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Chelsea Handler

b. February 25, 1975

by JWA Staff
Our work to expand the Encyclopedia is ongoing. We are providing this brief biography for Chelsea Handler until we are able to commission a full entry.

Chelsea Handler, 2016.

Chelsea Handler is a comedian, television host, and author whose sense of humor has made her one of the most celebrated people in entertainment. Handler moved to Los Angeles at the age of nineteen to pursue a career in acting. At 21, she abandoned acting for stand-up comedy after a story she told about being arrested for driving under the influence received laughs from a class of other offenders. In 2004, she landed a recurring role on the hidden-camera show Girls Behaving Badly, after which she was a regular commentator on E! and Scarborough Country and a correspondent on The Tonight Show. The Chelsea Handler Show launched in April 2006 and lasted two seasons, and Handler starred in her own late-night comedy series, Chelsea Lately, from 2007 until 2014; Chelsea Lately also had a mockumentary spin-off, After Lately, starting in 2011. A sitcom based on Handler’s book Are You There, Chelsea? aired for one season in 2012In 2016, Handler filmed a documentary series for Netflix titled Chelsea Does; its four episodes focused on marriage, Silicon Valley, racism, and drugs. Her Netflix original comedy talk show Chelsea aired for two seasons beginning in May 2016. In September 2019, Netflix released a documentary titled Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea, starring Handler, that examined the impact of white privilege on her life's trajectory. As of 2023, Handler has published six books, all of which have been on the New York Times Best Seller List, beginning with My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands in 2005.   

 

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Chelsea Handler." (Viewed on December 25, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/handler-chelsea>.