LYDIA CORNELL BIO 2017

About Lydia Cornell

Lydia Cornell, whose great-great grandmother was Harriet Beecher Stowe, has been Invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary. Known for her knife-sharp wit on HBO, standup comedy, social media, concerts, public speaking and morning-drive radio, Cornell has been called: “A female George Carlin and ‘the new Tina Fey.’ A fresh voice; one of the most original voices in America today. ~ Cindy Pearlman, Chicago Sun Times and New York Times syndicate

With 18-34 million viewers Tuesday nights on ABC primetime, and millions more in worldwide syndication, AFI Best Actress nominee and People's Choice Award winner Lydia Cornell grew up in America’s living rooms. Best known for her starring role as the daughter of TV legend Ted Knight  (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Caddyshack) on the hit ABC series Too Close for Comfort, she is an international celebrity with a fiercely loyal fan following whom she interacts with daily on social media.  Starring in over 250 TV shows & films in 27 countries, including HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, she costars with Robert Downey, Jr., Steven Tyler, Jon Bon Jovi and Gary Oldman in indie films at Sundance; Variety’s Power of Comedy with Rebel Wilson and Russell Brand and The Kelsey Grammer Comedy Hour. Her fan base exploded last fall when she shot onto Google’s Top Trends[1] and Yahoo! Finance News’ Most Viewed News Stories[2] right behind William Buffet. Yahoo! Finance News: Lydia Cornell interviews World Leaders, Pulitzer Prize Winners, White House and Presidential Candidates for new morning drive AM radio show

Cornell is also a writer, director, talk show host, women and children’s advocate, teen mentor; mother and inspirational public speaker. In 2017, she was honored by the Los Angeles Movie Awards for directing the SAG film It's My Decision and received the Southern California Motion Picture Council's Golden Halo Lifetime Achievement Award. As co-host of a radio network with Hell’s Kitchen chefs, MTV stars and CLNS Sports Radio personalities, she hosts a top-rated podcast on itunes, which was nominated for a Stitcher award. She is currently working on a series of humor and spiritual recovery books. She is producing docuseries with an astrophysicist  from NASA-JPL and a Naval Intelligence officer, as well as her own comedy TV series. She wrote and directed the indie short Venus Conspiracy, which will soon be a feature film. Her articles have appeared in Herald de Paris; A&E Biography; Editor & Publisher; Huffington Post; Macon Daily, People, Us, Yahoo, New York Post, Script Frenzy and Lone Star Icon. Too Close for Comfort airs daily on Tribune Broadcasting’s new comedy channel Antenna TV. Cornell took a sabbatical from Hollywood in order to get sober, raise children, write books, and find her soul in a pornographic world.

• Cornell's blog is a triple Koufax nominee for best writing, recipient of the Thinking Blogger Award and winner of the Freedom Award and three World Report Awards, is “a consistently thought-provoking firecracker of pointed socio-political commentary and observant, caustic wit.” (Yahoo News; Shotgun Reviews.)
• Despite rumors on TMZ and in the tabloids, Cornell did not sue Kelsey Grammer. Cornell is currently helping the FBI alongside Kelsey Grammer in a major criminal investigation. This will be revealed in an upcoming expose.
• Has been invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary.

Triumph over Tragedy: A children’s advocate, Cornell raised a child with brittle bone disease is an inspirational speaker on domestic violence, and teen suicide prevention — as well as on drug, alcohol and Adderall[1] abuse. She endured a shattering personal tragedy when she found her younger brother’s body after a drug overdose.

Recovery Expert: Sober now for 22 years, she speaks to recovery groups of 200 or more. She spoke at Texas A&M for Domestic Violence Prevention’s 30^th anniversary luncheon. Her talks are laced with poignant stories of transformation with an innate sense of humor and comic timing. Cornell speaks at charity fundraisers, hospitals, high schools, colleges and women’s centers on overcoming loss, grief, unemployment, sexism, ageism, depression, self-sabotage, suicide, raising aliens (teenagers) and every imaginable hardship. Her triumph over addiction was the result of a ‘catastrophic spiritual awakening.’ “There is a reason so many celebrities are in rehab these days,” she says. Her experiences in overcoming a string of failures and humiliations inspired her to assist others with their own demons. “My ego was so big, it had an apartment of its own with a walk-in closet.  

