Annabelle Gurwitch

Gurwitch co-wrote two episodes of the 1980s children's animated series ThunderCats.[12] Gurwitch and Paul Gilmartin were the original hosts of the TBS show Dinner and a Movie, which combined cooking instruction with the viewing of a feature film. Gurwitch served as co-host for six years, departing in 2002.

Other television hosting work included stints on Not Necessarily the News, Syfy's The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael, VH1's Best Of..., series, Style Network's You're Invited, and Dot Comedy. She was the host of Wa$ted! on Planet Green for three seasons.[13]

Gurwitch has appeared on TV series including Miami Vice, 'Dexter, The Cleaner, Medium, State of Mind, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, Seinfeld and Boston Legal.

In 2002 Gurwitch appeared as the host of Meow TV, along with her cat Stinky, a show distributed on CD inside bags of Meow Mix. Meow TV presented itself as "Television By Cats, For Cats."[14]

In 2007 Gurwitch wrote, produced, directed, and appeared in the documentary film Fired!. It documents the experiences of twenty-five people, including Gurwitch, who were fired from various jobs. They recount their firings through interviews, skits, comedy routines, and filmed excerpts from the previously produced stage play of the same title. David Cross, Jeff Garlin, Bob Odenkirk and Anne Meara were all featured in addition to UAW workers, former US Secretary of Labor Bob Reich, economist Ben Stein and many other job seekers. The film was played at the US Department of Labor and labor film festivals around the country including the DC Labor FilmFest.

Gurwitch's other films include Melvin Goes to Dinner and The Shaggy Dog.

She is the author of five books, most recently, You're Leaving When? which was published in March 2021. The book comically details her awkward and chaotic encounters with an eccentric French boarder. These encounters came after her decision to start renting bedrooms in her house to boarders to avoid having to sell it after her divorce.[15] In April 2017, Gurwitch published Wherever You Go, There They Are: Stories About My Family You Might Relate To.[16][17][18][19]

I See You Made an Effort, published in 2014,[20] was a New York Times bestseller[21] and Thurber Prize for American Humor Writing finalist. The year Gurwitch was a finalist for the Thurber Prize marked the first time the three finalists were all female.[22] Gurwitch adapted this book as a solo show, first produced at the Skylight Theater[23] and then toured nationally in 2017. Included in this book is Autumn Leaves, a 2012 ebook Gurwitch published with Zola Books that recounts an erotic fantasy she once had about one of the staff members at an Apple Genius Bar.[24]

Gurwitch once worked for Woody Allen, but was fired during an encounter in which he said that she looked "retarded" among other insults. In 2006 she published a book of essays inspired by that dismissal called Fired!: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed which subsequently became the Fired! documentary film.[25]

Gurwitch and then-husband Jeff Kahn signed a six-figure deal with Crown to publish a memoir called You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up. The two adapted the book into a theatrical production, in association with Off-Broadway Booking.

Her essays and satire have been published in The New Yorker,[26] The New York Times,[27] Wall Street Journal,[28] The Los Angeles Times,[17] McSweeney's,[29] O Magazine,[30] among other publications. She was a regular commentator for NPR's All Things Considered.[31] She frequently makes appearances on NPR including on The Moth,[32] Ask Me Another[33] and Marketplace.[34]

Gurwitch is a contributing writer for NPR's Day to Day, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Nation, and she has written for Child, Publishers Weekly, Marie Claire, More, Men's Health, Glamour, Cooking Light, Premiere, Penthouse and Los Angeles.

Her essays have appeared in two anthologies: Note to Self: 30 Women on Hardship, Humiliation, Heartbreak, and Overcoming It All[35] and Rejected: Tales of the Failed, Dumped, and Canceled.[36]