Sedaris is a comedian, writer, and occasional waitress best known for the Comedy Central show Strangers With Candy and her collaborations with her humorist brother David.

Amy and David Sedaris grew up in Raleigh, NC. with their parents and four siblings. While David turned to crystal meth and performance art to deal with his angst, Amy went down a different path, skipping college to start a baking company with her mom. She later moved to Chicago and joined the legendary Second City comedy troupe, which is where she met collaborators Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello. In 1993 Sedaris arrived in New York, where she performed in plays she wrote with David, such as One Woman Shoe, an Obie-winning satire about welfare mothers. Mainstream fame came along after Colbert and Dinello realized that their friend resembled former drug addict, prostitute, and '70s motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, whom they'd seen in a public service film aimed at teens. Inspired to create a show in which Sedaris would play a character based on Fisher, the group wrote Strangers with Candy, which ran on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2000.

On Strangers with Candy Sedaris played Jerri Blank, a "boozer, user, and loser" who returns to high school at age 46 and has to overcome obstacles such as a brutal case of syphilis, complete illiteracy, and the death of her father at the hands of the school mascots. The show became a cult classic and in 2005 was adapted for the big screen. But Sedaris has had trouble replicating its success, and despite small roles in comedies like Elf, Bewitched, and School of Rock, she remains most recognizable to the general public from her recurring guest spots on David Letterman and shows like Sex and the City and The Middle. She's had considerably more success on the publishing front: her books I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence and Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People! were bestsellers. [Image via Getty]