Bo Burnham a comedian, musician, actor, film director, screenwriter, and poet. He began his performance career as a YouTuber in March 2006, and his videos have been viewed over 300 million times as of March 2021.
At the age of 18, Burnham became the youngest person to record a half-hour comedy special with Comedy Central. In 2010, Burnham’s second album, Words Words Words, was released, along with his first live comedy special of the same name, which aired on Comedy Central. His third album and second comedy special, what., was released in 2013 on his YouTube channel and Netflix. Burnham finished first overall in voting in 2011’s Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown. His third stand-up comedy special, Make Happy, was released exclusively on Netflix on June 3, 2016. His fourth comedy special, Inside, is coming soon to Netflix.
In addition to his career as a comedian, Burnham co-created and starred in the MTV television series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous and released his first book of poetry, Egghead: Or, You Can’t Survive on Ideas Alone, in 2013. His first feature film as writer and director, Eighth Grade, was released in July 2018 to widespread critical acclaim and received numerous accolades, including the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film. In 2020, Burnham starred as Ryan Cooper in Best Picture nominee Promising Young Woman.
Described in The Boston Globe as “simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way”, Burnham wrote and released songs about white supremacy, Helen Keller’s disabilities, homosexuality, and more.