Joy Behar
Behar in 2010
Born	Josephine Victoria Occhiuto (1942-10-07)October 7, 1942 (age 82) New York City, U.S.
Education	Queens College (BA) Stony Brook University (MA)
Occupation(s)	Comedian, television host, actress
Years active	1984–present
Known for	The View co-host (1997–2013, 2015–present)
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Joe Behar ​ ​ (m. 1965; div. 1981)​ Steve Janowitz ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	1

Josephine Victoria "Joy"Behar^[1] (/ˈbeɪhɑːr/;néeOcchiuto; born October 7, 1942) is an American comedian, television host, and actress. She co-hosts theABC talk showThe View, on which she has appeared since the beginning of the series. For her work onThe View, Behar won aDaytime Emmy Award in 2009. She hostedThe Joy Behar Show onHLN from 2009 to 2011^[2][3] andJoy Behar: Say Anything! onCurrent TV, from 2012^[4] until the channel switched formats in August 2013. Behar's latest weekly late-night talk show,Late Night Joy, aired onTLC in 2015. She also wroteThe Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World.

Behar was born Josephine Victoria Occhiuto in 1942 inWilliamsburg, Brooklyn, the only child of a Roman Catholic family of Italian descent, hailing fromSant'Eufemia d'Aspromonte,Calabria. Her mother, Rosa Diane "Rose" (née Carbone), was a seamstress, and her father, Louis Ferdinand "Gino" Occhiuto, was a truck driver forCoca-Cola.^[5][6][7] Behar earned a BA in sociology fromQueens College in 1964 and an MA in English education fromStony Brook University in 1966. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, she taught English onLong Island atLindenhurst Senior High School inLindenhurst, New York.^[8][9] She studied acting at theHB Studio.^[10]

Behar started her career in show business in the early 1980s as a receptionist and later a producer onGood Morning America.^[11]

She was a stand-up comedian and made appearances on ABC'sGood Morning America andThe New Show, a short-livedLorne Michaels NBC project. In 1987, she hosted a variety talk show onLifetime Television calledWay Off Broadway that includedLarry David as a writer and performer.^[12][13][14] She also hosted the showLive from Queens; was a regular on NBC'sBaby Boom; and continued to work the comedy club circuit. She had minor film roles includingCookie,This Is My Life, andManhattan Murder Mystery. In the early 1990s, she hosted a talk-show on 77WABC radio in New York City. She also made appearances onHBO comedy specialsOne Night Stand andWomen of the Night 2.

In 1997, Behar became one of the original panelists of theABC daytime talk showThe View, which was co-created byBarbara Walters.^[15] Behar originally appeared only on the days when Walters was off, but she ultimately became a permanent co-host.^[16] Behar occasionally hosted a segment called "Joy's Comedy Corner" in which she presented both established and up-and-coming comedians.^[17]

In August 2009, Behar and the other co-hosts,Whoopi Goldberg,Elisabeth Hasselbeck,Sherri Shepherd, and Walters, won aDaytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host following over a decade of nominations for the show.^[18]

On March 7, 2013, it was announced that Behar would be leaving the show at the end of that season.^{[19][20][21][22]} She toldDeadline, "It seemed like the right time...You reach a point when you say to yourself, 'Do I want to keep doing this?' There are other things on my plate I want to do — I've been writing a play, I've been neglecting my standup".^[19] Her last show was on August 9, 2013, in which the program staged aThis Is Your Life-style tribute to Behar.^[23]

After departing in 2013, Behar continued to guest co-host throughout 2014 and 2015. On August 25, 2015, ABC announced that Behar would return as a regular co-host starting with the premiere of the 19th season on September 8, 2015. Behar was quoted as saying, "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Plus, Steve was getting tired of applauding every time I gave my opinion. But I'm happy to be back home. And I'm looking forward to sticking my two cents into the hot topics, especially now that Hillary and the Donald are in the spotlight."^[24]

