Joy Behar

Joy Behar
File:Joybeharpic (cropped).jpg Behar in March 2010
Born	Josephine Victoria Occhiuto (1942-10-07) October 7, 1942 Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Education	Queens College (BA) Stony Brook University (MA)
Occupation	Comedian, writer, actor, television host
Years active	1984–present
Known for	The View co-host (1997–2013, 2015–present)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Joe Behar (m. 1965; div. 1982) Steve Janowitz (m. 2011)
Children	1

Josephine Victoria "Joy" Behar (/ˈbeɪhɑːr/; née Occhiuto; born October 7, 1942) is an American comedian, writer, TV presenter and actress. She co-hosts the ABC daytime talk show The View. She hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN from 2009 to 2011 and Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current TV, from 2012 until the channel switched formats in August 2013. Behar's latest weekly late-night talk show, Late Night Joy, aired on TLC in 2015. She also wrote The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World.

Early life

Behar was born Josephine Victoria Occhiuto in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, the only child to a Roman Catholic family of Italian descent. Her mother, Rose (née Carbone), was a seamstress, and her father, Gino Occhiuto, was a truck driver for Coca-Cola. Behar earned a BA in sociology from Queens College in 1964 and an MA in English education from Stony Brook University in 1966. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, she taught English on Long Island at Lindenhurst Senior High School in Lindenhurst, New York. She studied acting at the HB Studio.

Career

Career beginnings

Behar started her career in show business in the early 1980s as a receptionist and later a producer on Good Morning America.

She was a stand-up comedian and made appearances on ABC's Good Morning America and The New Show, a short-lived Lorne Michaels NBC project. In 1987, she had a talk show on Lifetime Television called Way Off Broadway and was a host on the show Live from Queens. From there, she continued to work the comedy club circuit, was a regular on NBC's Baby Boom, and had minor film roles including Cookie, This Is My Life, and Manhattan Murder Mystery. She was a WABC radio talk-show host, and made appearances on HBO comedy specials One Night Stand and Women of the Night 2.

The View

In 1997, Behar became one of the original panelists of the ABC daytime talk show The View, which was co-created by Barbara Walters. Behar originally appeared only on the days when Walters was off, but she ultimately became a permanent co-host. Behar occasionally hosted a segment called "Joy's Comedy Corner" in which she presented both established and up-and-coming comedians.

In August 2009, Behar and the other co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd, and Barbara Walters, won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host following over a decade of nominations for the show.

The View's panel (left–right Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck) interview United States President Barack Obama on July 29, 2010.

On March 7, 2013, it was announced that Behar would be leaving the show at the end of the current season. She told Deadline, "It seemed like the right time...You reach a point when you say to yourself, 'Do I want to keep doing this?' There are other things on my plate I want to do — I've been writing a play, I've been neglecting my standup". Her last show was on August 9, 2013 in which the program staged a "This is Your Life" style tribute to Behar.

After departing in 2013, Behar continued to guest co-host throughout 2014 and 2015. On August 25, 2015, ABC announced that Behar would return as a regular co-host starting with the premiere of the 19th season on September 8, 2015. Behar was quoted as saying, "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Plus, Steve was getting tired of applauding every time I gave my opinion. But I'm happy to be back home. And I'm looking forward to sticking my two cents into the hot topics, especially now that Hillary and the Donald are in the spotlight."

In September 2015, Behar and fellow co-host Michelle Collins poked fun at Miss America 2016 contestant Kelley Johnson's monologue about her occupation as a registered nurse, during which Johnson had on nursing scrubs and a stethoscope. Collins called Johnson's monologue "hilarious" and that "she was reading her emails out loud," while Behar questioned why Johnson had "a doctor's stethoscope on." The controversy resulted in an immediate social media backlash from the nursing profession, including the hashtag #NursesUnite. Two days later, Collins and Behar apologized for their remarks.

During a "Hot Topics" discussion about Omarosa's comments in regards to Vice President Mike Pence's religiosity in February 2018, Behar remarked: "It's one thing to talk to Jesus, it's another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct, hearing voices." While Behar clarified later in the show that she did not think Pence was mentally ill, her earlier remarks sparked criticism as well as a response from Pence himself, who accused the show of expressing "religious intolerance." Content analysis organization Media Research Center subsequently launched a campaign demanding an apology from Behar and urging viewers to do so, resulting in 40,000 calls to ABC as well as 6,000 complaints to the show's advertisers. On March 13, Behar issued an on-air apology, stating: "I think Vice President Pence is right; I was raised to respect everyone’s religious faith, and I fell short of that. I sincerely apologize for what I said."

Behar took time off from co-hosting the series beginning March 16, 2020 as a precaution due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Joy Behar Show

Beginning in 2007, she occasionally filled in as a guest host on Larry King Live. On June 11, 2009, Behar announced that she would be hosting her own news/talk program on CNN's HLN beginning in the fall of 2009, titled The Joy Behar Show. She did not leave The View but worked on both shows simultaneously. Despite reportedly being the network's second-highest-rated show, HLN decided to cancel the talk show after only two years. The final broadcast of The Joy Behar Show aired on December 15, 2011.

