On February 25, 1975, Chelsea Handler was born in Livingston, NJ. Hilarious and brutally honest, Handler is a successful comedian, former late-night talk show host, bestselling author, and an outspoken activist. She recently ended her Netflix show to work alongside Emily’s List to campaign for candidates advocating for women’s rights and to get more women elected into public office.
Handler grew up the youngest of six to Rita, a homemaker, and Seymour, a used car dealer. When she became pregnant at 16, her parents brought her to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion. “Of course, the idea that I would have a child and raise it by myself at that age, when I couldn’t even find my way home at night, was ridiculous,” she wrote in an essay for Playboy. Handler became pregnant a second time that year and this time had to raise the money herself for an abortion. “Getting unintentionally pregnant more than once is irresponsible,” she said. “We all make mistakes all the time.”
When Handler was 19, she moved to Los Angeles to make it as an actress, working as a waitress to pay the bills. However, she had trouble breaking into Hollywood. It was after a drunk driving arrest when she found her niche in the entertainment world. Forced to take a DUI class, she had her classmates cracking up as she recounted her DUI arrest. That positive reception inspired her to launch what became a successful stand-up comedy act. With her bawdy and self-deprecating style, she spoke frankly, bordering on vulgarly, about her dating and partying experiences as a single woman.
In 2002, Handler landed her first TV role on the hidden-camera show, “Girls Behaving Badly.” Three years later, she published her first book, “My
Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands,” in which she brazenly recounted her real-life sexual exploits. Amusing and shocking readers with her tales, her debut book landed on the New York Times bestseller list. Her next four books, “Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea” (2008), “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang,” (2010), “Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me” (2011), and “Uganda Be Kidding Me” (2014), all became number one New York Times bestsellers.
After her 2006 E! show, “The Chelsea Handler Show,” she gained a larger audience as the first successful female late-night TV host on “Chelsea Lately” (2007-2014). As she skewered the latest celebrities and pop culture news, her show became a ratings success. Starting in 2016, she brought her talk show routine to Netflix with her show “Chelsea,” along with a series of docu-comedy specials where she and her friends put a comedic spin on newsworthy topics.
She recently ended her Netflix show to focus all her attention on political activism: “I’m taking the year to myself. I want to get women elected. I want to do important stuff.” Although she made a name for herself as a hard-drinking and irreverent comedian, Handler was moved by the 2016 election to take a more active role in the public sphere Lately, you’ll find Handler using her quick and cutting one-liners to critique politicians over poking fun at the latest celebrity gossip.