Osteogenesis Imperfecta: Lydia has been invited to speak in Florida on Osteogenesis Imperfecta or brittle bone disease. A mother of boys, she raised a stepson whose bones broke every time he fell. “Raising a child with brittle bone disease has been one of the most precious gifts of my life.” she says of her stepson.

Public Service

Military: Received the USO Distinguished Service Award for trip to Beirut war zone

In 2015, Lydia went to Lincoln Nebraska to support the troops for the Big Red Challenge.  She will be in Santa Barbara for a celebrity golf tournament to benefit “Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People.”  She has worked with the Red Cross, Firefighters, Autism Awareness, and High Hopes Ryan’s Reach — Pat Boone’s charity for traumatic spinal cord injury.

Domestic Violence: She hosted a documentary for Safe Passage Home, an organization that gives extreme life makeovers to victims of domestic violence, for Oxygen network. She housed domestic abuse victims and cared for their children throughout the school year. With the help of the police, Cornell helped rescue a battered woman from a predator. 

Teen Mentor: As a teen mentor, Lydia works with L.A. Team Mentoring (after school programs for underprivileged kids) and is developing a site for troubled teens called The Answer Room.

• Currently in talks with Dancing with the Stars
• Opened for Paul Rodriguez at Pechanga 1500 seat theater
• Seen on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm; costarring with Robert Downey, Jr., Steven Tyler, Jon Bon Jovi and Gary Oldman in Me, Miami and Nancy Sundance; Kelsey Grammer Comedy Hour; Host of Variety’s Power of Comedy with Rebel Wilson, Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Melissa Etheridge, Aziz Ansari, Lake Bell, Dylan McDermott, Patton Oswalt and Sarah Silverman; co-stars in director Jordan Alan’s Cats Dancing on Jupiter with star of The Mentalist.
• Too Close for Comfort is back daily on Tribune Broadcasting’s comedy channel Antenna TV, on WGN and in top markets nationwide. The show has been in worldwide syndication for over 25 years.
• She has her own award-winning podcast and radio show and is co-owner of a network Beats and Eats on iTunes with Hell’s Kitchen chefs, Sports Radio and MTV stars, and was nominated for a Stitcher Award.
• A humorist and comedienne, Cornell has been called the “female George Carlin.”
• She is currently working on a series of humor and spiritual recovery books, which will be out in 2018.
• Despite rumors on TMZ and in the tabloids, Cornell did not sue Kelsey Grammer. Cornell is currently helping the FBI alongside Kelsey Grammer in a major criminal investigation. This will be revealed in an upcoming expose.
• Lydia Cornell's blog is a triple Koufax nominee for best writing, recipient of the Thinking Blogger Award and winner of the Freedom Award and three World Report Awards, is “a consistently thought-provoking firecracker of pointed socio-political commentary and observant, caustic wit.” (Yahoo News; Shotgun Reviews.)
• Has been invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary.
• Received the USO Distinguished Service Award for Middle East and Beirut war zone trip to visit the troops.
• Venus Conspiracy – written and directed by Lydia Cornell, costarring Deborah Van Valkenburgh, who played her sister on Too Close for Comfort
• Pain is Inevitable, Sex Optional – on stage in her original three-woman show
• Political Voices of Women Best Writing Awards ~ World Report Award, Thinking Blogger Award; Weblog Award and Double Koufax Nominee.

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[1] Google Hot Trends: Google Hot Trends: What is popular/what is hot Lydia Cornell in Google’s top 100 trends when a cover story on Cornell coincided with the news that her show was coming back on the air. Cornell wrote over 175 spiritual-political articles on government, politics, Obama, the election, sex and religion.

[2] Breaking Yahoo! News: Too Close for Comfort actress Lydia Cornell interviews world leaders, presidential candidates and Pulitzer Prizewinners for new radio show.