Top Memoirs by Beloved Female Comedians

You may recognize Ali Wong from her award-winning comedy specials or her roles in projects like “Beef” and “Always Be My Maybe,” with the San Francisco native making a name for herself as an actor, comedian, and TV writer. “Dear Girls,” her 2019 memoir, marks the first entry in our list of comedian-written autobiographies, with the publication being written as a collection of letters addressed to her two daughters. 

Wong uses her unflinching honesty and raunchy humor to explore topics such as sexuality, the realities of pregnancy and motherhood, and Asian American identity within and outside of Hollywood, taking things even further than her stand-up acts. “I do think the book is a lot more scandalous than my act,” she told The New York Times. “I’m revealing how naughty I was at a young age, and I don’t really do that in my stand-up.” “Dear Girls” won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Readers’ Favorite Humor in 2019, with the nonfiction title currently boasting a 3.84-star rating on Goodreads. Overall, this celebrity memoir is a great pick for readers who favor bawdy comedy, off-beat anecdotes, and perspectives on motherhood.

While Mindy Kaling’s favorite books make for an iconic celebrity memoir reading list, the comedian has written several essay collections of her own. The Massachusetts native is most known for her acting credits on “The Office” and “The Mindy Project,” doubling as a behind-the-scenes producer and showrunner for series such as “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Never Have I Ever.” In “Why Not Me?,” her sophomore release published in 2015, Kaling delves into her enduring road to Hollywood success and her experience with “The Mindy Project” alongside explorations of body image, friendship, and bygone relationships.

“I chose ‘Why Not Me?’ [as a title] because it has, kind of, two big meanings. The first one is the, kind of, wistful meaning,” Kaling said during a BookCon interview. “Another side of it is the ambitious side of me, that for my entire life — though no one has ever bared any passing resemblance to me in television or film — of being like, ‘why not me?’ Like, why can’t I have that life and that career?” “Why Not Me?” maintains a 3.9 average rating on Goodreads and was honored as the Readers’ Favorite Humor title in the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards. Reviewers note that the collection provides a mixture of lighthearted, humor-focused essays and entries centering around her career and work experiences, marking it as a must-read for fans of her work.

Phoebe Robinson is known for her podcast-turned-HBO special “2 Dope Queens,” with the Ohio native finding success with the subsequent audio-based shows “Sooo Many White Guys” and “Black Frasier” while also earning writing credits on shows like “White Guy Talk Show” and “Portlandia.” She’s another comedian who has penned multiple collections, with her 2018 release “Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay” landing on our list of standout memoirs. In this sophomore title, which was published during Donald Trump’s first presidency, Robinson uses a casual, internet-inspired writing style to deftly combine personal stories with cultural criticism, examining topics like intersectional feminism, productivity culture, and body image with a tone of authority and her signature humor.

“I just felt like for the past two years, I’ve had this really dope career success, and I’m taking stock of everything about me, and I’m just like, ‘There is so much that needs fixing,'” she told Harper’s Bazaar about the inspiration behind her book. “And I wanted to do this in a fun way, so we can laugh as we’re trying to work through stuff. I think it will make everything easier.” While “Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay,” a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee, is situated within the context of 2018 America, Robinson’s commentary and humor remain relevant today, with reviewers noting it as a celebrity memoir you’ll want to listen to on audiobook.

Tina Fey is a comedian who needs no introduction, with the iconic Hollywood figure being a “Saturday Night Live” alum as well as the creator and star of the hit series “30 Rock.” It was during her stint on the NBC sitcom that the “Mean Girls” creator published her 2011 memoir “Bossypants,” combining her witty observational humor with personal anecdotes to sketch a path from her childhood to her successful career. “My goal was just to avoid humiliation,” Fey told The Associated Press in 2016. “After years of writing character-based comedy in a group process with other writers, a book ‘about me written by me alone’ made me feel panicky and vulnerable. I kept telling my husband, ‘This is going to ruin me.'”

The 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards winner boasts a 3.96 average rating on Goodreads, with “Bossypants” being a humorous, lighthearted read that remains enjoyable over a decade after publication. Fans of “SNL” and “30 Rock” will find Fey’s early career anecdotes especially interesting, but reviewers suggest that all readers check out the audiobook version of this noteworthy celebrity memoir.

Stand-up comedian and “Saturday Night Live” icon Leslie Jones rounds out our list of comedian memoirs, with her 2023 release “Leslie F*cking Jones” boasting the highest Goodreads rating. Outside of her sketch and stand-up work, the Tennesse-native is known for hosting the 2020 reboot of “Supermarket Sweep” and appearing in movies like “Ghostbusters” and “Coming 2 America.” While her “SNL” rise and Hollywood success are discussed in her autobiography, she also takes time to deeply explore her childhood experiences, including early trauma, and the years she invested in stand-up comedy before making it big.

“There are so many stories and so many things, so what we did was just try to stick to the timeline and the important events that happened in that timeline,” she told journalist Vivian Manning-Schaffel for Shondaland. “We just started from childhood to get to here, to get to here, to get to here. In the audio, I was able to express a lot more on the stories, so that’s a little bit more detailed.” The audiobook is especially recommended by reviewers on Goodreads, where the title has an average rating of 4.09 stars, with Jones’s personable approach to storytelling shining through her narration. While not every reader will enjoy this particular style of memoir, the author’s vulnerable candor and unapologetic personality make it a standout in the genre.

To create this list of the best memoirs from our favorite female comedians, we narrowed our selection pool to titles with at least a 3.8 average rating on Goodreads. From there, we consulted reviews and comedian-given interviews to spotlight well-regarded memoirs that span a variety of topics and perspectives.