In 2018, while analyzing television personalityOmarosa's comments in regards to U.S. Vice PresidentMike Pence's religiosity, Behar stated: "It's one thing to talk to Jesus, it's another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct, hearing voices."^[25] Content analysis organizationMedia Research Center subsequently launched a campaign demanding an apology from Behar and urging viewers to do the same, resulting in 40,000 calls to ABC as well as 6,000 complaints to the show's advertisers.^[26] Pence himself responded and accused the show of expressing "religious intolerance".^[25]The Walt Disney Company CEOBob Iger later stated that Behar had directly apologized to Pence.^[27] On March 13, 2018, she issued an apology on air, stating: "I think Vice President Pence is right; I was raised to respect everyone's religious faith, and I fell short of that. I sincerely apologize for what I said."^[28]

Beginning in 2007, she occasionally filled in as aguest host onLarry King Live. On June 11, 2009, Behar announced that she would be hosting her own news/talk program on CNN's HLN beginning in the fall of 2009, titledThe Joy Behar Show. She did not leaveThe View but worked on both shows simultaneously.^[2] Despite reportedly being the network's second-highest-rated show, HLN decided to cancel the talk show after only two years.^[29] The final broadcast ofThe Joy Behar Show aired on December 15, 2011.^[30]

In 2012, Behar began hosting another talk show,Joy Behar: Say Anything!, on theCurrent TV network.^[31][4] It premiered September 4, 2012.^[4][32] Before the new show's launch, Behar began acting as fill-in host forEliot Spitzer's Current TV talk show,Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, starting on July 18, 2012.^[33] The show ended in August 2013 after Current TV was sold toAl Jazeera; the channel was replaced byAl Jazeera America.

Behar's short-lived weekly late night talk show,Late Night Joy, premiered onTLC on November 4, 2015. Each episode features Behar having intimate chats with friends in her New York City apartment.^[34] It was cancelled after 5 episodes.

Behar has performed in theatrical plays, includingThe Food Chain,The Vagina Monologues, andLove, Loss and What I Wore.^[35][36] She has also performed in an Off-Broadway one-woman show entitledMe, My Mouth and I.^[37][38][39]

She has written multiple books, such as a collection of humorous essays and stories calledJoy Shtick — Or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments? and a children's book calledSheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog, published in 2006.^[37][40]

She appeared on the eighth season ofBravo'sCelebrity Poker Showdown and finished in fourth place, behindRobin Tunney,Christopher Meloni andMacy Gray, but ahead ofAndy Dick.^{[citation needed]} On October 27, 2017, Behar appeared as a guest onReal Time with Bill Maher.^[41]

Behar portrayed the role of Dr. Lucy in the 2011 comedy filmHall Pass.^[42] She also recurred inWoody Allen's Amazon series,Crisis in Six Scenes.^[43][44]

Behar's debut play premiered in 2025 in New York CityOff-Broadway,My First Ex-Husband.^[45]

Behar married college professor Joe Behar in 1965.^[46] They divorced in 1981.^[47] They have one daughter, Eve Behar Scotti.^[48] Behar has a grandson named Luca.^[49] Behar began to date Steve Janowitz in 1982; they married in 2011.^[50]

Behar resides inThe Hamptons.^[51] She also owns a home on theUpper West Side ofManhattan.^[52] She is aDemocrat.^[53]

Behar has authored several books, including several children's books:

• The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World (2017)
• Sheetzucacapoopoo 2: Max Goes to the Dogs (2009)
• When You Need a Lift: But Don't Want to Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin (2007)
• Sheetzu Caca Poopoo: My Kind of Dog (2006)
• Joy Shtick: Or What Is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments (1999)

• Broadcast journalism
• New Yorkers in journalism

• Rozen, Leah (July 9, 2010)."After Work With Joy Behar:Stand Up; Sit Down; Talk, Talk, Talk".The New York Times.
• Mitchell, Russ (March 28, 2010)."Joy Behar: Left Front Center".CBS News.
• DiStefano, Blase (September 1, 2012)."Joy To Her World". OutSmart Magazine.

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• ABC News: Joy Behar on Faith Part Two
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