Background

Ethnicity: Schumer's father was born to a Jewish family (from Ukraine and Poland). Her mother's ancestry includes English and German, as well as some Scottish and Welsh.

Amy Beth Schumer was born on June 1, 1981, in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. She is one of three children and the oldest daughter of Sandra and Gordon Schumer, who owned a successful baby furniture company in New York City. Gordon is also the cousin of United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Education

In her early years, Schumer's life was defined by her father's success. But the family's fortunes quickly changed when Gordon was struck by multiple sclerosis. The business went bankrupt, and shortly after moving the family to Long Island, Schumer's parents divorced. Her father's physical demise and the resulting change to her family's status greatly affected Schumer and her approach to life.

"To see them - to see their descent, to watch his body sort of decompose, it's pretty - it really darkens you and it really lets you know that you have no control over life," Schumer revealed in a 2013 interview with NPR. "When I'm dating someone I think would I want to push their wheelchair? Would this guy push my wheelchair? My mind goes there if I've been dating somebody for a year or two, and I don't think that happens to people unless they've taken care of a sick relative."

Schumer attended South Side High School. Finding an outlet in being the center of attention, she was voted class clown during her senior year of high school in 1999. She majored in theater at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, and then continued her studies at the esteemed William Esper Studio in New York City.

Career

In the mid-2000s, Schumer began testing the waters as a stand-up comic, steadily working her way up the comedy club chain at venues such as New York's Comedy Cellar.

Her first national exposure came in 2007 when she placed fourth on NBC's Last Comic Standing. In 2011, she released her debut stand-up album, Cutting, and gained more recognition after killing it on The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen. A year later, Comedy Central gave her the platform for her first comedy special, Mostly Sex Stuff. The cable network then turned the keys over to her for a comedy show, Inside Amy Schumer, in 2013. The much talked about series won its first Emmy in 2015 for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series.

Schumer's comedy is cutting and revealing, touching on sex, relationships, and gender inequality in a way that few comics have dared to try. Along with other actresses like Kristen Wiig, she's helped shed the Hollywood bias that female comics are best suited for character roles. She demonstrated her ability to carry a film with her 2015 summer hit, Trainwreck, a semi-biographical portrait that co-starred Bill Hader and was directed by Judd Apatow.

"I was falling in love with a guy and scared out of my mind," Schumer told Entertainment Weekly, while describing the film's inspiration. "Judd and I talked about how all these defense mechanisms that get you through things start to bite you in the ass. I was trying to sabotage the relationship because I was afraid of getting hurt."

Schumer's 2016 memoir, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, landed on The New York Times Best Sellers list. In 2017 she starred in the mother-daughter comedy Snatched, with comedy legend Goldie Hawn, and also made her debut on Broadway with a Tony-nominated role in Steve Martin's Meteor Shower.

In 2018 Schumer starred in the comedy I Feel Pretty, opposite Michelle Williams, as main character Renee Barrett who goes from flawed-to-fearless after waking up from a terrible fall. That year she also launched the podcast 3 Girls, 1 Keith, with fellow comedians Rachel Feinstein, Bridget Everett, and Keith Robinson.

Schumer returned to stand-up in 2019 with the Netflix special Growing, her pregnancy a central focus of the set. The following year, amid the coronavirus pandemic, she took a page from the home-produced shows of late-night hosts like Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel and teamed with her husband to create the Food Network's Amy Schumer Learns to Cook.

Achievements

• Amy Beth Schumer is known as an award-winning American stand-up comedian and actor who has made her mark in both films and theater. Her breakthrough happened as a contestant on the NBC talent competition Last Comic Standing, which earned her significant exposure. She then performed in various TV and film projects. Soon, she earned widespread fame with the American sketch-comedy TV series Inside Amy Schumer, which was created and hosted by her. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for the show. She wrote and starred in the blockbuster romantic comedy Trainwreck. Her Broadway debut in Meteor Shower earned her a Tony Award nomination. The audiobook of her humorous memoir, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list, earned her a Grammy nomination. She earned another Grammy nomination for her album Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

    (In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her pas...)

    2016

• movie

  • I Feel Pretty

    (In I Feel Pretty an ordinary woman who struggles with fee...)

    2018
  • Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff

    (Amy Schumer airs every hilarious, messed up detail of her...)

    2012
  • Trainwreck

    (Amy (Amy Schumer) enjoys a life free from stifling romant...)

    2015
  • Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo

    (Comedy superstar Amy Schumer brings her unique blend of h...)

    2015

Religion

Schumer is Jewish.

Politics

Schumer has received praise for addressing various social issues through comedy. In June 2015, Monica Heisey of The Guardian criticized her for "a shockingly large blind spot around race." Schumer responded on Twitter, stating "I go in and out of playing an irreverent idiot. That includes making dumb jokes involving race... You can call it a 'blind spot for racism' or 'lazy,' but you are wrong. It is a joke... I am not racist."

After a fatal shooting took place at a showing of Trainwreck in Louisiana, Schumer advocated for stricter gun control laws and increased mental health funding.

On October 4, 2018, Schumer was arrested at the United States Capitol while protesting the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Views

Throughout 2015, several of Schumer's skits in Inside Amy Schumer went viral online, sparking think pieces regarding sex, feminism, and rape culture.

Personality

Amy Schumer is outspoken and refreshingly (and sometimes shockingly) unfiltered. Her Trainwreck costar, Tilda Swinton, described her as an "honesty bomb." Others say she is just plain crude.

In an interview with Glamour magazine, Amy Schumer revealed that she is most definitely an introvert. According to Schumer, most comedians are quiet types, despite their extroverted public personas.

Physical Characteristics: Height: 5'7" (170 cm)

Interests

• Cooking, reading

• Politicians

  Hillary Clinton

• Writers

  Jonathan Ames, Elena Ferrante

• Artists

  Judy Gold, Jessica Kirson, Wendy Liebman, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Ellen DeGeneres

• Sport & Clubs

  Tennis, running

• Music & Bands

  That's All by Edie Adams

Connections

After splitting from furniture designer Ben Hanisch in May 2017, Schumer began dating chef Chris Fischer. Rarely spotted together, they finally went public with their relationship by posting a romantic Instagram photo on February 11, 2018. Two days later, the couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in Malibu, before a group that included Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lawrence, Larry David, and David Spade.

On October 22, 2018, the pair announced that they were expecting their first child. One week after disclosing the baby's gender, Schumer gave birth to her son, Gene Attell Fischer, on May 5, 2019. The following year, she revealed that the baby's middle name had been changed to David.

Father:

Gordon Schumer

Mother:

Sandra Schumer

Spouse:

Chris Fischer

(married 2018)

Son:

Gene David Fischer

ex-boyfriend:

Ben Hanisch

Friend:

Brie Larson

Friend:

David Letterman

colleague:

Tilda Swinton

References

• Amy Schumer on Instagram