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.
For his self-titled album, see Bo Burnham (album).
Bo Burnham
- Comedian
- musician
- actor
- filmmaker
2006–present
Lorene Scafaria (2013–2022)
Phoebe Bridgers (2023–present)
- Stand-up
- television
- film
- music
- Vocals
- piano
- keyboards
- guitar
- oboe
2006–present
- Music
- comedy
3.64 million[1]
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 self-titled 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).
Early life[edit]
Robert Pickering Burnham was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts,[2] on August 21, 1990, the son of hospice nurse Patricia and construction company owner Scott Burnham.[3] His mother's work was covered in a 2014 episode of This American Life.[4][5] He has an older sister named Samm and an older brother named Pete, both of whom work for their father's construction company.[6] Burnham was raised Catholic and attended St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts, where he received a free education as his mother was the school's nurse at the time.[5] He made the honor roll and was involved in theater and the campus ministry program; he graduated in 2008.[3][5][7] He was accepted into the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to study experimental theatre,[8] but deferred his admission for a year to pursue a career in comedy and eventually never attended.[9]
Style[edit]
Burnham's comedic style is often categorized as satire,[73][74][75] covering topics such as homophobia, mental illness, sexism, and racism for both shock value and social commentary. He has cited Kate Berlant, Catherine Breillat, George Carlin, John Cassavetes, Flight of the Conchords, Mitch Hedberg, Anthony Jeselnik, Stephen Lynch, Demetri Martin, Steve Martin, Tim Minchin, and Hans Teeuwen as influences.[76][77][78] He named Steve Martin as being the most important of these.[79] His musical style has also drawn comparisons to Tom Lehrer,[80][81][82][83] and he was reported to have written his 2009 song "New Math" as a tribute to Lehrer's 1965 song of the same name.[80]
Controversy[edit]
Burnham said of controversy surrounding his older material in 2009, "I try and write satire that's well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear, and that's what makes it comedy."[73] As his career progressed, he began expressing regret for his early material, which he described as "shock-jock offensive comedy done by a 16-year-old without any tact".[84] During press for his film Eighth Grade in 2018, he used the controversies surrounding his work to express concerns about the new concept of teenagers' mistakes being immortalized online: "I'm happy to be an example of someone who failed out loud publicly, in a certain way, and who has hopefully been able to evolve and get past that. And I do worry that kids don't have that freedom anymore."[85] In an interview with NPR, he said that he has "a lot of material from back then that [he's] not proud of and [thinks] is offensive and not helpful".[86] He further addressed this topic on the song "Problematic" from his 2021 comedy special Inside.[87][88]
Personal life[edit]
Burnham lives in Los Angeles.[89] He dated filmmaker Lorene Scafaria from 2013 to 2022.[90] In January 2023, it was rumored that he had split up with Scafaria and was dating musician Phoebe Bridgers.[91][92] Eight months later, Bridgers confirmed their relationship.[93]
Known to be a private person, Burnham usually avoids giving interviews unless he is promoting a new project.[94] Since the release of Inside in May 2021, he has not discussed his work in public or granted any interviews at all.[94] He had also abandoned his social media profiles by December 2022.[95][96] Having previously referenced struggling with anxiety and panic attacks, particularly surrounding his creative work and performances,[89] he confirmed in Inside that this was the reason he walked away from live performance.[97]
