Bo Burnham

Bo Burnham cultivated a sizable online audience at age 16 through explicitly bawdy comedic tracks centered on romance, adolescent desire, and pointedly ironic breaches of political decorum. That digital momentum swiftly translated into headline music-comedy engagements and the summit of the Billboard Comedy Albums chart. His Comedy Central Records debut, the 2008 EP Bo Fo Sho, climbed to number three on the comedy tally while also registering on the Billboard 200. Acting offers in film and television surfaced by 2009, yet he kept issuing his own projects, delivering the chart-topping comedy albums Bo Burnham in 2009 and Words Words Words in 2010. Expanding his already razor-sharp, self-referential style, he headlined the 2013 MTV series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, which followed a teenager forgoing college in pursuit of celebrity; that same year he issued the number-one comedy album what., whose production incorporated heightened emphasis on choreography, lighting design, and pre-recorded sound elements. After suffering intensifying onstage anxiety, he publicly stated that the 2016 special Make Happy could mark his final stand-up outing. He redirected his efforts toward writing and directing his feature debut, the festival favorite Eighth Grade, released in 2018. He portrayed Ryan in the Oscar-nominated dark comedy Promising Young Woman in 2020, then unveiled a new special conceived, performed, and filmed entirely in isolation during pandemic lockdowns. The accompanying album, Inside (The Songs), achieved his strongest commercial showing to date, topped the comedy chart, reached number seven on the Billboard 200, and earned a Grammy for the track “All Eyes on Me.”

Raised in the Boston area, Burnham maintained honor-roll status when he began uploading clips to social platforms in 2006 solely to share them with a sibling away at college. An improvised stack of books served as his initial tripod, yet one shared link sparked another until his profane and humorous songs surpassed a million views. Comedy Central’s television and recording divisions responded by offering him a four-album contract in 2008; the label issued Bo Fo Sho that year, featuring the online favorite “My Whole Family (Thinks I’m Gay).” The EP reached number three on Billboard’s Comedy Albums chart and number 123 on the Billboard 200.

The following year, his next viral track, “I’m Bo Yo,” appeared on the comedy-chart-topping debut album Bo Burnham, which advanced to number 105 on the Billboard 200; physical copies added a bonus video of his 2009 Comedy Central Presents special. In 2010 he entered the Top 40 with his third comedy number one, Words Words Words, captured at Caroline’s on Broadway in Times Square. By then he had already acted in Judd Apatow’s Funny People and the independent comedy American Virgin.

In 2013 he embodied the title role across twelve episodes of the introspective MTV series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, which debuted in May. That December he released the stand-up special what., paired with another number-one comedy album on Comedy Central Records. Self-financed through touring, a free online version of the special accumulated tens of millions of views. During the subsequent tour, Burnham began experiencing panic attacks that shaped the material for 2016’s Make Happy, issued without an accompanying album. Shortly after its June arrival he declared his probable retirement from live comedy to concentrate on writing.

In 2018 he fulfilled that plan with his first feature as writer and director. The widely praised Eighth Grade starred Elsie Fisher as an anxious middle-school student intent on forging social bonds; the film received a Writers Guild of America Award for best original screenplay and an AFI Movie of the Year honor. After appearing in the Oscar-nominated features The Big Sick (2017) and Promising Young Woman (2020), Burnham intended to resume stage work, citing improved mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic instead shuttered venues for more than a year. Confined to his Los Angeles home, he wrote, composed, performed, shot, and edited his fifth special, 2021’s Inside, for Netflix. The ninety-minute program contained twenty original songs, among them “Look Who’s Inside Again,” “Welcome to the Internet,” and “30,” the last reflecting on turning thirty in lockdown. Shortly afterward he self-released the companion album Inside (The Songs). The Grammy-nominated project propelled him into the Billboard 200’s top ten upon its June 2021 release and secured a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media (“All Eyes on Me”) the following April. In June 2022 Burnham extended the project with the companion EP The Inside Outtakes and the double-album reissue Inside (Deluxe).