Comedian Nikki Glaser is known for her unrelenting roasts of various celebrities, from actors such as Rob Lowe and Bruce Willis to NFL legend Tom Brady. Now, the 40-year-old will perform for one of her biggest audiences to date as the host of the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, airing Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. The 2025 ceremony, honoring the best in movies and TV, presents an exciting new challenge for Glaser.
“It’s a well-lit room, which is not conducive to comedy; there are a lot of people I admire, which also is not conducive to comedy. It’s live, so you can’t do retakes. The level of difficulty is through the roof. And that’s thrilling to me,” Glaser said.
In addition to her emcee duties, Glaser is nominated for a trophy herself. Her 2024 HBO special Someday You’ll Die is up for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television, alongside humor heavyweights Adam Sandler, Jamie Foxx, and Seth Meyers.
While the Globes will introduce Glaser to a wider audience, her big moment has been two decades in the making. Here’s what you need to know about her steady rise through the comedy ranks.
Glaser began doing comedy in college
Glaser, originally from Cincinnati, grew up in St. Louis and graduated from nearby Kirkwood High School in 2002. She attended college at the University of Kansas, where she became focused on honing her comedic talent. Instead of studying, Glaser spent much of her time driving to Kansas City to perform stand-up routines or at home perfecting the jokes she would tell.
“I just kind of knew that a college education wasn’t going to change my life at all. I was just doing it to appease my parents because they were paying for my school, which is so amazing,” Glaser told The Kansas City Star. “I would have dropped out, but they were like, ‘Just get a degree.’”
Glaser did honor her parents’ wishes and graduated in 2006 with a degree in English literature. After, she had more free time to focus on her true passion.
Her big break came on late night TV
Glaser, then 24, was floating between temp jobs in January 2009 when she received the phone call that changed her life: A producer from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno asked if she could perform a set later that day after guest Paula Abdul dropped out.
There was just one problem. Because her approved routine was two years old, Glaser had forgotten all of the jokes. “I grabbed my roommate’s laptop and then I’m searching through the DVDs [for the right set], like throwing them, and then I see it!” she said in 2022. “And so I get in the car... I literally have five and a half minutes to watch this five-and-a-half-minute set and memorize it.”
Despite its somewhat salacious material—including a joke about rape—the set was a success and provided a boon to Glaser. She appeared on various TV shows over the next few years, including the reality competition Last Comic Standing, Conan, and the Comedy Central faux game show @midnight (rebooted by CBS in 2024 and now hosted by Taylor Tomlinson). Glaser then made her movie debut in the 2015 comedy Trainwreck starring Amy Schumer.
With her career now ascending, Glaser had decided to make corresponding changes in her personal life.
Glaser has been sober since 2011
During a 2019 appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Glaser told the eponymous host she has been sober since December 9, 2011. Glaser explained that she frequently experienced blackouts due to drinking and resolved to stop after a particularly debilitating hangover. “I was like in the shower, in the fetal position, thinking, ‘This is how I should feel if I’m dying.’ I really don’t want to feel this bad unless I am on my way out,” she said.
Glaser credits a self-improvement book by author Allen Carr for helping her quit both drinking and smoking cigarettes.
The comedian has also been candid about her struggle with the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. She said she experienced hair loss and fainting and developed mouth sores from malnutrition while in high school, and conversely began binge eating throughout her 20s.
Glaser didn’t make significant progress until 2020, when she began a 12-step program and committed to three meals per day. “I used to get really high off the feeling of hunger, and I do a lot of work to combat that now,” she told The Cut.
She’s a reality TV veteran
Although primarily known for her comedy, Glaser hasn’t been afraid to test her skills in other genres on TV. In 2018, she entered the ballroom as a competitor on the hit ABC competition series Dancing with the Stars. Unfortunately, she and professional partner Gleb Savchenko were the first couple eliminated.
Glaser fared a lot better four years later on the The Masked Singer, finishing third on the Fox show in which disguised celebrities show off their vocal abilities.“This show really allowed me to, like, forget all of the insecurities I had around singing and really explore my voice, and it’s something I’m so excited to keep doing after this,” Glaser said after her reveal as Snowstorm. Also in 2022, she appeared as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.
The Golden Globes won’t be the first time Glaser appears as a TV host. In 2021, she debuted as the face of the HBO dating competition FBoy Island and now leads its CW spinoff series, Lovers and Liars.
Glaser is a Taylor Swift superfan
While Glaser will poke fun at pretty much anything, her love for Taylor Swift is no laughing matter. In a recent interview with People, Glaser revealed she attended 22 shows during Swift’s massive 21-month Eras Tour.
The comedian previously told Kelly Clarkson she initially planned to use the concert money to freeze her eggs. Instead, she estimates she spent close to $100,000 in tickets, travel costs, hotels, and merchandise for herself and friends to see Swift.
“I justify that cost because I don’t have kids, and it’s something that I consciously decided not to do, and it was something that I struggled with,” Glaser said. “It wasn’t the easiest decision. There was a part of me that was like, ‘I would like kids,’ but it just doesn’t fit in my life. And so in order for me to make myself feel better about the decision, I did look up how much it cost to raise a kid. And so once I saw that number, I thought, ‘It’s no problem for me to spend this on Taylor Swift.’”
She did her homework for the Golden Globes
Glaser went viral after appearing as part of Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady in May 2024. Her set skewered the Super Bowl champion and his divorce from supermodel Gisele Bündchen. The attention from the special helped Glaser earn the Golden Globes invite, which she calls the “pinnacle” of her career.
Glaser is determined to ace new new assignment. To prepare for Sunday’s broadcast, she studied previous ceremonies led by hosts such as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Ricky Gervais. The latter offered Glaser advice on how to handle the big moment.
“He said ‘Be yourself. Do what you did at the roast and employ whatever method you used there. And don’t forget that you’re not one of them. You’re not a movie star, you’re not a TV star. You’re at the Globes, you’re the host and you’re a comedian and that’s your job.’ That was really refreshing to hear,” Glaser said.
Although Glaser will have to tone down her comedy compared to more informal celebrity roasts, she is hoping to impress viewers with her originality and have some fun along the way. “Meeting Jennifer Aniston has been a goal of my life since I was in sixth grade! So being in the same room will be ‘Whoa,’” she said.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
