Chelsea Joy Handler[1] (born February 25, 1975)[2] is an American comedian, actress, writer, television host, producer, and activist. She hosted the late-night talk show Chelsea Lately on the E! network from 2007 to 2014, and released a documentary series, Chelsea Does, on Netflix in January 2016.[3] Between 2016 and 2017, Handler hosted the talk show, Chelsea, on Netflix.[4]

In 2012, Time named Handler one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual Time 100 list.[5][6] Handler was born in Livingston, New Jersey, the youngest of six children of Rita (née Stoecker), a homemaker, and Seymour Handler, a used car dealer.[7][8][9] Her American father is Ashkenazi Jewish; her German-born mother, who came to the United States in 1958, was a Mormon.[7][10] Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989,[11] and battled the disease for over 15 years before dying of it in 2006.[12] Handler was raised in Reform Judaism and had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony.[13][14][15][16] She summered in Martha’s Vineyard, where her parents owned a house.[17]

Handler has two sisters and three brothers; her eldest brother, Chet, died when he was 21, in a hiking accident in the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. She was 9 years old at the time.[18] At age 19, she moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles, California, where she lived in her aunt’s home, in Bel Air,[19] and pursued acting while working as a waitress to support herself.[20] At 21, Handler decided to pursue stand-up comedy after telling her story about driving under the influence to a class of other offenders, who found it funny.[2]