2024 Red Eye Comedy Festival Featuring: Beth Stelling

Beth started stand-up in Chicago where she became a member of Chicago Underground Comedy and hosted a Sunday night variety show with her best friends (The Puterbaugh Sisters) called Entertaining Julia (Julia was the bartender) at Town Hall Pub. After just three years Beth was named “Best Stand-up Comedian in Chicago” by The Chicago Reader in 2010. Before leaving Chicago Beth took improv classes at The Annoyance Theater. There she met Meg Johns who invited her along with three other women (Maari Suorsa, Mary Hollis Inboden and Thea Lux) to devise their own characters in the summer hit Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche. These five performers’ long-form improvisation went on to be scripted and is now performed around the world!

Beth was selected from a Chicago showcase to be a New Face of Comedy in Montreal’s renowned Just for Laughs Festival and then moved to Los Angeles. Within her first year in L.A., Beth made her late night TV debut on CONAN and appearances on Comedy Central’s @midnight, Chelsea Lately and The Pete Holmes Show.

Beth was asked to do stand-up on Jimmy Kimmel Live after Jimmy saw her perform at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. That year Beth filmed SXSW Comedy with W. Kamau Bell in Austin, Texas as well as her her first half hour comedy special “Boner Appétit to You” produced by Comedy Central in Boston, and Vulture named it one of the “Best Stand-up Specials of 2015.” She then released her comedy album “Simply the Beth” which The Interrobang and Splitsider named one of the Top Ten Comedy Albums of 2015. Beth’s second half hour stand-up special was filmed in L.A. and produced by Netflix for The Standups series (Beth can be found on season 1, episode 5). Her performance left Paste Magazine, “wanting to now see a full hour from Stelling.” HBO Max answered their call with Beth’s first hour stand-up special “Girl Daddy” produced by Conan O’Brien and Team Coco. The New York Times named it “The Best Debut Special of the year,” adding, “It’s a virtuosic performance, conversational while dense with jokes.” Her new hour special “If You Didn’t Want Me Then” was filmed in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio at the beautiful Victoria Theatre and releases October 3, 2023.

Outside of stand-up, Beth writes for television and film. Her credits include I Love You America with Sarah Silverman, The Last O.G. on TBS, Judd Apatow’s HBO series Crashing, Another Period on Comedy Central, Apple’s new animated series Strange Planet and season 8 of Rick and Morty for Adult Swim. Beth is a go-to hire for punch-up on features, after getting her start as an on-set writer and Associate Producer for the hit summer film Good Boys written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

On the acting front, Beth had a recurring role on Peacock’s comedy Rutherford Falls opposite Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding. She can also be seen in season 2 of Amazon’s series Red Oaks opposite Jennifer Grey, as well as guest starring on Comedy Central’s series Corporate. Beth had an online talk show called Drinks of My Life with JASH and Thrillist that can be found on YouTube. She’s also enjoyed voicing animated characters on American Dad, Pickle and Peanut and Strange Planet. You’re welcome to listen to Beth’s podcast (hosted with her mom Diane) entitled We Called Your Mom which has two seasons on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.