{{Infobox comedian | name = Paula Poundstone | image = PaulaPoundstoneByPhilKonstantin.jpg | caption = Poundstone in 2008 | pseudonym = | birth_date = | birth_place = Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. | origin = Sudbury, Massachusetts | death_date = | death_place = | medium = Standup comedy, television, radio, print, internet | nationality = American | active = 1979–present | genre = standup, improvisational comedy, crowd work, voice acting, commentator, interviewer | subject = Observational humor | influences = | children = 3 | influenced = | notable_work = {{ubl|Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!|The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness|Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, the comedy podcast|Cats, Cops and Stuff|Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard|The French Trump Weekly Press Conference}} }} Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian, author, actor, interviewer, and commentator. Beginning in the late 1980s, she performed a series of one-hour HBO comedy specials. She provided backstage commentary during the 1992 presidential election on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She is the host of the Starburns Audio podcast (previously a member of the Maximum Fun network) Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, which is the successor to the National Public Radio program Live from the Poundstone Institute. She is a frequent panelist on NPR's weekly news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, and was a recurring guest on the network's A Prairie Home Companion variety program during Garrison Keillor's years as host. Early life Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the daughter of Vera, a housewife, and Jack Poundstone, an engineer. Her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts, about a month after her birth. Career Poundstone started doing stand-up comedy at open-mic nights in Boston in 1979. In the early 1980s, she traveled across the United States by Greyhound bus, stopping in at open-mic nights at comedy clubs en route. She stayed in San Francisco, where she became known for improvisational sets at Holy City Zoo on Clement Street and The Other Café comedy club in Cole Valley. In 1984, Robin Williams saw her act and encouraged her to move to Los Angeles. She performed her act when Williams hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. That year, Poundstone was cast in the movie Gremloids. She continued as a comedian and began appearing on several talk shows. In 1989, she won the American Comedy Award for "Best Female Stand-Up Comic". In 1990, she