Carol Leifer

A trailblazing female in the world of stand-up comedy, Carol Leifer is a sought-after comedy writer and producer, a four-time Emmy nominee who has written for such shows as Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live, The Larry Sanders Show, and the Emmy Award-winning Modern Family, for which she won a 2012 Writers Guild Award.

Carol has written for the Academy Awards seven times, the most of any female writer. She has written for the Emmy Awards three times along with The Tony Awards, for which she received a 2016 Writer's Guild Award nomination.

Discovered by David Letterman, who happened to catch her show at "The Comic Strip" in NYC, Carol went on to appear on Late Night with David Letterman a record 27 times. Carol has also made several appearances on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, NBC's Today Show, ABC's The View, Watch What Happens Live on Bravo and The Howard Stern Show.

In her engaging keynote and stand-up presentations, Leifer draws on her natural gifts as a storyteller to weave an interconnected tale that touches on such topics as her Jewish upbringing, her experiences as a woman the male-dominated entertainment industry, and her coming out as a lesbian at the age of 40. A proud women's rights advocate, she supports a woman's right to choose (whether it's making health choices, career choices, or personal choices), making her a natural and often requested choice for women's organizations, corporate audiences, and healthcare agencies.

Leifer also shares her unique perspective on life in 2009's acclaimed bestseller When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win, a memoir that served as a catalyst for her to share some of her most personal stories, including her coming out, her decision to adopt children with her partner, and her breast cancer scare. In this book as well as in her presentations, she reveals what it was like for her to finally find—and embrace—her "authentic self" and encourages audiences to do the same with her trademark wit and wisdom.

In April of 2014, Leifer released her second book, bestseller How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying. This hilarious collection of essays charts her extraordinary three-decade journey through show business, illuminating her many triumphs and some missteps along the way—and offering valuable lessons for women and men in any profession. The New York Times (6/1/14) raved and called it "An unusual and endearing mix of showbiz memoir and self-help book."