Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an award-winning American stand-up comedian, author, actress, interviewer and commentator known for her distinctive brand of spontaneous observational comedy. She rose to fame with a series of HBO comedy specials and her backstage commentary during the 1992 presidential election on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and is now heard on National Public Radio (NPR) weekly news quiz show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast.

Early Life
Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts about a month after her birth, Poundstone attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, but dropped out to pursue a show business career. Her jobs have included bussing tables and working as a bicycle messenger.

Career
Poundstone started doing stand-up comedy at open-mic nights in Boston in 1979. In the early 1980s she climbed on a Greyhound bus and traveled across the country, stopping in at open mic nights at comedy clubs as she went. She stayed in San Francisco where she started to make a name for herself performing improvisational sets at The Other Café comedy club in the Haight-Ashbury. She was seen by Robin Williams who encouraged her to move to Los Angeles and included a standup comedy set for her on an "SNL" he hosted. In 1984, Poundstone was cast in the movie Hyperspace. She continued as a comedian and began appearing on several talk shows. In 1989, she won the American Comedy Award for "Best Female Stand-Up Comic". In 1990, she second HBO standup special, Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard, taped on campus at Saunders Hall, marked the first time Harvard allowed its name to be used in conjunction with a television show. Poundstone also had her own Bravo special in 2006 as part of their three-part Funny Girls series, along with Caroline Rhea and Joan Rivers titled, Paula Poundstone: Look What the Cat Dragged In. Poundstone worked as a political correspondent for The Tonight Show during the 1992 US Presidential campaign and did field pieces for he Rosie O'Donnell Show in 1996. In 1993, Poundstone won a second CableACE Award for "Best Program Interviewer" for her HBO series "The Paula Poundstone Show". She was then featured in her own variety show, The Paula Poundstone Show, on ABC (which lasted two episode). She also appeared on Hollywood Squares and was a regular panelists for the 2000 remake of To Tell the Truth.

Poundstone had a recurring role as Minnie Arbogast in Cybill Shepherd's Cybill TV Series (1995). She also has worked as a voice actress, she voiced Judge Stone (also known as Squigglevision), an edutainment cartoon series done in Squigglevision stlye that aired on Saturday Mornings on ABC Kids in 1997. Staying with the makers of Science Court, Tom Snyder Productions, she was the voice of the mom, Paula Small, in the cartoon series Home Movies for the show's first five episodes, which aired on UPN. Between the show's 1999 UPN cancellation and the 2000 revival on Cartoon Network, Poundstone chose to leave the show. The show's character, Paula Small, was named and loosely modeled around Poundstone.

Poundstone is a panelist on National Public Radio's (NPR) weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. In 2013, the program ranked as the most listened to show on public radio. This same year Paula was also on the panel when the show was Cinecast in movie theaters across the country. In 2009 Wait Wait...Don's Tell Me received a Peabody Award for Broadcasting Excellence.

Paula Poundstone tours the country extensively, performing standup comedy in theaters and performing art centers. She is known for never doing the same act twice and spontaneously interacting with the crowd. Writes Nick Zaino III, of the "Boston Globe", "Her crowd work has always been unusual, her natural disposition, curious and ever-perplexed allows Poundstone to aggressively question audience members without ever seeming threating. And no one does the callback better. "She has released two comedy CDs (the most recent) "I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Boston" on April Fools' Day 2013 and "I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Maine" (2009).

Poundstone is also an accomplished author. Her first published in hard cover by Crown, 2006: There is Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say'' (with a foreword b Mary Tyler Moore) and is still in release on audio (Highbridge) and in paperback. Algonquin is set to publish her second book in the Fall of 2015. Paula wrote the column, "Hey Paula!" for "Mother Jones" (1993-1998) and articles for "The Los Angeles Times", "Glamour" and "Entertainment Weekly" among others. Also an avid reader, Poundstone has been the National Spokesperson for the American Library Association's "United for Libraries" since 2007. They are a citizens support groups that works to raise funds and awareness for their local libraries.

Poundstone is #88 on Comedy Central's 2004 list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time, and #7 on Maxim magazine's list of "Worst Comedian's of All Time". In November 2012, Poundstone was honored, along with Nina Totenberg, NPR correspondent; David Brooks, New York Times columnist; and Bob Mankoff, New York Cartoon Editor, with the 2012 Moment Magazine Creativity Award. She was inducted into the Comedy Hall of Fame in 2010. In 1992, she became the first woman to be invited to perform standup comedy at the prestigious White House correspondents dinner.

Personal Life
Pundstone began serving as a foster parent in the 1990s, eventually adopting two daughters and a son. In 2001, Poundstone was charged with three counts of committing a lewd act on an unidentified girl under the age of 14. and a separate incident in which she was driving her children while intoxicated. These charges were dismissed pursuant to the prosecution's own motion and in October 2001 Poundstone was found guilty of felony child endangerment in connection with driving while intoxicated with children in the car. The punishment was probation and community service. After recent contact with the sentencing judge, the judge recommended that Poundstone file to have her criminal record expunged. Poundstone has filed the request and the expungement is still pending. Poundstone has talked openly and publicly about her personal responsibility for the events that led to her arrest, and the steps she's taken. including a 6 month treatment program for alcoholism. Poundstone, who commonly shares about her private life of the show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, revealed that she is an atheist in the March 15, 2014 show.

Shows appeared
Jeopardy!

Hollywood Squares

To Tell the Truth

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Guest Experts)

Links
Her Official Website

Her Twitter Page

Her Facebook Page