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Robert Pickering Burnham (born August 21, 1990) is an American stand-up comedian, musician, actor, filmmaker, and YouTuber. Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with Comedy music, Sketch comedy, and stand-up comedy, commonly with a dramatic, satirical, or tragic twist that is often left open to interpretation.
In 2006, Burnham created a YouTube channel, where he uploaded videos of him playing comedy song that he wrote, often featuring wordplay and taboo or dark subject matter. The videos quickly went viral videos, making him one of the earliest YouTube stars. He began creating albums featuring his songs, such as Bo fo Sho (2008) and the self-titled album Bo Burnham (2009).
Burnham switched his focus from YouTube to performing stand-up comedy routines, which combined his comedy songs with traditional stand-up. He released three comedy specials, Words Words Words (2010), what. (2013), and Make Happy (2016). He also worked on the music and script for a comedy film that was ultimately scrapped. Burnham created and starred in the 2013 MTV mockumentary series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous. He also published the poetry book (2013). In 2016, Burnham announced his intention to step away from performing live, which he later revealed to be due to him suffering from anxiety and experiencing panic attacks on stage. He went on to make his filmmaking debut as the writer and director of the drama film Eighth Grade (2018) and began directing other comedians' comedy specials, as well as co-starring in the dark comedy thriller film Promising Young Woman (2020).
Burnham returned to performing with his fourth comedy special, (2021), 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. The special was nominated in six categories at the 73rd Emmy Awards, winning three. At the 64th Grammy Awards, Inside was nominated for Best Music Film and Best Song Written for Visual Media, winning the latter. Three songs from the special appeared also on the Billboard charts and were certified platinum in the United States, as was the accompanying album Inside (The Songs).
Accompanying himself on guitar or digital piano, Burnham continued to release self-described "pubescent musical comedy" songs and videos online as his audience grew. Described in The Boston Globe as "simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way", Burnham wrote and released songs about white supremacy, Helen Keller's disabilities, homosexuality, and more. All of Burnham's early videos were recorded in and around his family's home, mostly in his bedroom, and had an intentional "do-it-yourself feel, almost like voyeurism".
Burnham's music and performances tackle such subjects as class, race, gender, human sexuality, sex, and religion. Burnham describes his on-stage persona as a "more arrogant, stuck-up version of himself". When speaking with The Detroit News about his rapping, he expressed his intent to honor and respect the perspective and culture of hip-hop music.
Burnham recorded a performance in London for Comedy Central's The World Stands Up in January 2008 (aired June 30), making him the youngest person to do so at the age of 17, and signed a four-record deal with Comedy Central Records. Comedy Central Records released Burnham's first EP, the six-song Bo fo Sho, as an online release-only album on June 17, 2008. Burnham's first full album, the self-titled Bo Burnham, was released on March 10, 2009.
While performing at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival in 2008, Burnham met with director and producer Judd Apatow. In September 2008, he negotiated with Universal Pictures to write and create the music for an Apatow-produced comedy film which he described as the "anti- High School Musical", although he insisted that the script is not a parody of the Disney musicals, but rather an attempt to emulate the high school he attended. Hoping to also star in the film, Burnham told Wired that he named the lead character after himself in a "not-so-subtle hint". In a March 2009 interview with Boston's Weekly Dig, he said that he was spending eight hours a day writing the music for the film and spending his evenings writing the script. Burnham's high school friend Luke Liacos was co-writing the screenplay. In an October 2010 interview on MTV, Burnham admitted that he did not know anything about the future of the project, and that it was all effectively up in the air as far as he knew.
On March 3, 2009, fifteen Westminster College students (members of the campus' Gay-Straight Alliance, Black Students Association, International Club, and Cultural Diversity Organization) protested his concert there that evening, due to his use of homophobic and racist terms in performances. Of the controversy, he said, "It's so ironic because gay bashing were the ones labeling me in high school.... I try and write satire that's well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear and that's what makes it comedy." Despite the college's admission that they had booked Burnham while ignorant of his show's material, dean of students John Comerford praised the opportunities for discourse the controversy brought the school. In May 2009, viral marketing began appearing for Funny People, in which Burnham starred in an NBC sitcom called Yo Teach! In the promo, he starred opposite Jason Schwartzman as a student in the latter's English class.
On May 21, 2010, 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. Burnham finished in first place at the 2011 Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown.
In 2013, Burnham wrote, executive-produced, and starred in Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous alongside Dan Lagana, Luke Liacos, and Dave Becky. The series was cancelled after one season. He also released a book of poetry called .
Burnham's second special, what., was released on both Netflix and YouTube on December 17, 2013. His third special, Make Happy, was produced by Netflix and released on June 3, 2016.