Joy Behar: Say Anything!

In June 2012, it was formally announced that Behar would be getting another talk show, Joy Behar: Say Anything!, premiering September 4, 2012 on the Current TV network. Its content is expected to be in line with her previous HLN series. Before the new show's launch, Behar began acting as fill-in host for Eliot Spitzer's Current TV talk show, Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, starting on July 18, 2012. The show ended in August 2013 due to Current TV being purchased by Al Jazeera and being replaced by Al Jazeera America.

Late Night Joy

Behar's new weekly late night talk show, Late Night Joy, premiered on TLC on November 4, 2015. Each episode features Behar having intimate chats with friends in her New York City apartment.

Other work

Behar has performed in theatrical plays, including The Food Chain, The Vagina Monologues, and Love, Loss and What I Wore. She has also performed in an Off-Broadway one-woman show entitled Me, My Mouth and I.

She has written multiple books, such as a collection of humorous essays and stories called Joy Shtick — Or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments? and a children's book called Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog, published in 2006.

She appeared on the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown and finished in fourth place, behind Robin Tunney, Christopher Meloni and Macy Gray, but ahead of Andy Dick. She played for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. On October 27, 2017, Behar appeared as a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Behar portrayed the role of Dr. Lucy in the 2011 comedy film Hall Pass. She also recurred in Woody Allen's Amazon series, Crisis in Six Scenes.

Personal life

From 1965 to 1981, Behar was married to college professor Joe Behar. They have a daughter, Eve Behar Scotti (born 1970). Through Eve, Behar has a grandson named Luca (born February 2011). Since 1982, Behar has been in a relationship with Steve Janowitz, whom she called her "spousal equivalent". In March 2009, Behar announced on The View that she might eventually marry Janowitz, but she called off the engagement three months later because she wanted people to stop talking about it. They eventually married on August 11, 2011.

Behar is a Democrat.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Hiding Out	Gertrude
1989	Cookie	Dottie
1992	This Is My Life	Rudy
1993	Manhattan Murder Mystery	Marilyn
1996	'M' Word	Carol
	Love Is All There Is	Mary
2009	Madea Goes to Jail	Joy Behar
2011	Hall Pass	Dr. Lucy
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Eunice (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988–1989	Baby Boom	Helga Von Haput	13 episodes
1989–1990	It's Garry Shandling's Show	Joy Mull/Joy Smith	2 episodes
1990	The Rock	Joy Capedeluca	Television Series
1991	Wisecracks	Herself	Documentary
1996	Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist	Joy	2 episodes
1997–2013 2015–present	The View	Herself
2000	Spin City	Joy Behar	Episode: The Marry Caitlin Moore Show
2001	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	42	Episode: 42
2005–17	Real Time with Bill Maher	Herself	4 episodes
2007	30 Rock	Joy Behar	Episode: Up All Night
2009	Ugly Betty	Joy Behar	Episode: Curveball
2016	Nashville	Joy Behar	Episode: It's Sure Gonna Hurt
2016	Crisis in Six Scenes	Ann	3 episodes
2018	Crashing	Joy Behar	Episode: Bill Burr

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Notes
1994	Comedy Tonight	Performer	Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Broadway
1999	The Vagina Monologues	Performer (replacement)	Westside Theatre, Off-Broadway
2008	The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken	Performer	Gershwin Theatre, Broadway
2014	Me, My Mouth and I	Herself	Cherry Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway

Bibliography

Behar has authored several books, including several children's books:

• The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World (2017)
• Sheetzucacapoopoo 2: Max Goes to the Dogs (2009)
• When You Need a Lift: But Don't Want to Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin (2007)
• Sheetzu Caca Poopoo: My Kind of Dog (2006)
• Joy Shtick: Or What Is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments (1999)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1995	CableACE Awards	Animated Programming Series	Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist	Won
1998	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Talk Show Host	The View	Nominated
1999				Nominated
2000				Nominated
2001				Nominated
2002				Nominated
2003				Nominated
2004				Nominated
2005				Nominated
2006				Nominated
2007				Nominated
2008				Nominated
2009				Won
2010				Nominated
2010	GLAAD Media Award	Excellence in Media Award	N/A	Won
2011	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Talk Show Host	The View	Nominated
2013	People's Choice Award	Favorite Daytime TV Host		Nominated
2016	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host		Nominated
2017				Nominated
2018				Nominated
2019				Nominated
2020		Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host		Pending

See also

• Broadcast journalism
• New Yorkers in journalism

External links

• Joy Behar at the Internet Movie Database
• Joy Behar at AllMovie
• Joy Behar at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joy Behar at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• ABC News: Joy Behar on Faith Part One
• ABC News: Joy Behar on Faith Part Two

Media offices
Preceded by First	The View co-host 1997–2013	Succeeded by Jenny McCarthy
Preceded by Rosie Perez Nicolle Wallace	The View co-host 2015–present	Succeeded by Incumbent