Julie Klausner

Born July 3, 1978 in New York City, Klausner attended New York University before joining the improvisational comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, for which she wrote and appeared in numerous sketches in the early 2000s. That work led to writing assignments for "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ) and "Best Week Ever With Paul F. Tompkins" (VH1, 2004-09), as well as her first book, I Don't Care About Your Band (2010), about her life and romantic misadventures in her early 20s. Will Ferrell and his producing partner, Adam McKay, briefly optioned the book for production as a television series for HBO. In 2011, Klausner launched a podcast called "How Was Your Week?" which featured her interviews with entertainers and writers on a variety of offbeat subjects. The podcast drew critical praise from numerous outlets and gave Klausner's profile a boost with mainstream media; in 2011, she co-produced "Funny or Die's Billy on the Street" (Fuse/truTV, 2011- ), an irreverent gameshow hosted by comedian/actor Billy Eichner, and penned her first young adult novel, Art Girls Are Easy, in 2013. The following year, Klausner co-starred on and wrote for the short-lived sitcom "Mulaney" (Fox, 2014-15) before writing her own series, "Difficult People." A sitcom about two self-absorbed New York comedians (Klausner and Eichner), the series was produced by Amy Poehler and originally intended for broadcast on the USA Network, which rejected the pilot. The series was then picked up by Hulu and drew positive reviews for its biting humor.