Beth Littleford

Littleford was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of Jackie, a professor, and Philip O. Littleford, a cardiologist and inventor. She grew up in Winter Park, Florida and attended the Park Maitland School. Her father and brother died when she was sixteen in a pontoon plane accident during an Alaskan fishing trip.^[5][6]

A National Merit Scholarship Program finalist in high school, she attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania for three years before taking up acting classes at New York University; she eventually graduated from The New School for Social Research.^[5][7]

Early in her acting career, Littleford worked in improvisational theatre with Chicago City Limits, wrote and performed the one-woman show This Is Where I Get Off at the Circle Repertory Company, and appeared in the romantic comedy film Picture This.^[8]

Littleford was one of the original correspondents on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, appearing during both Craig Kilborn's and Jon Stewart's tenures as host. Her recurring celebrity-interview segments were performed in the style of Barbara Walters.^[9] In 1998, Comedy Central aired The Beth Littleford Interview Special, a compilation of her previously shown interview segments.^[10] In 1999, Entertainment Weekly described The Daily Show as a launching pad for Littleford and other correspondents, noting that she was expanding her recurring role on Spin City and had appeared in the film Mystery, Alaska.^[11] That year, she was also listed among the celebrity participants at Austin's Big Stinkin' International Improv & Sketch Comedy Festival.^[12]

Littleford played Nancy Blaford on the 2004 Fox sitcom Method & Red.^[2] She later appeared in several television comedy and family series, including The Hard Times of RJ Berger, in which she played Suzanne Berger,^[13] and the Disney Channel series Dog with a Blog, in which she played Ellen Jennings.^[3]

Her later screen appearances include the Netflix series Dead to Me, in which she appeared in the 2019 episode "I Can Handle It",^[14] and the 2021 film Senior Moment, in which she played Tess Woodson.^[15]

Littleford lives in Los Angeles. She was married to Rob Fox, a director and producer who worked alongside her on The Daily Show, from 1998 to 2015; they had a son (b. 2005) and an adopted daughter (b. 2012).^[7][16] Fox died in 2017.^[17][18]