Esther Povitsky

Esther Povitsky (born March 2, 1988),[1][2] sometimes known by the stage name "Little Esther", is an American actress and comedian. She is the co-creator and star of the comedy series Alone Together (2018–2019), and stars as Izzy in the Hulu series Dollface as of 2019. Her debut comedy special, Hot For My Name, premiered on Comedy Central on July 17, 2020.

Esther Povitsky
Povitsky in 2012
Born (1988-03-02) March 2, 1988
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other namesLittle Esther
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (dropped out)
Occupation
  • Writer
  • actor
  • comedian
  • producer
Years active2008–present
Known forCrazy Ex-Girlfriend
Alone Together

Early life and education

Esther Povitsky was born in Chicago, Illinois[3] to Mary and Morrie Povitsky.[4] Her father is of Russian-Jewish descent and her mother is a Christian of Finnish descent.[5][6] She has one older half-sister from her mother's first marriage.[7] Povitsky was raised in the Chicago suburb of Skokie,[8] where she graduated from Niles North High School in 2006.

Following high school, Povitsky attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and acting.[9] "I was really unhappy at my school," Povitsky recalled. "A lot of people were in sororities and a lot of people drank all the time, and I wasn't into either of those things, so I really did not feel like I fit in."[10] She subsequently studied comedy at iO Chicago and The Second City in Chicago before relocating to Los Angeles, where she took classes with The Groundlings.[11] In Los Angeles, Povitsky has performed regularly at The Comedy Store, The Ice House, and The Improv.[12][13]

Career

2012–2014: Early projects

Povitsky recurred as Maya on the series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from 2016 until 2019. Other television appearances include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Love, and Parks and Recreation. Povitsky also survived several rounds of 2015's Last Comic Standing (season 9).[14]

Povitsky was the first female guest to appear on The Joe Rogan Experience, after which she began podcasting with Deathsquad.tv regularly. She hosted Little Esther's Piecast[15] and was the former co-host of Brode & Esther with fellow comedian Brody Stevens[16] as well as Weird Adults with Little Esther[17] and Glowing Up, a makeup and beauty-themed podcast which she co-hosts with writer Caroline Goldfarb.[18] She often appears as a guest on the network's Ice House Chronicles.[19]

In 2012, Povitsky turned down an offer from MTV to do a reality show based on her life as a comedian because she felt the series would be too invasive.[20][21]

2015–present: Alone Together and Hot for My Name
Main article: Alone Together (TV series)

In 2015, Povitsky wrote, starred in, and produced the short film Alone Together. The short was later adapted into a pilot for Freeform, produced by The Lonely Island.[22] In December 2016, the pilot was picked up to series.[23] In October, 2017, Freeform renewed the series for a second season ahead of its January 2018 debut.[24] The series was canceled after its second season in 2019.[10]

On July 17, 2020, Povitsky's debut comedy special, Hot for My Name, was released through Comedy Central.[25]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2008 The Express: The Ernie Davis Story Teen Model Uncredited
2010 April Val Monroe Short film
2011 All in All Nicole Short film
2011 The Eater Sandy Short film
2014 My Daughter's Boyfriend Sara Martinson Short film
2015 Alone Together Esther Short film
2015 What a Nice Party Short film
2016 Worst Birthday Short film
2018 Dude Alicia

Television
Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2010–2011 Jimmy Kimmel Live! Little sister / Bristol Palin / Jimmy's Sister Guest role; 3 episodes
2011 New Girl Krystal Episode: "Bells"
2012 Daddy Knows Best Babysitter Episode: "The Babysitter"
2013 Parks and Recreation Julie Episode: "Swing Vote"
2013–2015 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Herself Guest role; 2 episodes [26]
2013 Last Call with Carson Daly Herself Guest appearance [26]
2013 Brody Stevens: Enjoy It! Herself Recurring role; 3 episodes
2013 Adam Devine's House Party Herself Episode: "Space Jump II" [26]
2014 Talking Marriage with Ryan Bailey Herself Episode: "Comedians in Car Ports"
2014 Esther With Hot Chicks Herself Web series (3 episode run for MTV)
2014 Pound House Phone Girl Recurring role; 2 episodes
2014 Hope and Randy Hope Television mini-series
2014 Key and Peele Cassie Episode: "Alien Impostors"
2014 Six Guys One Car Pawn Shop Girl Recurring role; 2 episodes
2015 Difficult People Cissy Donato Episode: "The Children's Menu"
2015 Candidly Nicole Herself Episode: "Ex-Girlfriend"
2015–present Cocktales with Little Esther Herself Web series; host
2015–2016 @midnight Herself Guest appearance; 4 episodes [26]
2016 Workaholics Jordana Episode: "Save the Cat"
2016 Lady Dynamite Kristy Coombs Episode: "Loaf Coach"
2016 The Amazing Gayl Pile Jenny Recurring role; 3 episodes
2016 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Emily Episode: "Coral Palms: Part 2" [26]
2016 Not Safe with Nikki Glaser Herself Episode: "I'm the Boat"
2016–2018 Love Alexis Guest role; 3 episodes
2016–2019 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Maya Recurring role; 19 episodes
2018 Alone Together Esther Main role; 20 episodes; also co-creator, executive producer
2018 Late Night with Seth Meyers Herself Episode: "Leslie Jones/Tracy Letts/Esther Povitsky/John Stanier"
2018 Harry Herself Guest appearance
2018 The Story of our Times Candace Television film
2019 Shrill Kayla Episode: "Pencil"
2019–present Dollface Izzy Main role

