Guy Branum
Branum in 2015
Born (1975-11-12) November 12, 1975
Marysville, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
University of Minnesota
Occupations
  • Actor
  • comedian
  • writer
Years active2002–present

Guy Branum (/ˈbrænəm/) (born November 12, 1975)[1] is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known as the head writer of, and a sketch performer on, X-Play on the G4 network and as a regular panelist on Chelsea Lately on the E! network. He used to host the podcast Pop Rocket on the Maximum Fun network and hosted TruTV's Talk Show the Game Show.

Early life

Branum was born and raised in Yuba City, California to a Protestant father and Jewish mother.[2][3] He attended the University of California, Berkeley[2] from 1994-1998 where he was a history and political science major. He wrote a column for the Daily Californian,[2] one of which brought the United States Secret Service to his apartment in November 1997 before the Big Game between Berkeley and Stanford University, in which the Associated Press misquoted parts of his article, suggesting that he made suggestions that Berkeley students murder Stanford freshman Chelsea Clinton.[4][5][6]

He then moved to Minnesota, where he attended the University of Minnesota Law School,[2] and was on the school's Quiz Bowl team that placed third at CBI nationals in 1999.[7] During his time in law school, he publicly came out as gay.[3] After graduating, he returned to California.

Career

After being recommended by co-hostess Laura Swisher, Branum was hired as a writer for Unscrewed with Martin Sargent while it was still on TechTV in San Francisco.[8] On Unscrewed, he regularly appeared as a sweater model and as The Ambassador of Gay. He was also a writer and producer on G4tv.com, and head writer on the G4 channel program X-Play. He also contributed to the comedy podcast Weezy and the Swish. In December 2007, Branum became a writer and an onscreen comedy performer on Chelsea Lately.[2] He made his feature film debut in January 2011 in No Strings Attached. In 2012 Branum became a writer for the show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, performing a recurring segment "No More Mr. Nice Gay."[9] He appeared in the eighth season of Last Comic Standing. In 2017, Branum performed at the inaugural Portland Queer Comedy Festival.[10]

He was the host and executive producer of Talk Show The Game Show on TruTV, which was canceled in November 2018.[11]

He was the regular host of Pop Rocket, a podcast that dissects popular culture, on the Maximum Fun network, which was cancelled in May 2019.[12]

His book My Life As A Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture was published in 2018 with a foreword by Mindy Kaling.[13]

He is a frequent guest on the podcasts Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and Doug Loves Movies with Doug Benson.

Branum released his first comedy album, Effable, in 2015 on Aspecialthing Records.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Branum identified himself as 33 years old in an August 2009 airing of Comedians of Chelsea Lately
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Seabaugh, Julie (2017-04-05). "How Guy Branum Turned a Dinner Party Challenge Into a New TV Show". L.A. Weekly. Archived from the original on 2017-11-12. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  3. 1 2 Interview Archived 2018-08-01 at the Wayback Machine on Midday on WNYC July 31, 2018
  4. ↑ Foundation, The Bulldog Newspaper. "Secret Service Roust - Opinion Section". www.bulldognews.net. Archived from the original on 2017-11-23. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  5. ↑ "Secret Service searches college journalist's apartment". Archived from the original on 2006-06-14. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
  6. ↑ "Stanford University". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2017-11-12. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  7. ↑ Justin, Neal (March 31, 2017). "Comedian Guy Branum gets serious about his debt to Minnesota". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  8. ↑ Sparkle & Circulate with Justin Sayre podcast episode Guy and Doll, August 28th, 2015
  9. ↑ "'Totally Biased's Guy Branum Calls Out the James Franco Roast for Being Homophobic | Splitsider". splitsider.com. Archived from the original on 13 September 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  10. ↑ "Portland Gets Its First-Ever Queer Comedy Festival". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on 2019-11-16. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
  11. ↑ Wright, Megh (1 November 2018). "Guy Branum's Talk Show the Game Show Canceled at truTV". Vulture. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  12. ↑ "Pop Rocket". Maximum Fun. 8 December 2015. Archived from the original on 14 November 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  13. ↑ "MY LIFE AS A GODDESS". Kirkus Reviews.
  14. ↑ "On Effable, Guy Branum imbues observational humor with personal pain". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 2018-11-19. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
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