Bridget Laudien · CC BY-SA 3.0

A stand-up comedian since the 1970s, Leifer moved behind the camera as a writer on Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, and Saturday Night Live, earning four Primetime Emmy nominations across television and two Academy Awards telecasts. Her own act draws directly on her life — Jewish upbringing, a first marriage to a man followed by marriage to a woman — turning autobiography into the kind of specific, observational material that made her writing sought after.