Burnham directed Jerrod Carmichael's comedy special 8 (2017) for HBO and Chris Rock's comedy special (2018) for Netflix. In an interview with Vulture, he discussed his directorial outlook when directing a comedy special: "I approached the, which was me taking stock of the feelings that I get out of watching this person perform and asking, 'How can I recreate that for the audience as best as possible? How can I make a good container for the thing?' But the thing is being provided by them, so a lot of directing is just getting out of their way."
In 2019, it was announced Burnham would contribute songs to an upcoming Sesame Street film.
In 2020, Burnham played the protagonist's love interest Ryan Cooper in the black comedy revenge thriller film Promising Young Woman. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim, and was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In an interview, Burnham said, "This is a story I could never tell. This is a perspective I don't have. After doing my own things, it's like I really like the idea of, I just want to serve someone else's vision."
In March 2021, Burnham was cast as Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird in from HBO. Due to scheduling conflicts he left the series in August 2021.
Burnham directed, edited, and executive produced Carmichael's comedy special Rothaniel (2022), which received acclaim, including the 74th Emmy award for best writing for a variety special.
On May 30, 2022, the first anniversary of Inside, Burnham released 63 minutes of unseen footage from the special on YouTube, titled The Inside Outtakes. In June 2022, he released an accompanying album with the same name containing all the songs from the video and two new others. He also released Inside (Deluxe), 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.
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. At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, Inside (Deluxe Box Set) was nominated for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.
Burnham said of controversy surrounding his older material in 2009, "I try and write satire that's well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear, and that's what makes it comedy." As his career progressed, he began expressing regret for his early material, which he described as "Shock jock offensive comedy done by a 16-year-old without any tact". During press for his film Eighth Grade in 2018, he used the controversies surrounding his work to express concerns about the new concept of teenagers' mistakes being immortalized online: "I'm happy to be an example of someone who failed out loud publicly, in a certain way, and who has hopefully been able to evolve and get past that. And I do worry that kids don't have that freedom anymore." In an interview with NPR, he said that he has "a lot of material from back then that he's not proud of and thinks is offensive and not helpful". He further addressed this topic on the song "Problematic" from his 2021 comedy special .
Known to be a private person, Burnham usually avoids giving interviews or uploading to social media unless he promotes a new project. Having previously referenced struggling with Anxiety disorder and , particularly surrounding his creative work and performances, he confirmed in Inside that this was the reason he walked away from live performance.Bo Burnham. "All Eyes on Me". Inside
For his 2018 film Eighth Grade and 2021 comedy special Inside he received several awards and nominations for his writing and directing, including the following:
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Work
Filmography
Film
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Television
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Discography
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Bibliography
Awards and nominations
At the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he was nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award and won both the Edinburgh Comedy Awards' panel prize and the Malcolm Hardee "Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid" Award.
2018 Boston Society of Film Critics Best New Filmmaker Eighth Grade 2018 Chicago Film Critics Association Best Original Screenplay Most Promising Filmmaker 2018 Directors Guild of America Award Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film 2018 Independent Spirit Awards Best First Screenplay 2018 National Board of Review Best Directorial Debut 2018 New York Film Critics Circle Best First Film 2018 San Diego Film Critics Society Best Director Best Original Screenplay Best Breakout Artist 2018 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize 2019 Writers Guild of America Award Best Original Screenplay 2020 Hollywood Critics Association Best Supporting Actor Promising Young Woman 2021 Hollywood Critics Association Best Streaming Sketch Series, Variety Series, Talk Show, or Comedy/Variety Special 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming Outstanding Music Direction Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics 2022 Grammy Awards Best Music Film Best Song Written for Visual Media "All Eyes On Me" 2022 Libera Award Best Outlier Record Inside (The Songs) 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel 2024 Grammy Awards Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package Inside
(Deluxe Box Set)
External links
Categories: Official Website, 1990 Births, 21st-century American Comedians, 21st-century American Male Actors, 21st-century American Male Writers, 21st-century American Rappers, 21st-century American Screenwriters, American Comedy Musicians, American Comedy Writers, American Male Comedians, American Male Film Actors, American Male Television Actors, American Male Television Writers, American Television Writers, American Male Voice Actors, American Stand-up Comedians, American Vine Celebrities, Comedians From Massachusetts, Comedy-related Youtube Channels, Directors Guild Of America Award Winners, Filmmakers From Massachusetts, Grammy Award Winners, Living People, Male Actors From Massachusetts, People From Hamilton, Massachusetts, Primetime Emmy Award Winners, Rappers From Massachusetts, Screenwriters From Massachusetts, Singer-songwriters From Massachusetts, Writers Guild Of America Award Winners, St. John's Preparatory School Alumni, Youtubers From Massachusetts
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