Who

Sedaris is a comedian, writer, and occasional waitress best known for the Comedy Central show Strangers With Candy and her collaborations with her humorist brother David.

Backstory

Amy and David Sedaris grew up in Raleigh, NC. with their parents and four siblings. While David turned to crystal meth and performance art to deal with his angst, Amy went down a different path, skipping college to start a baking company with her mom. She later moved to Chicago and joined the legendary Second City comedy troupe, which is where she met collaborators Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello. In 1993 Sedaris arrived in New York, where she performed in plays she wrote with David, such as One Woman Shoe, an Obie-winning satire about welfare mothers. Mainstream fame came along after Colbert and Dinello realized that their friend resembled former drug addict, prostitute, and '70s motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, whom they'd seen in a public service film aimed at teens. Inspired to create a show in which Sedaris would play a character based on Fisher, the group wrote Strangers with Candy, which ran on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2000.

Of note

On Strangers with Candy Sedaris played Jerri Blank, a "boozer, user, and loser" who returns to high school at age 46 and has to overcome obstacles such as a brutal case of syphilis, complete illiteracy, and the death of her father at the hands of the school mascots. The show became a cult classic and in 2005 was adapted for the big screen. But Sedaris has had trouble replicating its success, and despite small roles in comedies like Elf, Bewitched, and School of Rock, she remains most recognizable to the general public from her recurring guest spots on David Letterman.

She's had considerably more success on the publishing front. Her latest book, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, was a bestseller in 2006. The tome features shots of Sedaris in demented costumes, giving advice such as how to host parties for the elderly or for lumberjacks. Other books include Wigfield: The Can-Do Town That Just May Not, which she authored with longtime collaborators Dinello and Colbert in 2003.

On the side

The allure of show biz has failed to wean Sedaris completely from the food service industry. She continues to make homemade cupcakes and cheese balls, which are sold by the downtown stores Gourmet Garage and Joe Coffee. And even while Strangers with Candy was on Comedy Central, she kept on working periodically as a waitress at Mary's Fish Camp, even though she clearly didn't need the money. She explained to The Onion that she kept the job because she loved making cash and "having a job you can complain about."

Personal

Sedaris is single, aside from her imaginary boyfriend "Ricky," who pops up frequently in her writings and in interviews. (Fortunately, it appears that reports of Ricky's death in 2005 were greatly exaggerated.) After years of living with her pet rabbit Dusty in a 700-square-foot Christopher Street apartment (which Todd Oldham had helped her decorate) Sedaris purchased an apartment just off Fifth Avenue in the Village for $1.25 million in June 2008.