Merrill Markoe

Life and Beth

Beth Lapides asks Emmy Award winning comedy writer Merrill Markoe: what makes you you? Merrill's answer, is like all things Merrill, simutaneously analytical and whimsical. She covers negative zen, stupid pet tricks, the secret to writing and inventing the format for Late Night with David Letterman.

Merrill, while best known for her Emmy Award winning writing on Late Night with David Leterman, has also written for Sex and the City, Newhart, Moonlightlng and HBO's Not Necessarily the News, for which she won a WGA award. She also wrote for and appeared on Michael Moore's TV Nation, wrote comedy specials for HBO and Cinemax, appeared on Friends, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and in The Aristocrats.

Merrill is a prolific writer. Her books include Cool, Calm and Contentious; How To Be Hap-Hap-Happy Like Me and What The Dogs Have Taught Me. She has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times and Glamour, among others. She appeared in Friends, has worked as a radio host and appears regularly at UnCabaret and its spinoff show Say The Word.