Mathilde "Tig" O'Callaghan Notaro (born March 24, 1971)^[1] is an American stand-up comedian, writer, radio contributor, and actress known for her deadpan comedy.^[2][3] Her acclaimed album Live was nominated in 2014 for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. The special Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted was nominated in 2016 at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. In 2017, the album Boyish Girl Interrupted was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.^[4]

Notaro was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of Mathilde "Susie" O'Callaghan and Pat Notaro.^[5] Her mother was born in New Orleans.^[6] Notaro lived in Pass Christian, Mississippi until attending kindergarten. Later, her family relocated to Spring, Texas (a suburb of Houston).^[7][8] She has a brother, Renaud, who is a year older and works as a radio talk show host.^[2][9] "Tig" is a childhood nickname given to her by her brother when she was two years old.^[10]

Notaro's maternal great-great-grandfather was John Fitzpatrick, who was the mayor of New Orleans from 1892 to 1896.^[6][11] While taking part in season 5 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Notaro learned she is also a distant cousin of Gloria Steinem.^[5]

In an interview with Mother Jones magazine, Notaro said she disliked being a student. She failed three grades, eventually dropping out of high school. In 1990, while living in Texas, she received her general equivalency diploma.^[7][12]

Notaro plays the guitar and drums; she was in bands when she was younger.^[13]

An avid music fan, Notaro moved to Denver, Colorado, where she became involved in the music industry. She became a band manager, working under the name Tignation Promotions in the mid-'90s.^[14] Her work promoting bands took her to Los Angeles, where she tried stand-up for the first time in the late '90s.^[7][15] She has since been featured on Comedy Central Presents and on The Sarah Silverman Program as a lesbian police officer. She collaborates frequently with her writing partner Kyle Dunnigan. With Dunnigan and David Huntsberger, she co-hosted the podcast Professor Blastoff from May 2011 until July 2015.

In 2011, Notaro released her debut stand-up album, Good One. Her 2012 album, Live, is a recording of a stand-up set performed shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2012, she appeared on Conan, and in May of that year on the live episode of This American Life, which was broadcast to theaters nationwide and on radio in edited form. She performed a monologue about having encountered Taylor Dayne on multiple occasions, greeting her each time with, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, but I just have to tell you. I love your voice." After her monologue, Dayne made a surprise appearance, serenading Notaro with the song "I'll Always Love You".^[16] She worked on fellow comedian Amy Schumer's Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer. In June 2012, Notaro did a Kickstarter-funded series called Clown Service, which she wrote and starred in.^[17]

Notaro wrote a memoir for HarperCollins imprint Ecco called I'm Just a Person,^[18] and a Showtime documentary^[19] was made about her life and her post-cancer stand-up tour,^[2] Knock Knock, It's Tig Notaro.^[20] In July 2015, a Netflix film, Tig,^[21] chronicling her attempts to become pregnant with her fiancée, Stephanie Allynne, was also released.^[22] Singer Sharon Van Etten wrote a song in homage to Notaro called "Words" that is heard in the credits.^[23]

In November 2015, Notaro co-wrote, produced, and starred in a semi-autobiographical TV pilot for Amazon Video called One Mississippi.^[24] It received a six-episode series order from Amazon a month later.^[25] It follows Notaro's character as she returns to her hometown of Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi after her mother's unexpected death.^[25]

Her first stand-up one-hour special was released by HBO in 2015, Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted. In 2016, it was released as her third album on her own label, Bentzen Ball Records, which also put out Aparna Nancherla's Just Putting It Out There. In April 2018, it was announced that Notaro would appear in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery as Chief Engineer Jett Reno of the U.S.S. Hiawatha.^[26]

Netflix released Notaro's second one-hour special, Happy to Be Here, on May 22, 2018.^[27] She was digitally inserted in post-production in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, replacing Chris D'Elia, who was accused of sexual misconduct.^[28]

Notaro met her wife Stephanie Allynne^[30] on the set of the film In a World...^[2][31] They were engaged on January 1, 2015^[32] and married on October 24, 2015.^[33] They welcomed twin sons in 2016, conceived via a surrogate using Allynne's eggs.^[34]

• I'm Just a Person. Ecco Press. 2016. ISBN 978-0062266637. (Humor/memoir)