Elizabeth Zephyrine McDonough
aka “Zeph” is an award winning actress, comedian, writer, and director currently directing and performing on The Daily Show. She writes, directs, and stars in many of her own shorts, and has been called one of the funniest things on the internet. Zeph’s short film F the Internet premiered at the LA Comedy Fest and was named ‘Best Comedy of the Week’ by Vulture, and 1 million New Yorker followers gobbled up Stick World – her 90s era throwback comedy about a woman obsessed with sticks. Other original work includes co-creating and starring in Janice Gunter, Ghost Hunter, an original series about a lovable weirdo trying to launch her own ghost hunting business, available on Elizabeth Banks’s comedy platform Whohaha. While promoting the series, Zeph conducted many interviews in character, including a live appearance on New York’s Pix11 News where she was interviewed as “a local Ghost hunter.”
Zeph has directed two pilots for Comedy Central, including a man on the street show Executive Produced by Jason Sudeikis. She's worked extensively in Late Night TV, where she has created sketches and field pieces for The Daily Show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, and The Rundown With Robin Thede. Her documentary Still Standing, following two comedians in their 80s, premiered at the Lower East Side Film Festival where it screened with a Q&A moderated by Tig Notaro, and went on to win the award for Best Documentary Short. The film was acquired by The New Yorker, and can be seen here.
Zeph co-hosts the stand up show Party Hat at The West Side Comedy Club and is a member of the NYC Clown collective ‘The Wüfpak.’ She was once a stand in for Julia Roberts, but you’ll have to ask her about that in person.