While studying history atProvidence College, Garofalo entered a comedy talent search sponsored by theShowtime cable network, and won the title of "Funniest Person inRhode Island." Dreaming of earning a slot on the writing staff of the TV showLate Night with David Letterman, she became a professional standup comic upon graduating from college with degrees in history and American studies.[6] She struggled to make a living for a number of years, even working briefly as abike messenger inBoston.[7]
Garofalo began her comedy career in the mid-1980s. Her comedy is often self-deprecating; she has made fun of popular culture and the pressures on women to conform tobody image ideals promoted by the media.
Garofalo's comedy shows involve her and her notebook, which is filled with years' worth of article clippings and random observations she references for direct quotes during her act. Garofalo has said that she does not tell jokes as much as make observations designed to get laughs. Upon arriving in LA in the early 1990s, she had difficulty being passed at the mainstream clubs, and when she was passed atThe Improv, she often bombed. She was a pioneer of thealternative comedy scene in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, starting the alt-show at Big & Tall Books in LA on August 6, 1991.[8] Garofalo co-created the "Eating It"alternative stand-up comedy show, which ran atLuna Lounge on theLower East Side of New York City between 1995 and 2005, frequently hosting the show and appearing as a performer.
She appeared on HBO'sComedy Half-Hour andComedy Hour specials in 1995 and 1997, respectively, among similar subsequent appearances, including a one-hour stand-up special entitledIf I May, performed atSeattle'sMoore Theatre that aired onEpix in June 2010 and was released on DVD in September 2010.[9]
Her first movie role, filmed the year before she appeared on national television, was a brief comical appearance as a counter worker in a burger joint inLate for Dinner in 1991. Her breakthrough role came inReality Bites (1994) asWinona Ryder's character'sGap-managing best friend Vickie.
Her further television work and supporting roles in feature films includedBye Bye Love andNow and Then, and a leading role inI Shot a Man in Vegas. In 1996 she was cast in the starring role in theromantic comedyThe Truth About Cats & Dogs, a variation onCyrano de Bergerac, which featuredUma Thurman in the top-billed but smaller role as a beautiful but vapid model, while Garofalo played a highly intelligent radio host. Initially an independent film, it became a studio movie when Thurman joined the project.
Based on the success of that film, a producer offered Garofalo the part of Dorothy Boyd inJerry Maguire withTom Cruise if she could lose weight. After trimming down, however, she learned thatRenée Zellweger had received the part.[10]
She turned down the role of television reporter Gale Weathers inWes Craven'sScream because she thought the film would be too violent: "I said I didn't want to be in a movie where a teen girl was disemboweled. I didn't know it turned out so good, and it was a funny movie."[11]
Following upThe Truth About Cats and Dogs, Garofalo played the lead role inThe Matchmaker, a 1997romantic comedy film about the misadventures of a cynical American woman who reluctantly visits Ireland; it is Garofalo's first and only lead role to date. That same year, she played a supporting role as a deputy sheriff in the dramaCop Land, a police gangster film starringSylvester Stallone,Harvey Keitel,Ray Liotta andRobert De Niro. In 1998, she performed her first voice-acting job playing "Ursula the Artist" inDisney's English dub ofStudio Ghibli'sKiki's Delivery Service and briefly appeared inPermanent Midnight. In 1999, she starred as "The Bowler" in the filmMystery Men, about an underdog group of super heroes.
A puppet version of Garofalo appeared (and was graphically killed off) in the 2004 movieTeam America: World Police; while Garofalo was irritated by the parody, she was more upset by the filmmakers' lack of correspondence. "I ran into them in the street,Trey andthe other guy, and I said to them, 'The least you could do is send me a puppet.' And they said OK, took my address down ... and never sent me a puppet! So whileTeam America bothered me, the fact they didn't send me my puppet, that bothered me even more."[12]
In 2005, she played the ex-wife of a man coping with the reverberations of a divorce inDuane Hopwood. In 2006, she performed Bridget the giraffe's voice in the animatedDisney feature filmThe Wild. In 2007, she provided the voice of Colette Tatou, a chef in thePixar/Disney feature filmRatatouille, in which Garofalo affected a pronouncedFrench accent for the role, appropriate for a character based on a French cook described as the world's best female chef.[13] She made cameo appearances inThe Guitar in 2008 andLabor Pains in 2009, and starred inBad Parents in 2012, a comedy aboutNew Jerseysoccer moms obsessing over their children's experiences playing the sport. She starred in the 2015 film3rd Street Blackout.
