Biography of Sandra Bernhard

The SF Weekly praised Bernhard, “One moment, her voice is lulling you into a wistful sigh; the next, she's knocking you back several rows with it.”

Bernhard's last show, “Hero Worship,” featured a five-piece band and was a post-September 11th tribute to Bernhard's commitment to irony—that it, too, has survived September 11th. The show featured a range of musical numbers (some original and some covers). It was a fearless attempt to show that life must continue and the show must go on. Other notable performances include her participation in the “Stormy Weather Benefit '98,” organized by Don Henley, which also featured Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell, as well as “The Elton John Tribute for Broadway Cares.”

Her critically acclaimed 1998, one-woman Broadway hit, “I’m Still Here...Damn It!” which played the Booth Theater, had critics raving. Created and conceived by Bernhard, the show first ran for five months off-Broadway at New York’s Westbeth Theatre, where it garnered ecstatic reviews. The New York Times called Bernhard’s performance: “An angst driven, foul-mouthed poison-laced joy ride that banks and careens frenetically
through the worlds of fashion, celebrity, rock, and religion … In her own voice, unfiltered, [Bernhard is a living, breathing bonfire.” The show went on to play sold-out runs in Boston and San Francisco, and one of the Bay Area performances was filmed for an HBO special (“I’m Still Here…Damn It!” which aired in the summer of 1998) photographed by cinematographer Haskel Wexler, and produced and directed by Marty Callner.

Since her first film accolades in 1983 in Martin Scorseses’, “The King of Comedy” featuring Jerry Lewis and Robert De Niro, Bernhard has since appeared in numerous films including “Inside Monkey Zetterland,” “Hudson Hawk” and more recently, “Dinner Rush.”