Kathy Griffin was raised in the near-west Chicago suburbs, in an Irish-American family. She has three older brothers and an older sister. When her parents retired to California, Kathy moved west with them after graduating from Oak Park River Forest High School and began trying to break into show business. She performed with the Groundlings and then paid her dues doing stand-up at various clubs until she was discovered. According to her brothers, as a kid, Kathy would circulate among the guests at parties and tell jokes. Kathy has a regular stand-up engagement at the Laugh Factory in L.A. and hosted the reality series Average Joe (2003). She stars in the Emmy winning reality series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2005).
