Melinda Hill

Hill was born in Hutchinson, Kansas but spent her formative years in Colorado Springs, which she considers home.

Hill won a theatre scholarship where she did plays and took writing classes.^[1] After her freshman year she transferred to the University of Kansas where she stayed for another year, before moving to California to study acting with Joanne Baron, Lesly Kahn and Sandra Seacat.^[1] When finishing acting school, one of her teachers advised her to go into comedy.^[2] Hill joined The Groundlings with no previous comedy experience.^[1] She took classes, learned to write sketches and advanced through all levels before starting stand-up, incorporating all she'd learned about character based comedy writing at the Groundlings. Her classmates included Mikey Day, Brian Keith Etheridge and Kristen Wiig.^[1][3]

In addition to becoming a regular at the Hollywood Improv and storytelling shows such as Jill Solloway and Maggie Rowe's Sit N Spin at Comedy Central Stage, Hill was made a paid regular comedian at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles in 2012 and her name was painted on the wall.^[2]

With Maria Bamford and Natasha Leggero, she cofounded the critically acclaimed stand-up comedy show What's Up, Tiger Lily? at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCB), which ran for 10 years and was known for frequent celebrity drop-ins.^[4] Hill has performed for U.S. military troops in Hawaii, Guam, Singapore, Okinawa, Marshall Islands, Honduras, Bahamas, Guantanamo Bay, Curaçao and Greenland.

She has released several comedy albums, including Accidental Bisexual (2011) and Six Ways to Bomb on America's Got Talent (2013).^[5]

Her comedy special Inappropriate premiered on October 20, 2020, and was also released as a comedy album and audiobook.^[6]