Where famous comedians grew up and lived

Barry Humphries1959–2023

📍 Little Venice, Maida Vale, London W9, United Kingdom

London became my second home — and, in time, my first. I settled near Little Venice, among the canals and stucco terraces of Maida Vale, a world away from Camberwell's clipped lawns yet…

Betty White1923–1940

📍 Beverly Hills, California, USA

I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in January 1922, the only child of Horace White, a lighting company executive, and my mother, Tess. When I was a baby we moved to California, first to…

Billy T James1948–1959

📍 Leamington, Cambridge, Waikato 3432, New Zealand

I was born William Taitoko and grew up in Leamington, across the river from Cambridge, in the green heart of the Waikato — Tainui country, with the Waikato River and Taupiri mountain not…

Eddie Murphy1970–1979

📍 Roosevelt, Long Island, NY 11575, USA

Eddie Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York, in April 1961. His father, Charles, a transit police officer and amateur comedian, separated from his mother, Lillian, a telephone operator…

Jerry Seinfeld1954–1972

📍 Massapequa, NY 11758, USA

Jerry Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn and moved as a small boy with his family to Massapequa, a suburb on Long Island's south shore of new houses, schools and shopping centres. His father…

Jim Carrey1962–1979

📍 Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario, a small town north of Toronto, in January 1962, the youngest of four children of Percy, a jazz saxophonist turned accountant, and Kathleen, a…

Johnny Carson1933–1943

📍 Norfolk, Nebraska, USA

I was born in Corning, Iowa, in October 1925, and my father's job as a manager with a power company kept us moving around the small towns of south-west Iowa until, when I was eight, we…

Mark Twain1874–1891

📍 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105, USA

I grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, a river town where I watched the steamboats and the enslaved people on the levee, and I spent my young manhood as a pilot on the Mississippi. But Livy and I…

Robin Williams1968–1969

📍 Tiburon, California, USA

I spent most of my childhood in a huge house in Bloomfield Hills, outside Detroit, where my father was an executive with Ford. He was often away, and my mother was busy with her social…

Rowan Atkinson1955–1968

📍 Consett, County Durham, UK

Rowan Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, in January 1955, the youngest of four sons of Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and his wife, Ella May. He grew up in the…

Taika Waititi1975–1993

📍 Raukokore, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Taika Waititi grew up between Wellington, with his mother, and Raukōkore, on the remote eastern coast of the Bay of Plenty, with his father. His father, Taika Waititi senior, was a farmer…