Bo Burnham
Robert Pickering "Bo" Burnham (born August 21, 1990) is an American stand-up comedian, musician, YouTuber, actor, and filmmaker. Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with music, sketch, and stand-up comedy, often with a dramatic or tragic twist, left open to his fans for interpretation.
Bo Burnham | ||||||||||
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Burnham at The Emmys in 2021 | ||||||||||
| Born | Robert Pickering Burnham August 21, 1990 Hamilton, Massachusetts, U.S. | |||||||||
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| Years active | 2006–present | |||||||||
| Partner(s) | Lorene Scafaria (2013–2022) Phoebe Bridgers (2023–present) | |||||||||
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| Labels | Comedy Central | |||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
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| Years active | 2006–present | |||||||||
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| Subscribers | 3.61 million | |||||||||
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Last updated: June 17, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Website | boburnham | |||||||||
In 2006, Burnham created a YouTube channel, where he uploaded videos of him playing comedic songs that he created on his own, often featuring wordplay and taboo or dark subject matter. Despite only being in his late teens, his music videos quickly went viral, making him one of the earliest YouTube stars. He began creating albums featuring his songs, such as Bo fo Sho (2008) or the titular album Bo Burnham (2009).
As time went on, Burnham switched his focus from YouTube to performing stand-up comedy routines, which combined his comedy songs with regular stand-up. He released three comedy specials, Words Words Words (2010), what. (2013), and Make Happy (2016). He also worked on the music and script for a scrapped comedy film, and created and starred in the MTV mockumentary series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous (2013) along with publishing the poetry book Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas Alone (2013).
After Make Happy, Burnham announced his intention to step away from live performance in 2016, which he later revealed to be due to him suffering from anxiety and experiencing panic attacks on stage. He went on to make his filmmaking debut as the writer and director of the drama film Eighth Grade (2018) and began directing other comedians' comedy specials, as well as co-starring in the dark comedy thriller film Promising Young Woman (2020).
Burnham returned to performing with his fourth comedy special, Inside (2021), which he created in his home without a crew or audience during the COVID-19 pandemic; it was released by Netflix to widespread acclaim and was nominated in six categories at the 73rd Emmy Awards, winning Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Music Direction, and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. At the 64th Grammy Awards, Inside was nominated for Best Music Film and Best Song Written for Visual Media, winning the latter. Three songs from the special appeared also on the Billboard charts and were certified gold in the United States, as was the accompanying album Inside (The Songs).