About The Series
Jena Friedman isn’t a chef. In fact, she’s barely a cook. And she’s not great at following instructions. Which can get tricky, because most recipes have instructions. But trapped at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the touring comedian found that her mind wandered to the darkest places.
With desperate times calling for desperate measures, the stand up comic, writer and filmmaker turned to the one necessary and time-consuming distraction – cooking. Her new video series, the Joy of Quarantine, captures the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Show with David Letterman alum as she attempts to concoct dishes of her Eastern European Jewish roots with a pinch of acerbity.
Jena Friedman
Stand Up Comedian, Writer and Filmmaker; Host of Joy of QuarantineJena Friedman is an American stand up comedian, writer and filmmaker. She was a field producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and has written for Late Show with David Letterman. She developed the television project Soft Focus with Jena Friedman for Adult Swim (where she interviewed John McAfee), the first installment of which premiered in February 2018. Friedman has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Nat Geo Explorer, MSNBC and BBC Two. She has been a contributing writer to The New Yorker. In 2015, Friedman’s solo show American Cunt premiered in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her critically acclaimed Edinburgh show Miscarriage of Justice premiered in 2019.