Comedy specials
Year Title Notes Ref.
2020 Hot For My Name Premiered on Comedy Central [25]

Podcasts
Year Title Notes Ref.
2011–2014 Brode & Esther Co-hosted with Brody Stevens [16]
2012–2017 Weird Adults with Little Esther Interview-style podcast [27][28]
2017–present Glowing Up Beauty and lifestyle-themed podcast; co-hosted with Caroline Goldfarb [29]
2020–present Esther Club Solo podcast [30]
gollark: It plays a large chunk of audioforms very fast and complains about dropped packets.
gollark: I tried using `io.BufferedReader(bytestream, buffer_size=2**19)` in place of it, but it appears to have worsened things.
gollark: It might? I'm just using its `.read` method or something.
gollark: `<urllib3.response.HTTPResponse object at 0x7fa92a93e490>`
gollark: I don't really know how to usefully apply that to this.

References
  1. "Esther Povitsky". DirecTV. AT&T. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020.
  2. "Esther Povitsky". Noovie. National CineMedia, LLC. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020.
  3. Skiles, Christa (2020). "Five Questions with Esther Povitsky". Dramatics. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020.
  4. Swartz, Tracy (June 1, 2020). "Esther Povitsky returns home for new Comedy Central special". Concord Monitor. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020.
  5. Frydburg, Tracy (January 24, 2018). "For a couple of Jewish millennial BFFs, poor and platonic equals funny". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020.
  6. Povitsky, Esther (August 17, 2017). "You Had Your First Orgasm to the Pam Anderson Porn?". Guys We F****d (Interview). Interviewed by Fisher, Corinne; Hutchinson, Krystyna. Event occurs at 42:00 – via Acast.
  7. Oltuski, Romy (July 16, 2020). "Please Pay Attention To Esther Povitsky (Please?)". Elle. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020.
  8. Slefo, George (June 25, 2012). "MTV Buys Pilot From Skokie Native". Patch. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020.
  9. Gardner, Tara (November 6, 2019). "Who to Watch: Esther Povitsky". Chicago Splash. Archived from the original on April 30, 2020.
  10. Floyd, Thomas (January 16, 2019). "'Alone Together's' Esther Povitsky is happy hitting the stage on her own". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020.
  11. "Esther Povitsky - LA Casting". Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  12. "Little Esther - Comedian". Improv.com. September 12, 2011. Archived from the original on September 12, 2011.
  13. "The Ice House :: Esther Povitsky". Icehousecomedy.com. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  14. "'Last Comic Standing' Season 9 Premiere Recap: Meeting The Comedians". Buddytv.com. Archived from the original on 2017-06-09. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  15. "Search Results piecast". Deathsquad.tv. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  16. "Brode & Esther". Deathsquad.tv. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020.
  17. "Feral Audio // Weird Adults with Little Esther". Feralaudio.com. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  18. "Feral Audio //Glowing Up with Esther and Caroline". Feralaudio.com. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  19. "Search Results little esther ice house". Deathsquad.tv. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  20. "Belgian Man Arrested in Los Angeles for Allegedly Stalking Comedian Esther Povitsky". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 3, 2018.
  21. "Pierre Van Lint, Belgian Man, Arrested For Allegedly Stalking Comedian Esther Povitsky". The Huffington Post. Associated Press. February 29, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  22. Petski, Denise (July 5, 2016). "Freeform Greenlights 'Alone Together' Comedy Pilot From Lonely Island". Deadline. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  23. Wagmeister, Elizabeth (2016-12-15). "Freeform Greenlights The Lonely Island's Comedy 'Alone Together'". Variety. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  24. Pedersen, Erik (October 18, 2017). "The Lonely Island's 'Alone Together' Gets Season 2 Renewal Ahead Of January Premiere On Freeform". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  25. Braxton, Greg (July 16, 2020). "She was a rising star of L.A.'s comedy scene. Then COVID-19 halted comedy altogether". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 17, 2020.
  26. "Esther Povitsky Credits". TV Guide. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  27. "Weird Adults with Little Esther". Stitcher. Archived from the original on June 21, 2018.
  28. "Weird Adults with Little Esther". TuneIn. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020.
  29. Manders, Hayden (September 1, 2017). "THE GLOWING UP GIRLS' GUIDE TO FAKING THAT COOL GIRL L.A. GLOW". Nylon. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020.
  30. "Esther Club with Esther Povitsky". Apple Music. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
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