American comedian, producer and actress Jessica Kirson was BOTD in 1969. Born in South Orange, New Jersey to a middle-class Jewish family, her mother was a therapist who treated patients in their family home. She studied social work at the University of Maryland and New York University, intending to follow in her mother’s footsteps, instead following her stepbrother Zach Braff into show-business. She became a stand-up comedian, performing the Gotham Comedy Club, Laugh Factory and other venues in New York City, drawing on her Jewish upbringing, struggles with eating disorders and substance abuse and identity as a miserable 1990s lesbian, and becoming well-known for her no-holds-barred crowd work. After rose to wider public attention with appearances on US talk shows The Tonight Show, The View and The Howard Stern Show, and appearing in the 2014 comedy film School Dance. She also co-wrote, produced and appeared in the 2016 film The Comedian starring Robert De Niro, and appeared in the TV comedy series Crashing. An early adopter of social media platforms Instagram and TikTok to promote her comedy, she produced and starred in her own TV special, Talking to Myself, in 2020, and the podcast The Call Girls with fellow comic Rachel Feinstein. Kirson married long-term partner Danielle Sweeney in 2015, with whom she has four children, announcing their separation in 2025.