Successful Failure - Andrea Savage '94

Andrea Savage '94 is a comedic actress, writer, director and producer. Andrea created the hit television show, I'm Sorry, which is currently in production on season 3.

As an actress on television, Andrea has starred as President Laura Montez on HBO’s Veep, Helen Basch on Showtime’s Episodes, Vivian Stoll on CW’s iZombie, and as Rhonda on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Andrea has also been featured in The League, Modern Family, House of Lies, and The Kroll Show. On the film side, Andrea has starred in Stepbrothers, The House, Sleeping with Other People, Dinner for Schmucks, Life Happens, You're Not You and Summer ’03. As a creator/writer/producer, Andrea has developed pilots for ABC, NBC, FOX, Comedy Central, etc. Savage hails from stand-up and the legendary Groundlings Theater.

Tune in to this incredibly fun and energetic episode of Fresh from the Hill where host Juliana Garcia '14 chats with Andrea about show business, motherhood, and her own podcast called Andrea Savage: A Grown-Up Woman #buttholes.

“I don’t know if [comedy] is any more difficult than anything else that you would do in the industry if it’s something that naturally comes to you. I would say one difficulty is often, you don’t get to shepherd a joke from beginning to end and that can be frustrating. Right now on my show I do get to, but often if you’re writing comedy, you don’t get to be there on set when it’s performed, you don’t get to direct it, and then you don’t get to edit it. Or, someone else wrote a joke that you wish it was a little different. And jokes really have beginning, middle, and ends in terms of their process, in terms of the writing, the performance, and then the edit. And when there’s too many people involved in that one joke’s journey, a lot can get lost in the translation.”

*If you're sensitive to strong language, please note that there is swearing in this episode.

Read the episode transcript.

Created and produced by Amanda Massa.
Music by Kia Albertson-Rogers '13, koa3@cornell.edu.
Artwork by Chris Kelly.

*The views expressed by Fresh from the Hill hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Cornell University.