Elizabeth Zephyrine McDonough
aka “Zeph” is an award winning actress, comedian, writer and director who has been called one of the funniest things on the internet. Zeph’s creative talents can be seen on Emmy-winning shows including Full Frontal With Samantha Bee and The Daily Show, where she has contributed as a director, writer, and performer. Her original work has been featured on The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and has been shared with international audiences on French and Australian television. Zeph’s viral short 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 comedic infomercial about a woman obsessed with sticks.
Zeph co-created and starred in Janice Gunter, Ghost Hunter, a comedic series about a lovable savant trying to launch her own ghost-hunting business, which was acquired by Elizabeth Banks’s comedy platform Whohaha. The show garnered attention through an Andy-Kaufman-esque approach to publicity: While promoting the series, Zeph conducted press in character, including a live appearance on 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. Her documentary Still Standing, following two comedians in their 80s, won the ‘Best Documentary Short’ award at the Lower East Side Film Festival where it screened with a Q&A moderated by Tig Notaro. 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.