Winner of the 2009 ECNY Award for Best Short Comedic Film, Sara Benincasa is a comedian, writer and radio talk show host. She was a citizen journalist for the 2008 MTV Choose or Lose Street Team, part of MTV’s 2008 Emmy Award-winning Think campaign. Her political blog and video news reports can be found on MTV’s social justice and activism website, ThinkMTV. During the election, she created original web video content for the Huffington Post's humor site, 23/6.
Sara’s cheerfully quirky, politically outspoken, sexually charged comedy has won praise from the Chicago Tribune, CNN, the New York Times, ABCNews.com, Wired.com (“an up-and-coming comedian”), Time.com (“killer … improv-comedy charm”), Newsweek.com (“freaking hilarious”), Politico, The Guardian, The Independent, Agence France-Presse, Le Post, Le Figaro, The Huffington Post (“celebrated”), Time Out New York, Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008 (“hilarious”), Wonkette, New York, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paper, Fishbowl LA, Fishbowl DC, Buzzfeed, Celebrity Crunch, Trendhunter, Mahalo, and Big Head DC. She has discussed the youth vote and citizen journalism on MTV’s “Total Request Live,” MTV News, and CUNY-TV’s “Brian Lehrer Live.”
New York Times blogger Judith Warner deemed Sara “utterly hilarious.” On CNN’s “Situation Room,” Wolf Blitzer said that Sara was “very funny.” Sara thinks that’s great, because Wolf has been her secret boyfriend since she was 9. They plan a spring wedding.
She hosted Nerve.com’s hit “Tub Talk with Sara B.,” a notorious web talk show in which she interviewed comedians and humor writers in her bathtub. Guests included humorist Andy Borowitz (BorowitzReport.com), current SNL writer John Mulaney, 2007 Andy Kauffman Award winning comedian Reggie Watts, author Jonathan Ames, and a variety of other funny/smart/weird people.
Currently, Sara co-hosts "Get in Bed," a hilarious sex-chat show on Cosmo Radio (Sirius 111/XM 162), every weeknight from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m ET. She frequently appears on other Sirius XM channels, as well.
“Family Hour with Auntie Sara,” her critically acclaimed live show, packs the house downstairs at Comix in NYC’s Meatpacking District on the final Saturday of each month. The New York Post named “Family Hour with Auntie Sara” one of the city’s best bets for alternative comedy. The show has also won praise from New York magazine, Metromix.com, and an ever-growing cult of devoted “Family Hour” fans, who howl with laughter while stuffing their faces with Sara’s free, fancy-pants, gourmet frosted cupcakes.
Sara has a degree in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C. She has an M.A. in Secondary School Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She’s working on a hilarious book about panic attacks.
