Jacqueline Novak


Jacqueline Novak is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and published author. Her Off-Broadway, one-woman show, Get On Your Knees is a New York Times "Critic's Pick." Her performance in this show has been nominated for a 2020 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. Novak's memoir How to Weep in Public: Feeble Offerings on Depression from One Who Knows was published by Crown in 2016.

Early Life

Novak was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the daughter of Gregory Novak, a retired marketing executive, and Naomi Novak. She is the youngest of three children. The family moved to Chappaqua, New York when she was two years old. She attended Horace Greeley High School there and then went on to Georgetown University. Novak and John Mulaney were in same college improv troupe at Georgetown, both cast by Nick Kroll, who himself was cast in that troupe a couple of years earlier by Mike Birbiglia.

Career

After graduation college, Novak began doing stand-up in the downtown New York City comedy scene, often hosting shows with comic/actor John Early. During this time, she wrote her memoir How to Weep in Public. She put her efforts next on developing a one-person show, which eventually became the hit Off-Broadway performance Get On Your Knees.
Novak has appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers and as well as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She has also been on The Late Late Show with James Corden, HBO's 2 Dope Queens, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, and has had her own half-hour stand-up special on Comedy Central's The Half Hour.
Her TV credits include appearances on Inside Amy Schumer, Animals, and . She has also written for Broad City, Good Talk with Anthony Jeselnik, and Soft Focus with Jena Friedman.

''Get On Your Knees''

Get On Your Knees began as a one-woman show Novak presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland in 2018. At the time, the show was called How Embarrassing for Her. After the festival, she workshopped it in Los Angeles. Mike Birbiglia and Natasha Lyonne saw the show, and Birbiglia decided to produce it for a six-week Off-Broadway run at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Manhattan's West Village. Lyonne agreed to present it. John Early was chosen as director. Due to its popularity, the run at Cherry Lane was extended, then moved to the larger Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theatre, also in the West Village. Recognized on two New York Times lists, "Best Theater of 2019" and "Best Comedy of 2019", the show was extended several more times.
A U.S. and international tour of the show is scheduled in 2020.