Burr received a Grammy Award nomination for Paper Tiger, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the dark comedy series Immoral Compass (2021). In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him 17th on its list of the "50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time".[1]
William Frederick Burr[2][time needed] was born in Canton, Massachusetts,[3] on June 10, 1968.[4] His father Robert was a dentist and his mother Linda Ann was a nurse.[5] Burr is of German and Irish descent and was raised Catholic.[6][7] Burr graduated from Canton High School in 1987.[8][9] After attending North Carolina State University for two semesters,[10] he graduated from Emerson College in Boston in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in communications.[11][12] He worked in warehouses before starting his comedy career, later stating that he enjoyed the freedom of the job: "If my boss gave me a rough time, I could just get on a forklift and just, like, drive away."[13]
On September 9, 2006, Burr performed at the Tweeter Center in Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, as part of Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour. After the crowd booed several comedians before him, Burr took the stage, also receiving boos. Forgoing the rest of his planned material, Burr unleashed a 12-minute expletive-laden rant in which he repeatedly attacked the crowd and the city of Philadelphia, especially its sports teams.[17][18] "I was just annoyed because I was sitting there going like, this is one of the greatest comedy line-ups, as far as up-and-coming guys, that I've been around," Burr said. "And these fucking people are treating everyone like shit. And, you know, I'm a defensive, fucking angry dude anyways, so it was just the perfect storm."[19] By the rant's end, Burr managed to win over the majority of the crowd and received a standing ovation. In 2017, Burr expressed some regret over the incident, saying, "I wasn't a professional. What I should have done was I should have kept my head in the game to survive it."[19]The Huffington Post called the rant a "watershed moment in the history of comedy."[17]
Since May 2007, Burr has recorded a weekly one-hour podcast, Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast, in which he speaks about his experiences, current events, going on tour, and sports, and offers advice to questions submitted by the listeners. The podcast is available on Burr's website, Spotify, YouTube, and on the All Things Comedy network he co-founded in 2012. He is sometimes joined by his wife Nia Hill and has featured guests and interviews with other comedians.[citation needed] In the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, Burr voiced Jason Michaels of the biker gang The Lost MC in the mission "No Love Lost". In 2009, he reprised his role in the game's expansion pack The Lost and Damned.
Burr's special Let it Go was recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco and premiered on Comedy Central on September 18, 2010. That same year Burr appeared in the comedy film Date Night as Detective Walsh. On April 18, 2011, he guest hosted the Hollywood Babble-On podcast alongside Ralph Garman.[28] He also appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of AMC's Breaking Bad as Patrick Kuby from 2011 to 2013.[29] A later special, You People Are All the Same, premiered in 2012 as a Netflix exclusive.[30] Burr's stand-up special You People Are All the Same (2012) was the first to premiere exclusively on Netflix. He played Mark Mullins in the 2013 buddy cop filmThe Heat. In 2014, Burr filmed his fourth hour-long special I'm Sorry You Feel That Way at the Tabernacle Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. Unusual for modern comedy specials, the film was shot in black and white.
