18 Things to Know About Megan Amram

By 
Megan Amram
Graduated Watercolor Wash in Green

The comedian, writer, famous tweeter, and all-around very funny Jewish person Megan Amram is ready for an Emmy award.

On the last day of Emmy eligibility, Amram released a six-episode web series An Emmy for Megan. As GQ explains, “It meets the requirements for an award for outstanding actress in a short-form comedy or drama series category (at least six episodes, scripted, published by April 27), and eviscerates every single award-bait trope: drinking interventions, embracing diversity, dramatic weight loss followed by the realization that what Emmy voters want is someone with ‘curves,’ and surprise cameos from actors (and Emmy winners) you know and love. There will be no way to watch any other critically acclaimed TV show get nominated for an Emmy and not think of this.”

She even got “For Your Consideration” billboards.

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We sincerely hope she wins the Emmy. In the meantime, here are 18 things to know about Megan…

1. Megan was born September 3, 1987 in Portland, Oregon, to a Jewish family. She’s very close with her mom but hasn’t spoken to her dad in a while.

2. She has a twin brother named Alec. As a Guardian profile explained, “Growing up, [Megan] was ‘a big nerd’ who didn’t crack a joke until she was 17, whereas her twin brother was the class clown. But at a certain point, right before college, ‘we flip-flopped’ – her brother announced he wanted to be a doctor and Amram thought, ‘Well, I want to be funny. Let’s see how that turns out.'” Alec has a Twitter account with one tweet, and a bio that says “Meghan Amram’s brother.” (He still has more twitter followers than me.)

3. Amram graduated from Harvard in 2010; she studied psychology. Harvard gave her confidence to write comedy. She told the Harvard Crimson, “It was super great to practice writing in a place, where you’re free to fail, but also free to try a lot of different things.”

4. She is very funny on Twitter (her Jewish jokes are particularly great). Every day since the inauguration of Trump, she has tweeted, “Today was the day Donald trump finally became president.” There are many round-ups of her best tweets.

https://twitter.com/meganamram/status/516361369348608003

5. Her first writing gig was writing for the Oscars in 2011. Not bad.

6. Megan worked for the Disney Channel, where she was a staff writer for the show A.N.T. Farm. She then wrote for The Kroll Show. Other writing credits include The Simpsons, Transparent, Silicon Valley, Children’s Hospital, and more…!

7. She’s best known for her work on Parks and Recreation. She was the lead writer for five episodes: “William Henry Harrison,” “Flu Season 2,” “Anniversaries,” “Animal Control,” and “Ron and Diane.” Upon the series finale of Parks & Rec, she posted a touching tribute to fellow writer Harris Wittels after his tragic death.

8. She now writes for The Good Place! Featuring our favorite not-robot D’Arcy Carden, who also co-stars in her An Emmy for Megan web series.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaCS8lAnzSW/?hl=en&taken-by=meganamram

9. She posts the same throwback picture every Thursday on Instagram. She is nothing if not committed to a bit.

273 #tbt

A post shared by Megan Amram (@meganamram) on

10. She wrote a poem called “Manischweitz” (here is the link to the full poem).

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg9GC01ndtL/?hl=en&taken-by=meganamram

11. She’s an author. Simon & Schuster published her first book, Science… For Her!, in 2015.

12. She also occasionally writes for The New Yorker. A favorite is “Jared Kushner’s Harvard Admissions Essay,” which begins:

Dear Harvard,

How are you? I hope you are well! My name is Jared Kushner, and I would like to go to you. As an example of how smart I am, here is some money.

I heard from my daddy and my friends’ daddies that you are a big house for smart, good boys. I am a good boy! I am nice and my face is very smooth. Would you like a hundred-dollar bill? It has Benjamin Franklin on it! He is silly, because he only has hair on the sides, not on the top. Here are some of him!

13. She has four videos on her YouTube channel. May we direct you to the first one, a definite precursor to An Emmy for Megan:

14. She’s still active on tumblr (meganamram.tumblr.com), recently publishing “Apologetic Libs,” which she describes as, “A fun, easy-to-use format if you, a public figure, is dragged into an apology for a destructive history of sexual harassment or assault!” She’s very great.

15. Okay, one more tumblr post: “Gwyneth’s Gift Guide” can’t be missed. (“Just because I’m Gwyneth Paltrow, it doesn’t mean I can’t kick back and enjoy the holidays. I put my winter-capris on one cashmere leg at a time, just like you!”)

16. And here’s one more Jewish joke, because we can’t resist:

(Stay tuned for a Megan Amram’s Best Jewish Jokes article. It’ll happen.)

17. She’s responsible for all the food pun restaurant names in The Good Place. She’s very passionate about puns. Please, just read them all and tell us your favorite (mine is “Pie Another Day”):

18. And one last thought from her on funny numbers: “I’m sure this is like every comedy show, but there’s this feeling that certain numbers are just funnier than other ones, and I don’t mean because they’re like 420 or 69, numbers that are inherently funny. There’s just a feeling that 802 is a really funny number… I’m always like, ‘What is my job? I’m being paid to think about which number’s the funniest.’ So thank you, NBC.”

We really hope she wins that Emmy.

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