Jo Firestone

Joanna Firestone was born in 1987 to Jewish parents Fred and Marilyn Firestone.[2] She has a brother, Ben Firestone, who works in commercial real estate. She grew up in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. She graduated from Clayton High School and later Wesleyan University in Connecticut, with a degree in theatre.[3]

As an actress, Firestone has appeared in the TV programs Search Party, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Broad City, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CollegeHumor Originals, Boy Band, The Outs, Night Train with Wyatt Cenac, Animal Agent, High Maintenance, Jon Glaser Loves Gear, Thanksgiving, The Special Without Brett Davis, Shrill, and others.[4] She was consulting producer on 21 episodes of The Chris Gethard Show and performed in three episodes of the series.[5]

She is currently a writer for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and for The Special Without Brett Davis. She has also performed on the Tonight Show, portraying U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos,[6] demonstrating products from the New York Toy Fair,[7] and appearing in other sketches opposite host Jimmy Fallon.[8] She is also currently playing the character Sarah Conner, a band teacher, on Joe Pera Talks with You, which airs during Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.[9][4] The character's name is an homage to the Terminator movies; her character is a doomsday prepper on the show and Joe Pera's girlfriend.[10]

Firestone is the host of the program Dr. Gameshow, which originated on WFMU radio and is now a podcast on the Maximum Fun network.[11][12] She and her father Fred Firestone created the game Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers (published by Random House subsidiary Clarkson Potter, 2016).[13]

Firestone has performed stand-up comedy on Comedy Central,[14] at the UCB Theater in Manhattan, and around New York City.[15][16] About stand-up gigs in "cellar clubs," Firestone explained, "Doing comedy in New York, I’ve been conditioned to thrive in basements. I’m not ready to do a comedy show until I go down a flight of stairs."[17]

With Dylan Marron, Firestone wrote, performed in, and directed Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite,[18] which received a Capital Fringe Festival Director's Award in 2010.[19]

Firestone voice acts in The National Lampoon Radio Hour podcast.[20] She serves as the producer and senior writer along with Cole Escola.[21]

She is currently based in Brooklyn.

In February 2020, Firestone released the first episode of her podcast Everyday Decisions.[22] Everyday Decisions is a comedy and personal stories podcast where Firestone interviews friends, family, and fellow comedians about the past 24 hours of their day to figure out what helps them get through it.

In March 2020 Firestone went on comedian Mike Recine's podcast The Sitdown.[23]

• Jo Firestone at IMDb
• Official website
• "Game-loving comic Jo Firestone plays a wild card to make Pick A Choice history"