Tig Notaro

Early life

Notaro was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of Mathilde "Susie" O'Callaghan and Pat Notaro. She has a brother, Renaud, who is a year older and works as a radio talk show host. "Tig" is a childhood nickname given to her by her brother when she was two years old. The family was Catholic.

Notaro's maternal great-great-grandfather was John Fitzpatrick, who was the mayor of New Orleans from 1892 to 1896. While taking part in season 5 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Notaro learned she is also a distant cousin of Gloria Steinem.

In an interview with Mother Jones magazine, Notaro said she disliked being a student. She failed three grades, eventually dropping out of high school. In 1990, while living in Texas, she received her general equivalency diploma.

Notaro plays the guitar and drums; she was in bands when she was younger.

Career

An avid music fan, Notaro moved to Denver, Colorado, where she became involved in the music industry. She became a band manager, working under the name Tignation Promotions in the mid-'90s. Her work promoting bands took her to Los Angeles, where she tried stand-up for the first time in the late '90s. She has since been featured on Comedy Central Presents and on The Sarah Silverman Program as a lesbian police officer. She collaborates frequently with her writing partner Kyle Dunnigan. With Dunnigan and David Huntsberger, she co-hosted the podcast Professor Blastoff from May 2011 until July 2015.

In 2011, Notaro released her debut stand-up album, Good One. Her 2012 album, Live, is a recording of a stand-up set performed shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2012, she appeared on Conan, and in May of that year on the live episode of This American Life, which was broadcast to theaters nationwide and on radio in edited form. She performed a monologue about having encountered Taylor Dayne on multiple occasions, greeting her each time with, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, but I just have to tell you. I love your voice." After her monologue, Dayne made a surprise appearance, serenading Notaro with the song "I'll Always Love You". She worked on fellow comedian Amy Schumer's Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer. In June 2012, Notaro did a Kickstarter-funded series called Clown Service, which she wrote and starred in.

Notaro wrote a memoir for HarperCollins imprint Ecco called I'm Just a Person, and a Showtime documentary was made about her life and her post-cancer stand-up tour, Knock Knock, It's Tig Notaro. In July 2015, a Netflix film, Tig, chronicling her attempts to become pregnant with her fiancée, Stephanie Allynne, was also released. Singer Sharon Van Etten wrote a song in homage to Notaro called "Words" that is heard in the credits.

In November 2015, Notaro co-wrote, produced, and starred in a semi-autobiographical TV pilot for Amazon Video called One Mississippi. It received a six-episode series order from Amazon a month later. It follows Notaro's character as she returns to her hometown of Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi after her mother's unexpected death.

Her first stand-up one-hour special was released by HBO in 2015, Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted. In 2016, it was released as her third album on her own label, Bentzen Ball Records, which also put out Aparna Nancherla's Just Putting It Out There. She was cast in Star Trek: Discovery as Chief Engineer Jett Reno of the U.S.S. Hiawatha, originally as a guest role in the second and third seasons before being promoted to a regular role, and will continue to play the character as a regular in the upcoming series Starfleet Academy.

Netflix released Notaro's second one-hour special, Happy to Be Here, on May 22, 2018. She was digitally inserted in post-production in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, replacing Chris D'Elia, who was accused of sexual misconduct.

Comedic style

On her approach to comedy (and whether she considers herself a dark comic), Notaro says: "I'm always going to do whatever I think is funniest. If something's dark, I'll do it. If it's a sock puppet... There's no preconceived idea of who I think I might be now." Notaro said that since her cancer diagnosis, she has shifted not to darker comedy but rather to personal comedy. Previously she was more distant and observational, but now she reflects on her childhood and life.

In the autumn of 2016, she appeared in a video as an onstage "stand-in" during the Nostalgic for the Present concert tour of Australian singer Sia for the song "Diamonds."

Personal life

Notaro met her wife Stephanie Allynne on the set of the film In a World... They married in 2015, officiated by an Old Catholic deacon (Notaro's cousin). They welcomed twin sons in 2016, conceived via a surrogate using Allynne's eggs.

Cancer

Notaro was diagnosed with cancer in both breasts on July 30, 2012. On August 3, she addressed her cancer diagnosis and other personal difficulties during a live stage show at Largo in Los Angeles. The set has been described as "instantly legendary"; many comedians have praised her work.

The next day, comedian Louis C.K. called Notaro, telling her he wanted to release the audio of the show. it sold more copies than rock band Kiss's album Monster, which debuted the same week, something Notaro said she never dreamed could happen. She was a Kiss fan in her youth.