All Things Comedy was officially launched on October 1, 2012, with a roster of 11 podcasts including Burr's own Monday Morning Podcast, The Long Shot Podcast by Eddie Pepitone, and Skeptic Tank by Ari Shaffir.[31][32] By 2014, the network had six dozen members and over 50 podcasts.[33][34] The network was started by comedians Al Madrigal and Bill Burr with The Daily Show on the All Things Comedy website.[35] The network was established as an artist owned cooperative, which Madrigal and Burr emphasize as an important aspect of the collective.[36]All Things Records was started in March 2014 and released three albums in the months following its creation including Believe in Yourself by Sam Tripoli, Live at the Comedy Castle by Brian Scolaro, and This Will Make an Excellent Horcrux by Jackie Kashian.[34] Madrigal sees the network as a way of improving representation of Latin American people in media.[37] For instance, the network hosts Spanish-language podcasts such as Leyendas Legendarias and El Dollop.[38][39][40]All Things Comedy also partnered with Comedy Central to produce a documentary about Patrice O'Neal in addition to three comedy specials.[41][42]
Burr voiced lead character Frank Murphy in F Is for Family, which premiered on Netflix on December 18, 2015. The show, an animated sitcom he created and co-wrote, drew on Burr's stand-up and the absurdity of political correctness. Season 4 of the series debuted on Netflix on June 12, 2020.[43] Burr writes and executive produces the series along with Michael Price.[44] Burr's fifth hour-long special, Bill Burr: Walk Your Way Out, debuted on Netflix on January 31, 2017. He appeared in the third episode (titled "Bill Burr") of the second season of the HBO series Crashing.[45]
2018–present
Burr's sixth hour-long special, Paper Tiger, debuted on Netflix on September 10, 2019. He premiered a new podcast co-hosted with fellow comedian Bert Kreischer, called the Bill Bert Podcast, in October. In December, he played Migs Mayfeld in two episodes of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. In 2020, he appeared in Judd Apatow's comedy film The King of Staten Island, and promoted the film on October 10 by hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live for the first time.[46][47][48] In March 2022, it was announced that Burr would co-write, direct, and star in the comedy film Old Dads, his feature-length directorial debut; it was released on Netflix in 2023 to mixed reviews.[49] A few months later, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series nomination for the dark comedy series Immoral Compass (2021–present).[50] His seventh stand-up special, Live at Red Rocks, was released on July 12.[51]
On August 21, 2022, Burr became the first comedian to perform at Fenway Park, in front of a sold-out crowd of around 35,000 people[52] (although he did not count them himself to confirm[53]). It was also the largest comedy show in the history of Boston.[54] He has had sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden on November 14, 2015, and then again on November 11, 2023,[55][56][57] the Royal Albert Hall on June 6, 2018,[58] and consecutive shows on March 4 and 5, 2019.[59][60] He holds the record for the most consecutive sold-out shows at Boston's Wilbur Theatre, where he performed 19 sold-out shows in a row, almost doubling the record of 10 set by Aziz Ansari.[61] Burr sold out 20,000 seats at the Los Angeles Forum on September 28, 2018.[62][63] In September 2021, he sold out Red Rocks Amphitheatre.[64] In 2023, he performed at the 5,000-seat ancient Roman amphitheater, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece.[65] In 2024, Bill performed in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 60,000 at Gillette Stadium where he followed Jay-Z for the Tom Brady 's Patriots Hall of Fame ceremony.[66][67]
Burr has been referred to as a "comedian's comedian" by observers of the American stand-up comedy circuit.[69][70]
Rolling Stone magazine called Burr "the undisputed heavyweight champ of rage-fueled humor".[71] Burr often portrays himself as "that loud guy in the bar" with "uninformed logic".[72] In an interview with The Boston Globe, Burr stated, "I'm the 'dude, bro' guy."[3] According to the Montreal Gazette, Burr is "a cynic and a contrarian who has never paid any heed to political correctness".[73]The New York Times in 2013 called Burr "one of the funniest, most distinctive voices in the country for years".[74] In 2022, The Hollywood Reporter described the variety and effectiveness of Burr's comedy and referred to his "mastery of the medium".[75]
Burr is married to Nia Renee Hill,[72][77] who sometimes appears as a guest on his podcast.[4] They reside in Los Angeles[6][74] and have two children: a daughter born in 2017[78] and a son born in 2020.[79]
^Marchese, David (May 2018). "In Conversation: Bill Burr". Vulture. Retrieved January 21, 2021. His dad, Robert, worked as a dentist and his mom, Linda Ann, was a nurse.
^ abZaino III, Nick A. (May 7, 2015). "Bill Burr makes fearlessness fun". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2015. Burr traces his work ethic to Canton, where he grew up in a big German-Irish family.
^"NLO 709: Burrned". Nobody Likes Onions. September 16, 2011. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
^Hartman, Shannon (August 23, 2008), Bill Burr: Why Do I Do This?, Bill Burr, archived from the original on February 10, 2017, retrieved February 7, 2018
