Natalie Palamides (born January 6, 1990) is an American actress, comedian and writer.

Early life

As a young child living outside

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Palamides made comedic

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

s in her backyard. She would do bits in the corridors at school.

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

productions and the ''

Austin Powers ''Austin Powers'' is a series of American spy action comedy films: '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' (1997), '' Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' (1999) and ''Austin Powers in Goldmember'' (2002). The films were produced an ...

'' movie series were early influences. Studying at the

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public research university in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As of fall 2021, the university enrolled 7,044 undergraduates and 1,865 postgraduates, for a total enrollment of 9,009 students. The univ ...

, Palamides was inspired by the European

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

tradition that her theater professor introduced her to. During college, Palamides performed group improvisation with the

Pig Iron Theatre Company Pig Iron Theatre Company is a multidisciplinary ensemble based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company has created over 40 original works over the past 26 years, performed both locally and internationally. Their individual works have been insp ...

Career

Aspiring to work at ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'', Palamides moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and joined the

Upright Citizens Brigade The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, Ri ...

after college. She began voice-over and commercial work. She also took classes on clown performance at the Idiot Workshop and the Lyric Hyperion. Early sketches featured Palamides' characters: fantasizing about eating salad from a man's pants; complaining to the manager of sandwich shop Eggslut as an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

egg; and insisting on being literally objectified. Through her classes, variety shows and

open mic An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, usually taking place at night, in which audience members may perform on stage whether the ...

shows, she began developing longer-form performance from improvisations in unusual outfits. With Dr. Brown from the Lyric, Palamides adapted her early egg character into an hour-long show, ''Laid''. Palamides developed the exaggeratedly masculine character Nate, from her work with the Pig Iron Theatre Company, into an hour-long performance, ''

Nate – A One Man Show ''Nate – A One Man Show'' is a performance by American comedian Natalie Palamides, which explores consent through the male character Nate. Through audience participation, Nate challenges his ex-girlfriend's new partner to wrestling, and goes on ...

''. Members of the audience participate, such as by wrestling Nate, with audience consent and sexual consent as themes. After winning the

Total Theatre Award Total Theatre Awards were first presented in 1997 and are given annually at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to companies excelling in devised theatre, live art, visual performance, mime, puppetry, physical theatre, experimental theatre, dance, clo ...

at the 2018

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, it was commissioned by

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 ...

's production company Paper Kite and released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

on December 1, 2020. Critics widely acclaimed ''Nate'' for its provocative performance, regarding it as an innovative break with "Netflix's mainstream comedy brand." Palamides starred as Buttercup in the 2016 ''

Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic T ...

'' animated television series. She won Best Newcomer at the

Edinburgh Comedy Awards The Dave (TV channel), Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival ...

in 2017. Palamides plays the character "Mara" in TV commercials for

Progressive Insurance The Progressive Corporation is an American insurance company, the third largest insurance carrier and the No. 1 commercial auto insurer in the United States. The company was co-founded in 1937 by Jack Green and Joseph M. Lewis, and is headquar ...

."Natalie Palamides TV Commercial Ads"
''iSpot.tv'' She also co-hosts the Disney-themed podcast ''Hidden Mickeys'' alongside

Carrie Poppy ''Oh No, Ross and Carrie!'' is an investigative journalism podcast produced in Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the s ...

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palamides, Natalie 1990 births Living people 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers American sketch comedians American television actresses American voice actresses American women comedians Place of birth missing (living people)