Both my parents were working in politics when I was growing up, so going on stage was not that great a leap.

I know this is a weird niche, but a lot of my female friends have these strange stories where there their dads have seen the small successes of their daughters and have decided that they are creative as well.

Something that's good in the mini-culture of 'Happy Endings' is that the goal is to try and make each other laugh. There is a pretty high bar, and you want to make the writers laugh, and you want to elevate what's already great material - and also, we're like, 'Who is even watching this? Let's just go for it.'

With agents, I've learned to bring them into the process when I feel confident. You're the only one that can really know what's right for your career. You're on a wing and a prayer through most of it.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

I would say that Emma Stone and Emma Watson are two very talented young actresses who are very intelligent and have a great sense of humor and have learned to balance what they love with their acting career, and I think that's really a great thing.

I don't like it when I see a racist comedian go up and say, 'What are we gonna do about all these immigrants?' and they get a round the applause. I think, 'Well that's not a joke. That's just your biased opinion.'

You know, crankiness is at the essence of all comedy.