| David Rakoff | |
|---|---|
David rakoff 2006.jpg}} |  David Rakoff at the 2006 Texas Book Festival. |
|
| Born | 1964 |
| Occupation | essayist, journalist, and actor |
| Nationality | Canadian-American |
David Rakoff (born 1964) is an essayist, journalist, and actor. Originally from Canada, he obtained dual Canadian-American citizenship in 2003, and currently resides in New York City. Rakoff has written for the New York Times Magazine, Outside, GQ, Vogue and Salon. He has also been a frequent contributor to the radio program This American Life on Public Radio International. Rakoff's essays have been collected in the books Fraud (2001, ISBN 0-385-50084-X) and Don’t Get Too Comfortable (2005, ISBN 0-385-51036-5). His essays are largely autobiographical in nature and humorous. Openly gay,[1] his writings have been compared to those of essayist and friend David Sedaris. Rakoff was even mistaken for Sedaris once while performing in a storefront window; both authors have written about this incident in their books. He was featured on This American Life's holiday show (Episode 305) on December 23, 2005. Audio of this broadcast is available (for free) at the official This American Life website. Rakoff also has the distinction of being the only other person aside from Ira Glass to host an episode of This American Life (Episode 248 - Like It Or Not). He appeared on The Daily Show on October 5, 2006; October 3, 2005; and August 13, 2001. Other associations with the Daily Show include his lended talent in voice acting in reading the part of Thomas Jefferson for America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. Rakoff appeared Off-Broadway in the comedic play, "The Book of Liz," which was authored by friends David Sedaris and Amy Sedaris (who also performed the lead). He later played writer Gore Vidal in the film Capote and had a role in the film Strangers with Candy, co-written by and starring Amy Sedaris. Rakoff is a graduate of Columbia University. His brother Simon is a stand-up comedian.
External links
- Video interview on his new book, Don't Get Too Comfortable, from CBC News: The Hour
- Daily Show Interview on his book, Don't Get Too Comfortable.
- David Letterman Interview on his book, Don't Get Too Comfortable.
- Reading report from Happy Endings with Jennifer Egan and Peter Behrens, published at bookishlove.net (Nov 2006)
- NPR's Fresh Air, which originally aired on Jan. 14, 2001.
