David Sedaris, born in Raleigh, N.C. in 1957, is a popular radio commentator, essayist, and short story writer. He is the partner of the painter Hugh Hamrick. Sedaris held many part-time and odd jobs before he moved to New York and got a job reading excerpts from his diaries on National Public Radio in 1991. In 1994, Little, Brown published Barrel Fever, a collection of his works. He has since published such other works as Naked and Holidays on Ice. Sedaris has also written a play with his sister, Amy, called Little Frieda Mysteries. It was produced in 1997 in New York.
David Raymond Sedaris is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next book, Naked (1997), became his first of a series of New York Times Bestsellers, and his 2000 collection Me Talk Pretty One Day won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, his Greek heritage, homosexuality, jobs, education, drug use, and obsessive behaviors, as well as his life in France, London, New York, and the South Downs in England. He is the brother and writing collaborator of actress Amy Sedaris. In 2019, Sedaris was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.