Her first exposure on national television came soon thereafter by way of her appearance as a stand-up comic on MTV'sHalf Hour Comedy Hour. Subsequently, her first television series debut was on the short-livedBen Stiller Show onFox in 1992, on which she was a cast member alongside longtime friendsBob Odenkirk andAndy Dick.
A chance meeting on the set of that show led her to being offered the role ofPaula onThe Larry Sanders Show onHBO, earning her twoPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series[15] nominations in 1996 and 1997. For a time, she was actually working on both series simultaneously.[citation needed]AfterThe Ben Stiller Show was cancelled, Garofalo joined the cast ofSaturday Night Live (SNL) for its1994–95 season.[16] She leftSNL in March 1995 (mid-season) after only six months, saying that the experience left her "anxious and depressed", and that asexist attitude pervaded the show. She said that many of the sketches were "juvenile and homophobic".[17] According toNew York Magazine, Garofalo was "largely stuck in dull, secondary wife and girlfriend roles", and quoted her friends as saying that she considered the stint "the most miserable experience of [her] life."[18]
FollowingSNL, Garofalo appeared in a plethora of guest star roles: the grown-up daughter of the Buchmans on the final episode ofMad About You;Jerry Seinfeld's female counterpart (and, briefly, fiancée) Jeannie Steinman onSeinfeld; a recurring correspondent onMichael Moore'sTV Nation, and a former girlfriend ofDave Foley's character onNewsRadio. She provided the voice for the weekly conversations between the series lead and an older friend (Garofalo) inFelicity. Two television pilots starring Garofalo, the 2003ABC showSlice O'Life about a reporter consigned to sappy human interest stories appearing at the end of news broadcasts, and the 2005NBC programAll In, based on the life of poker starAnnie Duke, were not picked up by their respective networks.
Throughout the 2005–06 television season, Garofalo appeared onThe West Wing asLouise Thornton, a campaign adviser to the fictionalDemocratic presidential nominee.
In 2006, she provided the voice for the animated character "Bearded Clam" on Comedy Central'sFreak Show. In 2007, she wrote a dedication for the mini-book included in the six-DVD box-set of the 1994cult seriesMy So-Called Life.
Garofalo had segments titled "the disquisition" in several episodes of the 2007 season ofThe Henry Rollins Show which took place in her apartment, much in the same wayRollins' segments take place at his house.[citation needed] In 2009, Garofalo joined the cast of24, where she starred asJanis Gold. In 2010, Garofalo joined the cast ofIdeal as Tilly. She was a cast member of theCriminal Minds short-lived spinoff TV seriesCriminal Minds: Suspect Behavior in 2011.[19]
Garofalo co-wrote a comedicNew York Times bestseller withBen Stiller in 1999, titledFeel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction, a spoof of the self-help books prevalent at the time. She wrote herHBO Comedy Half-Hour along with similar appearances and programs, co-wrote some sketches onThe Ben Stiller Show and an episode of the television seriesHead Case, and wrote and directed a 2001 comedy short,Housekeeping.[citation needed]
Garofalo has been open and outspoken regarding her liberal political views. She is afeminist. In an interview forGeek Monthly magazine, she stated that she was raised in a conservative family.[20]
She became more prominent as a liberal when she voiced opposition to what became the2003 Iraq War, appearing onCNN andFox News to discuss it. She said that she was approached by groups such asMoveOn.org andWin Without War to go on TV, because these organizations say that the networks were not allowingantiwar voices to be heard. Garofalo and the other celebrities who appeared at the time said they thought their fame could lend attention to that side of the debate. Her appearances on cable news prior to the war garnered her praise from the left and spots on the cover ofMs. andVenus Zine. Garofalo has had frequent on-air political disputes withBill O'Reilly,Brian Kilmeade, andJonah Goldberg.[23]
Prior to the 2003 Iraq War, she took a position on the alleged threat posed bySaddam Hussein. For example, in an interview withTony Snow on a February 23, 2003, episode ofFox News Sunday,[24] Garofalo said of the Iraqi leader:
Yes, I think lots of people are eager to obtainweapons of mass destruction. But there's no evidence that he (Hussein) has weapons of mass destruction. There's been no evidence of him testingnuclear weapons. We have people that are in our face with nuclear weapons. We've got Iran and North Korea. We've got a problem with Pakistan. You know, I don't know what to say about that. There's a whole lot of people that are going nuclear. And I think that Saddam Hussein is actually, with the evidence, the least able to use nuclear weapons and the least obvious offender in that area at this moment.
