Esther Povitsky, sometimes known by the stage name "Little Esther", is an American actress and comedian. She is the co-creator and star of the comedy seriesAlone Together, and stars as Izzy in the Hulu series Dollface as of 2019. Her debut comedy special, Hot For My Name, premiered on Comedy Central on July 17, 2020.
Early life and education
Esther Povitsky was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mary and Morrie Povitsky. Her father is of Russian-Jewish descent and her mother is a Christian of Finnish descent. She has one older half-sister from her mother's first marriage. Povitsky was raised in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, where she graduated from Niles North High School in 2006. Following high school, Povitsky attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and acting. "I was really unhappy at my school," Povitsky recalled. "A lot of people were in sororities and a lot of people drank all the time, and I wasn't into either of those things, so I really did not feel like I fit in." She subsequently studied comedy at iO Chicago and The Second City in Chicago before relocating to Los Angeles, where she took classes with The Groundlings. In Los Angeles, Povitsky has performed regularly at The Comedy Store, The Ice House, and The Improv.
Career
2012–2014: Early projects
Povitsky recurred as Maya on the series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from 2016 until 2019. Other television appearances include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Love, and Parks and Recreation. Povitsky also survived several rounds of 2015's Last Comic Standing. Povitsky was the first female guest to appear on The Joe Rogan Experience, after which she began podcasting with Deathsquad.tv regularly. She hosted Little Esther's Piecast and was the former co-host of Brode & Esther with fellow comedian Brody Stevens as well as Weird Adults with Little Esther and Glowing Up, a makeup and beauty-themed podcast which she co-hosts with writer Caroline Goldfarb. She often appears as a guest on the network's Ice House Chronicles. In 2012, Povitsky turned down an offer from MTV to do a reality show based on her life as a comedian because she felt the series would be too invasive.
In 2015, Povitsky wrote, starred in, and produced the short filmAlone Together. The short was later adapted into a pilot for Freeform, produced by The Lonely Island. In December 2016, the pilot was picked up to series. In October, 2017, Freeform renewed the series for a second season ahead of its January 2018 debut. The series was canceled after its second season in 2019. On July 17, 2020, Povitsky's debut comedy special, Hot for My Name, was released through Comedy Central.
