Andy Lassner (born December 30, 1966) is an American television producer. He was the executive producer of '' The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' from its inception in 2003 to the final episode in 2022. Lassner was featured in many segments in the show. His career as a producer began in the mid 1990s, including '' The Jane Whitney Show'', ''

The Richard Bey Show ''The Richard Bey Show'' is a syndicated American talk show hosted by Richard Bey which aired from September 28, 1992 to December 27, 1996. The program was originally produced from and aired on WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey, from 1992 to late 1 ...

'', ''The List'', and '' The Rosie O'Donnell Show''. Lassner has won 18 Daytime Emmy Awards. He is currently the executive producer of '' The Jennifer Hudson Show''.

Early life

Andy Lassner was born to Orthodox Jewish parents in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. His mother, Danièle G. Lassner, was a foreign language expert. His father, Jules Lassner, was a captain in the United States Marine Corps. Jules was born in New York City to Ukrainian Jewish parents. His parents moved to Bogotá after their marriage for his father's job at Seagram. They lived there for nine years during which they founded a Talmud Torah Hebrew school, shtiebel'','' before returning to New York. Lassner was raised in New York City and was a New York Rangers fan. He has one brother.

Career

Lassner started his career in the mid-1990s as a line producer for '' The Jane Whitney Show''. In the boom of talk shows in the 1990s, he later produced ''

'' as well as '' The Carnie Wilson Show''. In 2001, Lassner was the co-executive producer of ''The List''. He began working at ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' in 2002. Andy began working at ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' in 2003. He is the main role in the segment ''Average Andy'' where he plays an average person contrasting with experts in their fields. Another recurring segment features host Ellen DeGeneres sending Lassner with a celebrity to haunted houses every Halloween; this is due to his being easily frightened. He also served as an executive producer on '' Ellen's Game of Games'' and '' Family Game Fight!''.

Personal life

Lassner is married to Lorie and has three children. He has a daughter and twin sons who were born in 2006. They reside in Los Angeles. Lassner is Jewish and is a fan of the Los Angeles Kings, where he has season tickets. He is friends with Anže Kopitar, hosting him on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' to raise donations for Breast cancer awareness month. He supports

gay rights in the US Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT) rights in the United States are among the most socially, culturally, and legally permissive and advanced in the world, with public opinion and jurisprudence on the issue changing significantl ...

. In 2017, Lassner was critical of Donald Trump's "America First" policy. Lassner has struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction in his past. He became

sober In cryptography, SOBER is a family of stream ciphers initially designed by Greg Rose of QUALCOMM Australia starting in 1997. The name is a contrived acronym for ''S''eventeen ''O''ctet ''B''yte ''E''nabled ''R''egister. Initially the cipher wa ...

for six years, until, while working on ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'', he took home a case of free Listerine (which has a high alcohol content) and began drinking it to get drunk. He soon relapsed into other forms of addiction. He entered rehab a number of times in 1999 and has been clean ever since.

Awards

Lassner has won 18 Daytime Emmy Awards for ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lassner, Andy Living people 1966 births American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Colombian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Colombian people of American descent Daytime Emmy Award winners Television producers from California Television producers from New York City People from Bogotá Colombian Jews Colombian television producers