American humorist and writer David Sedaris was BOTD in 1956. Born in New York City to a Greek-American family, he was raised in North Carolina. He moved to Chicago in the 1980s, attempting unsuccessfully to become a performance artist, while having more success as a drug addict. Discovered in a comedy club in 1977, he was invited to perform a regular comedy slot on radio show The Wild Room. His big break came with the 1992 National Public Radio broadcast of Santaland Diaries, his hysterical account of working as a Christmas elf at Macy’s department store. He had further success with his essay collections Barrel Fever, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls and Calypso, focusing on his eccentric family members, sexuality, drug use, obsessive behaviours and acerbic observations of daily life. His diaries were published in two volumes between 2017 and 2021, providing a fascinating, world-weary account of gay life before it was fashionable, and what he describes as “the tyranny of beauty over intelligence”. A regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine, many of his anecdotes feature his long-term partner Hugh Hamrick and his actress-comedian sister Amy, In recent years, he has written about his mother’s alcoholism, the troubled life and suicide of his youngest sister Tiffany, and the death of his father. His most recent essay collection, Happy-Go-Lucky, was published in 2022. Sedaris and Hanrick live in Sussex in the south of England, where he is famous for collecting litter from roadsides.