Sara Benincasa is an American comedian and author.

Biography

Benincasa has a degree in creative writing from

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

. She has an M.A. in Secondary School Education from

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

. After graduation, Benincasa taught with

AmeriCorps AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work prog ...

in Texas. Benincasa was a citizen journalist for

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

covering the

2008 United States presidential election The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from ...

as part of MTV's 2008 Emmy Award-winning Think campaign. Sara Benincasa 2007

Benincasa was featured on

Nerve.com ''Nerve'' or Nerve.com, was an American online magazine dedicated to sexual topics, relationships and culture. Founded by Rufus Griscom and Genevieve Field, Nerve published articles and photography on its website and several books, in partnership w ...

's BlogALog as a comedic blogger. Her last post on the SJ1000 blog was April 1, 2008, in which she suggested that followers missing her Internet presence go to her official website, her Myspace page, her MTV Think profile, or her blog. Along with her blog, Benincasa filmed a series of interviews titled ''Tub Talk with Sara B''. The series featured Benincasa in a bathtub with various comedic personalities, including

Reggie Watts Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinf ...

Jonathan Ames Jonathan Ames (; born March 23, 1964) is an American author who has written a number of novels and comic memoirs, and is the creator of two television series, ''Bored to Death'' (HBO) and ''Blunt Talk'' (STARZ). In the late '90s and early 2000s, ...

, and

Andy Borowitz Andy Borowitz (born January 4, 1958) is an American writer, comedian, satirist, and actor. Borowitz is a ''The New York Times''-bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is known for creating the NBC sitcom ''Th ...

. Benincasa has since revamped the web series on her YouTube account as ''Gettin' Wet with Sara Benincasa''. Interviewees include Margaret Cho,

Donald Glover Donald McKinley Glover Jr. (; born September 25, 1983), also known by his stage name Childish Gambino (), is an American entertainer, writer, director, and producer. After working in Derrick Comedy while studying at New York University, Glove ...

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

Amanda Palmer Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer (born April 30, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and performance artist who is the lead vocalist, pianist, and lyricist of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She performs as a solo artist and was also a ...

, and James Urbaniak. She has also contributed to the web site Jezebel. In September 2008, Benincasa began producing a

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...

in which she parodies the role of Republican vice-presidential candidate

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...

. She is particularly attentive to Palin's Midwestern accent. These vlogs were uploaded to Benincasa's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

profile until a partnership with

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

's humor site

23/6 ''Comedy 23/6'' was a satirical news and opinion website developed by ''HuffPost'', launched on November 9, 2007. Published by Arianna Huffington and edited by former ''The Daily Show'' writer Jason Reich, the site featured daily news coverage, ...

was established, and the vlogs were moved to the ''twentythreesix'' YouTube page. In 2009, Benincasa developed a one-woman show about her experiences with

agoraphobia Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can in ...

and panic attacks. She has since sold the literary rights to ''Agorafabulous!'' to William Morrow, a division of

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. Benincasa co-hosted the

Cosmo Radio Cosmo Radio was a channel on Sirius XM Radio. The station launched on March 14, 2006 as a collaboration between SIRIUS Satellite Radio and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine. The programs featured everything that ''Cosmopolitan'' offered like advice on se ...

sex/relationship talk show ''Get in Bed'' on

Sirius XM Satellite Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius ...

until September 2010. She next started a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

with Marcus Parks, called "Sex and Other Human Activities", which features a sex questions segment (using questions sent via email and Formspring); this launched in February 2011. The episode which aired on September 19, 2012, entitled "End of an Era", is described as "Sara's final show on the old SAOHA". In January 2018 Benincasa offered $300 to any journalist who asked President Trump about America's relations with the fictitious African nation of Wakanda, the home of Marvel's

Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...

. Her

Afro-futurism Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocultu ...

tweet went

viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...

. On October 10, 2019 she was featured in a 30-minute YouTube documentary created by SoulPancake in collaboration with Funny or Die. A variety of comedians discuss mental health called ''Laughing Matters.''

Books

Fiction

* ''Great'', New York:: HarperTeen, 2014, * ''DC Trip'', Culver City, California: Adaptive Books, 2015, * ''Tim Kaine Is Your Nice Dad: A Work of Dad Fiction'', 2016

Nonfiction

* ''Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom'', New York: William Morrow, 2012, * ''Real Artists Have Day Jobs (And Other Awesome Things They Don't Teach You In School)'', New York: William Morrow, 2016,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benincasa, Sara 1980 births American women bloggers American bloggers 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women podcasters American podcasters American stand-up comedians American talk radio hosts American women radio presenters American women comedians Living people Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Video bloggers Women video bloggers Warren Wilson College alumni 21st-century American women writers Comedians from New York City Novelists from New York (state) 21st-century American comedians