1. Bo Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with music, sketch, and stand-up comedy, commonly with a dramatic, satirical, or tragic twist that is often left open to interpretation.
37 Facts About Bo Burnham
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In 2006, Bo Burnham created a YouTube channel, where he uploaded videos of him playing comedic songs that he wrote, often featuring wordplay and taboo or dark subject matter.
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Bo Burnham began creating albums featuring his songs, such as Bo fo Sho and the self-titled album Bo Burnham.
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Bo Burnham switched his focus from YouTube to performing stand-up comedy routines, which combined his comedy songs with traditional stand-up.
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Bo Burnham released three comedy specials, Words Words Words, what.
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Bo Burnham worked on the music and script for a comedy film that was ultimately scrapped.
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Bo Burnham created and starred in the 2013 MTV mockumentary series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous.
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Bo Burnham published the poetry book Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas Alone.
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Bo Burnham went on to make his filmmaking debut as the writer and director of the drama film Eighth Grade and began directing other comedians' comedy specials, as well as co-starring in the dark comedy thriller film Promising Young Woman.
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Bo Burnham returned to performing with his fourth comedy special, Inside, which he created in his home without a crew or audience during the COVID-19 pandemic; it was released by Netflix to widespread acclaim, including a Peabody Award.
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Robert Pickering Bo Burnham was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts, on August 21,1990, the son of hospice nurse Patricia and construction company owner Scott Bo Burnham.
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Bo Burnham has an older sister named Samm and an older brother named Pete, both of whom work for their father's construction company.
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Bo 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.
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Bo Burnham made the honor roll and was involved in theater and the campus ministry program; he graduated in 2008.
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Bo Burnham was accepted into the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to study experimental theatre, but deferred his admission for a year to pursue a career in comedy and ultimately didn't attend at all.
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Bo Burnham describes his on-stage persona as a "more arrogant, stuck-up version [of] himself".
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Bo Burnham recorded a performance in London for Comedy Central's The World Stands Up in January 2008, making him the youngest person to do so at the age of 17, and signed a four-record deal with Comedy Central Records.
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Burnham's first full album, the self-titled Bo Burnham, was released on March 10,2009.
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Bo Burnham has performed his music in the United States, including Cobb's Comedy Club, YouTube Live in San Francisco, and Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City, and internationally in London and Montreal.
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On May 21,2010, Bo Burnham taped his first one-hour stand-up special, entitled Words Words Words, for Comedy Central from the House of Blues in Boston as part of the network's new "House of Comedy" series of stand-up specials; it aired on Comedy Central on October 16,2010, and was released for purchase two days later.
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Bo Burnham finished in first place at the 2011 Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown.
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In 2013, Bo Burnham wrote, executive-produced, and starred in Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous alongside Dan Lagana, Luke Liacos, and Dave Becky.
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Bo Burnham released a book of poetry called Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas Alone.
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Bo Burnham wrote and directed his first feature film, Eighth Grade, which was produced and distributed by A24 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2018.
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Bo Burnham directed Jerrod Carmichael's comedy special 8 for HBO and Chris Rock's comedy special Tamborine for Netflix.
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In 2019, it was announced Bo Burnham would contribute songs to an upcoming Sesame Street film.
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In 2020, Bo Burnham played the protagonist's love interest Ryan Cooper in the black comedy revenge thriller film Promising Young Woman.
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In March 2021, Bo Burnham was cast as Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty from HBO.
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Bo Burnham received two nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Music Film and Best Song Written for Visual Media, although the special was ruled ineligible for Best Comedy Album.
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Bo Burnham directed, edited, and executive produced Carmichael's comedy special Rothaniel, which received acclaim, including the 74th Emmy award for best writing for a variety special.
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On May 30,2022, the first anniversary of Inside, Bo Burnham released 63 minutes of unseen footage from the special on YouTube, titled The Inside Outtakes.
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Bo Burnham released Inside, an album containing all of the songs from Inside and the outtakes, as well as all of the ambient and instrumental tracks from the special and its outtakes.
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Bo Burnham submitted "Five Years" from The Inside Outtakes to the Best Song Written for Visual Media category at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, though it was not nominated.
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Bo Burnham 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.
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Bo Burnham named Steve Martin as being the most important of these.
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Bo Burnham further addressed this topic on the song "Problematic" from his 2021 comedy special Inside.
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Bo Burnham dated filmmaker Lorene Scafaria from 2013 to 2022.