īurnham's music and performances tackle such subjects as class, race, gender, human sexuality, sex, and religion. All of Burnham's home-released videos were self-recorded in and around his family's home in Hamilton, Massachusetts, mostly in his bedroom, and had an intentional "do-it-yourself, almost like voyeurism". Described in The Boston Globe as "simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way", Burnham wrote and released songs about white supremacy, Helen Keller's disabilities, homosexuality, and more. Īccompanying himself on guitar or digital piano, Burnham continued to release self-described "pubescent musical comedy" songs and videos online as his audience grew. His song "My Whole Family." quickly became popular when the link to its YouTube video was shared on, soon leading to it being shared on other sites. A friend suggested that he film himself performing the songs in his bedroom and post them on YouTube, which was then a relatively new website.
In December 2006, Burnham wanted to show two songs he had written to his older brother Pete, who had moved away to attend university in New York City. He was admitted to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to study experimental theatre, but deferred his admission for a year to pursue a career in comedy and eventually never attended the university. He graduated in 2008, having been on the honor roll and involved in theater and the campus ministry program.
John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts, where he received a free education due to his mother working as the school's nurse at the time. He has an older sister named Samm and an older brother named Pete, both of whom work for the family's construction company. His mother's work was covered in a 2014 episode of This American Life, for which she was interviewed. Robert Pickering Burnham was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts, on August 21, 1990, the son of hospice nurse Patricia and construction company owner Scott Burnham. Three songs from the special ("Bezos I", "All Eyes on Me", and "Welcome to the Internet") earned Burnham his first charting songs on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 and Global 200 charts they were certified gold in the United States, as did the accompanying album, Inside (The Songs). The special also received nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Music Film and Best Song Written for Visual Media ("All Eyes on Me"), winning the latter. His fourth special, Inside, was released on Netflix in 2021 to universal acclaim and was nominated in six categories at the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, winning three awards including Outstanding Music Direction. In 2020, he starred in the Academy Award-winning comedy thriller film Promising Young Woman. Among other accolades, it received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film. His third stand-up comedy special, Make Happy, was released exclusively on Netflix in 2016.īurnham's debut film as a writer and director, Eighth Grade, was released in 2018 to critical acclaim.
In 2013, Burnham co-created and starred in the MTV mockumentary series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous and released a book of poetry called Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas Alone.
He finished in first place at the 2011 Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown. His third album and second comedy special, what., was released in 2013 on his YouTube channel and Netflix. In 2010, his second album, Words Words Words, was released along with his first live comedy special of the same name on Comedy Central. At the age of 18, he became the youngest person to record a half-hour comedy special with Comedy Central. His first full-length album, Bo Burnham, was released the following year. In 2008, Burnham signed a four-year record deal with Comedy Central Records and released his debut EP, Bo fo Sho. He began his career on YouTube in 2006, with his videos gaining over 600 million views as of June 2022. Robert Pickering " Bo" Burnham (born August 21, 1990) is an American comedian, actor, musician, singer, filmmaker, and content creator.