Lizz Winstead (born August 5, 1961) is an American comedian, radio and television personality, and blogger. A native of Minnesota, Winstead was co-creator of The Daily Show along with Madeleine Smithberg, and served as head writer. Prior to The Daily Show Winstead, who got her start in the Minneapolis standup scene, was a successful national headlining comedian appearing on shows like HBO's Women of the Night and the Aspen Comedy Festival. She wrote and performed for early Comedy Central shows like Women Aloud, and produced the syndicated talk series The Jon Stewart Show, starring the future Daily Show host.^[1] She also served as the consulting producer on the pilot of The Man Show. ^[2]

During her time at The Daily Show she helped staff the program with signature talents like Stephen Colbert, Beth Littleford, Brian Unger and Lewis Black.^[1]

Winstead has appeared on various shows on CNN and MSNBC as well as a panelist on shows such as Politically Incorrect, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and the public access/PBS program Mental Engineering (where she was notably featured in an episode that aired following Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002). In 2002 she and Brian Unger created, wrote and co-hosted O2Be, a satire of network morning programs that was broadcast on the Oxygen network.

In 2003, she co-founded and served as the program director at Air America Radio. Until March 2005, she was also co-host of Unfiltered on Air America Radio, along with Rachel Maddow and Chuck D. ^[3]

Since May 2005 she has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

In 2006, she served as the executive producer of the Weekends with Maury and Connie program on MSNBC. The show was canceled later that year and in the last episode Connie Chung performed a musical number with lyrics by Winstead that became an Internet sensation called “Thanks for the Memories.” ^[4] Ironically, the video was viewed by a larger audience than the show ever had.

Since 2007 she has produced and hosted a live show in New York City called Shoot the Messenger, a satirical wrap-up of the week's news as seen through the eyes of six-hour morning show Wake Up World, and featuring interviews with such media notables as Rachel Maddow, Ted Rall, Kurt Andersen, Paul Rieckhoff, and Mark Crispin Miller.^[1]

Starting in April 2009, she has been appearing every Friday on MSNBC's The Ed Show.

[edit] References

2. [1] 3. [2] 4. [3] 5. [4] 6. [5]

[edit] External links

• Lizz Winstead at the Internet Movie Database
• The official Lizz Winstead site/blog
• Lizzland Tripod.com-hosted fan site (last updated 2002)
• Shoot the Messenger site
• Review of live show in New York, 2008, Jesterjournal.com
• Winstead with Christopher Hitchens on "Pop Culture & Politics" panel, June 17, 2008 @ fora.tv
• NYTimes 2008 profile piece.