Robert Pickering "Bo" Burnham is an American stand-up comedian, musician, actor, filmmaker, and YouTuber. Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with music, sketch, and stand-up comedy, commonly with a dramatic or tragic twist that is often left open to interpretation.
In 2006, Burnham created a YouTube channel, where he uploaded videos of him playing comedic songs that he wrote, often featuring wordplay and taboo or dark subject matter. Despite only being in his late teens, his music videos quickly went viral, making him one of the earliest YouTube stars. He began creating albums featuring his songs, such as Bo fo Sho (2008) and the self-titled album Bo Burnham (2009).
Burnham switched his focus from YouTube to performing stand-up comedy routines, which combined his comedy songs with traditional stand-up. He released three comedy specials, Words Words Words (2010), what. (2013), and Make Happy (2016). He also worked on the music and script for a comedy film that was ultimately scrapped. Bo created and starred in the 2013 MTV mockumentary series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous. He also published the poetry book Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas Alone (2013). In 2016, Burnham announced his intention to step away from performing live, which he later revealed to be due to him suffering from anxiety and experiencing panic attacks on stage. He went on to make his filmmaking debut as the writer and director of the drama film Eighth Grade (2018) and began directing other comedians' comedy specials, as well as co-starring in the dark comedy thriller film Promising Young Woman (2020).
Burnham returned to performing with his fourth comedy special, Inside (2021), which he created in his home without a crew or audience during the COVID-19 pandemic; it was released by Netflix to widespread acclaim, including a Peabody Award. The special was nominated in six categories at the 73rd Emmy Awards, winning three. At the 64th Grammy Awards, Inside was nominated for Best Music Film and Best Song Written for Visual Media, winning the latter. Three songs from the special appeared also on the Billboard charts and were certified gold in the United States, as was the accompanying album Inside (The Songs).