Notaro subsequently had a double mastectomy with no reconstructive surgery; she opted out of chemotherapy but decided instead to continue treatment with hormone blocking. The New York Times described it: "She showed the audience her scars and then, through the force of her showmanship, made you forget that they were there. It was a powerful, even inspiring, statement about survival and recovery, and yet, it had the larky feel of a dare." After a November 2014 show in Philadelphia, Notaro was hospitalized and required surgery for a cyst.

In 2017, Notaro adopted a vegan diet, which she credited for eliminating the chronic pain she had experienced in the years following her cancer diagnosis. She later earned a certification in plant-based nutrition.

Discography

Albums

• 2011: Good One (Secretly Canadian) – CD+DVD, LP, download, streaming
• 2012: Live (Pig Newton) – download, streaming
• 2013: Live: Deluxe Edition (Secretly Canadian) – 2xCD, picture disc LP, LP, download, streaming
• 2016: Boyish Girl Interrupted (Secretly Canadian) – CD, LP, download, streaming
• 2018: Happy to Be Here (Netflix) – LP, streaming
• 2022: Drawn (Comedy Dynamics) - CD, LP, download, streaming
• 2024: Hello Again (Secretly Canadian) – CD, LP, download, streaming

Specials

• 2004: Comedy Central Presents – download, streaming
• 2015: Boyish Girl Interrupted (HBO) – download, streaming
• 2018: Happy to Be Here (Netflix) – download, streaming
• 2021: Drawn (HBO Max) – download, streaming
• 2024: Hello Again (Amazon Prime Video) – download, streaming

Videos

• 2008: Have Tig at Your Party – also director, writer, executive producer (bonus DVD of Good One: Deluxe Edition)
• 2013: Professor Blastoff – 100th Episode! – Earwolf – Video Podcast Network (YouTube)
• 2014: The Moth – "R2, Where Are You" (YouTube) – also writer (the audio of the video is the bonus content of her album Live: Deluxe Edition)

Singles

• 2016: "Mississippi Relatives" – download, streaming
• 2017: 7-Inches for Planned Parenthood – "My Ideal Exchange with a Stranger" (Live at Largo) (7-Inches For™, LLC) – 7" pink vinyl, download
• 2020: "Little Titties" – download, streaming

Audiobook

• 2016: I'm Just a Person (Harper Audio) – CD , download

Compilations

• 2010: Live Nude Comedy, Vol. 1 (Salient Music) – download (tracks 11 and 12)
• 2010: Comedy Death-Ray Xmas CD 2010 (Aspecialthing Records) – CD (song: We Are The World 25.75)

Filmography

Film

Television

Audio broadcasts

Radio

• October 8, 2012: NPR Fresh Air
• December 7, 2012: PRI Science Friday
• 2012–2016: This American Life Episodes 464, 476, 518, 558 and 577
• April 17, 2013: The Moth - "R2 Where Are You" Recorded December 5, 2012
• July 19, 2013: NPR Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! "Not My Job"
• July 18, 2015: NPR All Things Considered
• June 15, 2016: NPR All Things Considered

Podcasts

Hosted

• 2011–2015: Professor Blastoff w/ Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger (217 episodes)
• 2020–2024: Don't Ask Tig
• 2020–2023: Tig and Cheryl: True Story – cohosted with Cheryl Hines
• 2023–present: Handsome – cohosted with Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin

Guest

• 2008–2011: The Sound of Young America 2011 Interview with Dave Holmes, Best Comedy of 2009, 2008 Stand-up at Bumbershoot
• 2009–2017: Comedy Bang! Bang! (12 episodes)
• 2010–2011: WTF with Marc Maron Episodes 81 and 105
• 2011: The Long Shot Season 1, Episode 14
• 2011, 2017: Jordan, Jesse, Go! Episode 175 and 501
• 2012–2013: The JV Club Episodes 32 and 49
• 2013: Making It Episode 67
• 2013: You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes Episode 177
• 2013: The Nerdist Podcast Episode 381
• 2014, 2017: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn 2017, 2014
• 2017: 2 Dope Queens Episodes 26 & 45
• 2017: The Ezra Klein Show
• 2017: Movie Crush Episode 2
• 2017: Good One: A Podcast About Jokes
• 2017: Out Here In America Episode 2 and Bonus Episode
• 2019: Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend Episode 23

Books

• (Humor/memoir)

Awards and nominations

References

References

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35. (June 27, 2016). "Tig Notaro Welcomes Twin Boys Max and Finn – Moms & Babies – Celebrity Babies and Kids - Moms & Babies".
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51. (2020). "Little Titties by Tig Notaro". [[Spotify]].com.
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96. "The 98th Academy Awards {{!}} (2026)". [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]].