura Prepon played the main character, "Chelsea Newman," a cocktail waitress while Handler portrayed "Chelsea's" born-again Christian sister, "Sloane," a married, conservative, new mom who had little in common with her carefree sister. Dottie Zicklin (of Dharma & Greg) and Julie Larson (of The Drew Carey Show) were creators and executive producers. Handler served as executive producer, along with Tom Werner (of That 70's Show), Mike Clements (of The Life & Times of Tim), and Tom Brunelle (of Chelsea Lately).

In popular culture

She was ranked number 91 in 2009, and number 87 in 2010 on the Maxim (magazine) Hot 100. In 2010, Chelsea Handler was ranked on the Forbes Celebrity 100 at number 98. In 2012, Time magazine placed her on the list of its 100 Most Influential People. On April 2009, she won the Bravo A-List Award for "A-List Funny." On July 2012, she received the Comedy Person of the Year award by Montreal's Just For Laughs comedy festival. She appeared on one of the two covers for the December 2009 edition of Playboy magazine. Inside the magazine, Handler posed for a non-nude pictorial. She was also featured on the cover of Shape magazine on April 2010, the Hollywood Reporter on June 2011, on Redbook?s March 2012 issue and on the cover of the September 2012 issue of Marie Claire. She has her own columns in Cosmopolitan and NOW, a UK celebrity magazine. On March 2009, Handler received the prestigious Ally for Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, recognizing "the outstanding efforts of those who dedicate time, energy, spirit and whole-hearted commitment to better the lives of LGBT people". On May 2009, she was the host of the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. On June 2009 she was named as Grand Marshal of the 2009 Los Angeles LGBT PRIDE Celebration "for her visible and vocal support of equality". On July 2010, during a tour stop in Salt Lake City, Chelsea took part in the 'I AM EQUAL' Photo Documentary project in memory of her mother, Rita, who died from complications of cancer. Along with her photo being added to the documentary and accompanying photo mosaic, she also shared a "Photo Story" with a message that inspires people to take chances in life. On March 2012, she has hosted the Human Rights Campaign Gala in Los Angeles, CA.

Personal life

In 2006, Handler began dating Ted Harbert, who oversaw E! Entertainment Television as the former CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group. On January 25, 2010, Handler confirmed, via her late-night talk show, that she had broken up with Harbert.

In 2010, a sex tape of Handler was reportedly being offered for sale. This tape was a copy of Handler's audition tape from the 1990s. Handler has stated she added the sex scenes to her audition tape to appear as if she had accidentally taped over her homemade sex tape, and has been showing the tape at parties "for years".

Filmography

Television and film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Spy TV	Unknown
2001	The Plotters	Ann
2002	The Practice	Callie Fairbanks
2002	My Wife and Kids	Nurse Amy
2004	The Bernie Mac Show	Doris Flynt	TV series
2004	Girls Behaving Badly	Various	TV series
2005	Totally High
2006	National Lampoon Presents Cattle Call	Nikita
2006	Reno 911!	Pinky	TV series
2007	Steam	Jacky
2007	In the Motherhood	Heather	Webseries
2011	Hop	Mrs. Beck
2011	Whitney	Dr. Price	TV series
2012	This Means War	Trish
2012	Are You There, Chelsea?	Sloane	TV series
2012	Fun Size	Joy DeSantis
2013	Call Me Crazy: A Five Film	Chelsea	A Lifetime Original Movie
2014	The Familymoon		Filming

Herself

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Weekends at the D.L.	Herself
2006	The Chelsea Handler Show	Host	Talk show
2007	Comedy Central Presents	Herself	Standup
2007"present	Chelsea Lately	Host	Talk show
2009	The Good Wife	Herself	TV series
2011"present	After Lately	Herself	Reality show
2013	Who Do You Think You Are?	Herself	Documentary series

Published works

• My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (2005)
• Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea (2008)
• Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (2010)
• Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me (2011)