About Sara

Sara Benincasa is a comedian, actress, college speaker on mental health awareness, and the author of "Real Artists Have Day Jobs" (William Morrow 2016); "DC Trip" (Adaptive 2015); "Great" (HarperTeen 2014); and "Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom" (William Morrow 2012). She hosts the comedy & mental health podcast SOCIAL ANXIETY VARIETY HOUR.

Sara wrote for the 13th season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. She adapted "DC Trip" as a screenplay with Bona Fide, Gunpowder & Sky, and Adaptive Studios, and "Agorafabulous" as a pilot for TV with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody. "Great" has been optioned for television twice (so far).

Recent roles include criminal defense attorney Timmy Gianpaolo on Law & Order: SVU (2022), a comedic campaign for the NY Times with Art Class Content (2019), "Corporate" on Comedy Central (2018), "Bill Nye Saves The World"" on Netflix (2017), "The Jim Gaffigan Show" on TVLand (2016) and the critically acclaimed short film "The Focus Group" (2016), which she also wrote.

A former Sirius XM host and producer, she’s been heard on various programs on BBC World Service and NPR. She's appeared as a talking head on CNBC, CNN, and other networks. She’s guested on Chris Gethard's New Jersey is the World, WTF with Marc Maron, Bad with Money with Gaby Dunn, The Mental Illness Happy Hour, Throwing Shade, and several other podcasts.

Sara is a regular columnist for Pipewrench. She's written six cover stories for BUST magazine and one for Women's Health. As an opinion and features writer, she’s contributed to Buzzfeed, Bitch, Bust, Bustle, CNN, Glamour, the Guardian, InStyle, Longreads, the Sunday Longread and more.

Sara serves on the Creative Council for Emily’s List, one of the largest financial resources for women seeking elected office. She is also active on behalf of Miry's List, a small nonprofit that provides assistance to newly resettled refugee families in Southern California and beyond.

Sara has performed and/or taught workshops around the U.S. as well as in Canada, Germany and Norway. She's spoken to dozens of colleges, universities, comedy festivals, writers’ conferences and nonprofit groups about creative writing, storytelling, comedy and mental health awareness.

Sara attended Emerson College and has a degree in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C. She has an M.A. in Secondary School Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She's based in New York and travels frequently to Los Angeles.