Iliza Vie Shlesinger (/ʃlɛsɪnɡər/; born February 22, 1983 in Dallas to a Reform Jewish family) is an American comedian. She was the 2008 winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing, went on to host the syndicated dating show Excused and currently (2016) hosts the TBS comedy/game show Separation Anxiety. In 2017, she announced that she would be hosting a new show on Freeform titled "Truth and Iliza". After graduating from college, Shlesinger moved to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up comedy. She was one of the most popular members of the Whiteboy Comedy group of standup comedians in Los Angeles, which brought her to the stage at The Improv in Hollywood. In 2008, Shlesinger became the first woman, and the youngest, winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing, in the series' sixth season. Shlesinger's first comedy album and video, War Paint, was recorded on December 1, 2012 at The Lakewood Theater in Dallas, Texas, and released on Netflix on September 1, 2013. On July 13, 2016, the ABCdigital original short-form digital comedy series Forever 31, created by and starring Shlesinger was released.
She attended the private Greenhill School and participated on the school's improvisation team. She performed with ComedySportz Dallas and attended the University of Kansas for her freshman year. She also participated in Semester at Sea. She transferred to Emerson College in Boston, where she majored in film. There, she was a member of the campus' comedy sketch group, Jimmy's Traveling All Stars, and refined her writing and editing skills. She moved to Los Angeles shortly after graduating from Emerson College. Shlesinger was comic co-host of StarTalk Radio Show with Neil DeGrasse Tyson for season 7, episode 12 entitled Cosmic Queries: Galactic Grab Bag, post date: 20 May 2016.