— Janeane Garofalo, Fox News interview
In March 2003, she took part in theCode Pink anti-war march in Washington, D.C.[25] That autumn, she served as emcee at several stops on theTell Us the Truth tour, a political-themed concert series featuringSteve Earle,Billy Bragg,Tom Morello, and others.[26] Throughout the year, Garofalo also actively campaigned forHoward Dean.[27][28] While on Fox News' programThe Pulse, O'Reilly asked Garofalo what she would do if her predictions that the Iraq war would be a disaster were to turn out wrong. Garofalo stated:[29]
I would be so willing to say, 'I'm sorry'. I hope to God that I can be made a buffoon of, that people will say, 'You were wrong. You were a fatalist.' And I will go to the White House on my knees on cut glass and say, 'Hey, you and Thomas Friedman were right ... I shouldn't have doubted you ...'
— Janeane Garofalo, Fox News interview
Garofalo said she had misgivings in 2007 about the depiction of torture in the television series24 but joined the cast because "being unemployed and being flattered that someone wanted to work with me outweighed my stance".[30]
In April 2009, Garofalo drew criticism fromThe Washington Times when she denouncedTea Party protests, which she referred to as racist.[32] She continued to criticize Tea Party protesters.[33]
In 2009, conservative website and magazineTownhall reported that Garofalo once said "Our country is founded on a sham. Our forefathers were slave-owning rich white guys who wanted it their way. So when I see the American flag, I go, 'Oh, my god, you’re insulting me.' That you can have agay pride parade on Christopher Street in New York, with naked men and women on a float, cheering, 'We’re here and we’re queer!' — that’s what makes my heart swell. Not the flag, but a gay naked man or womanburning the flag. I get choked up with pride."
In late March 2004, Garofalo became a co-host forAir America Radio's new showThe Majority Report, alongsideSam Seder. The early days of Air America Radio are chronicled in the documentaryLeft of the Dial, which includes a debate between Garofalo and her conservative father Carmine, who was initially a regular guest onThe Majority Report.
Garofalo commented on her show of April 28, 2006, supporting theScientology-linkedNew York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, a controversial treatment for workers suffering ailments from9/11 clean-up efforts in New York City.[36] Garofalo dedicated a number of episodes of "Majority Report" to the program and brought conflict between her and her co-host Sam Seder. The show's producer and Seder finally walked off the program when Garofalo said Seder would not have opposed it if it had been "linked toJews instead of Scientologists."[37]
Garofalo struggled with alcoholism, giving up drinking in 2001.[38][39]
Garofalo marriedRobert Cohen, then a writer forThe Ben Stiller Show, inLas Vegas in 1991. She later explained it was intended as a joke, the pair thinking that the marriage was not binding unless it was filed at a local courthouse. Cohen later became engaged to Jill Leiderman, a producer ofJimmy Kimmel Live!;[40] it was discovered later, when Cohen tried to marry, the marriage was indeed legal. The union with Cohen was dissolved in 2012.[41]
In 2019, Garofalo publicly came out asasexual.[42]
^Hatala, Greg."Glimpse of History: SNL star in her native Madison", NJ Advance Media forNJ.com, March 23, 2015. Accessed August 12, 2025. "Janeane Garofalo, according to her senior class yearbook, was known as 'Bean' and 'Bumpkin' when attending Madison High School in the late 1970s and early 1980s."