Ilana Glazer (born April 12, 1987) is an American comedian, director, producer, writer, and actress. She co-created and co-starred, with

Abbi Jacobson Abbi Jacobson is an American comedian, writer, actress, illustrator and producer. She co-created and co-starred in the Comedy Central series ''Broad City'' (2014–2019) with Ilana Glazer, based on the web series of the same name. Her ...

, in the

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

series ''

Broad City ''Broad City'' is an American television sitcom created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It was developed from their independent web series of the same name, which was produced between 2009 and 2011. The sitcom, like the web series ...

'', which is based on the

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

of the same name. She was twice nominated for the

Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series The Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series is one of the award categories presented annually by the Critics' Choice Television Awards (BTJA) to recognize the work done by television actresses. It was introduced in 20 ...

for the series. Glazer also starred in the 2017 film ''

Rough Night ''Rough Night'' (released in some countries as ''Girls' Night Out'') is a 2017 American black comedy film directed by Lucia Aniello (in her feature debut) and written by Aniello and Paul W. Downs. It stars Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, J ...

'' and released her debut stand-up comedy special, ''The Planet Is Burning'', in January 2020. In 2022, she won the

Tony Award for Best Musical The Tony Award for Best Musical is given annually to the best new Broadway musical play, musical, as determined by Tony Award voters. The award is one of the ceremony's longest-standing awards, having been presented each year since 1949. The awa ...

for serving as a producer for the Broadway show ''

A Strange Loop ''A Strange Loop'' is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, and winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. First produced off-Broadway in 2019, then staged in Washington, D.C. in 2021, ''A Strange Loop'' premiered on Bro ...

''.

Early life

Glazer, born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York, is the daughter of Sandi and Larry Glazer, who both work in insurance and finance. She grew up in a

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

family in St. James, New York, on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

and is of

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

descent. Her brother, Eliot Glazer, is a producer, writer and actor with whom she has worked on shows like '' The Boys Presents: Diabolical'' and ''Broad City'' where he plays her brother. Glazer graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 2009, majoring in psychology.

Career

Early work

Glazer began taking classes at the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American improvisational theatre company and training center founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. Prior t ...

in 2006, and performed around New York City doing improv and stand-up for the next several years.

''Broad City''

Development

In 2009, along with co-creator

, Glazer began shooting ''

'', a web series starring the two as fictionalized versions of themselves. The series was nominated for an

ECNY Award The ECNY Awards (formerly the Emerging Comics of New York Awards) were created by Derrick Gordon to honor rising stars in the New York Comedy world in various genres, including sketch, stand up, improv, musical comedy acts, and video. The awar ...

for 'Best Web Series' and was positively received, garnering attention from major media outlets such as ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'', ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. The series caught the attention of

Amy Poehler Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy trou ...

, who subsequently met with Glazer and Jacobson to help them shop a pilot script based on the series. Poehler also agreed to star in the web series finale. Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer at Internet Week 06

Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer at Internet Week 06

In 2011,

cable network Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, op ...

FX, working with Poehler as the producer, purchased a script commitment for the series from Glazer and Jacobson. However, the network did not approve the script and decided not to proceed with development. Glazer and Jacobson then approached

, who agreed to purchase the script from FX and order a pilot. From 2012 to 2014, Glazer co-created the web series ''Chronic Gamer Girl'' with Alex Charak.

Reception and renewal

'' made its broadcast television premiere in January 2014 and was received with positive reviews and strong ratings, becoming Comedy Central's highest-rated first season since 2012 among the younger demographics, including adults 18–34, with an average of 1.2 million viewers. The show has received critical acclaim from fans and critics alike. Review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

noted season 1 received "generally favorable reviews", giving it a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics. In February 2014, Comedy Central renewed the show for a second season. Season 2 received positive reviews, with Metacritic giving it a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In January 2015, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on February 17, 2016. In January 2016, the series was renewed for a fourth and a final fifth season, which premiered on January 24, 2019.

Film

Glazer starred in the 2013 independent feature film ''How to Follow Strangers''. The film won top prize at the Lower East Side Film Festival. She appears in the 2015 film '' The Night Before''. Glazer starred alongside

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...

and

Kate McKinnon Kate McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for her character work and celebrity impressions on the sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (2012–2022), of which she was a cas ...

in the 2017 comedy ''

''. Glazer stars in the horror film ''

False Positive A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test result ...

'', released on Hulu on June 25, 2021.

Other

Glazer's debut stand-up special ''The Planet Is Burning'' premiered on Amazon Prime in January 2020. It was directed by Ryan Cunningham and Glazer served as an executive producer. In 2022, Glazer was in the main cast of the

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

mystery comedy series '' The Afterparty''.

Activism

Glazer founded the campaign platform Generator Collective in 2016 with Glennis Meagher. The platform promotes female election candidates and general participation in democracy and political discussion.

Personal life

Glazer was once roommates with comedian

Rachel Bloom Rachel Leah Bloom (born April 3, 1987) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She is best known for co-creating and starring as Rebecca Bunch in The CW musical comedy-drama series ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' (2015– ...

after college in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. In February 2017, Glazer married her longtime boyfriend,

computational biologist Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

David Rooklin, in a private ceremony. Glazer is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

and has credited her work on ''Broad City'' with helping her understand her sexuality. On March 17, 2021, Glazer announced on social media and in a magazine photo shoot that she and Rooklin were expecting a child together. Their first child, a daughter, was born in July 2021.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * from circa February 2010 onward * {{DEFAULTSORT:Glazer, Ilana 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American comedians American stand-up comedians American women comedians American women television writers American television actresses Jewish American actresses Jewish American female comedians Upright Citizens Brigade Theater performers People from St. James, New York New York University alumni 1987 births Living people 21st-century American screenwriters LGBT comedians American LGBT actors LGBT television directors LGBT screenwriters LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT producers American queer actresses Queer women American feminists 21st-century American Jews Tony Award winners Jewish American television producers