Career beginnings Behar started her career in show business in the early 1980s as a receptionist and later a producer on
Good Morning America. She was a stand-up comedian and made appearances on ABC's
Good Morning America and
The New Show, a short-lived
Lorne Michaels NBC project. In 1987, she hosted a variety talk show on
Lifetime Television called
Way Off Broadway that included
Larry David as a writer and performer. She also hosted the show
Live from Queens; was a regular on NBC's
Baby Boom; and continued to work the comedy club circuit. She had minor film roles including
Cookie,
This Is My Life, and
Manhattan Murder Mystery. In the early 1990s, she hosted a talk-show on 77
WABC radio in New York City. She also made appearances on
HBO comedy specials
One Night Stand and
Women of the Night 2.
The View ,
Barbara Walters, Behar,
Sherri Shepherd, and
Elisabeth Hasselbeck) interview U.S. President
Barack Obama on July 29, 2010 In 1997, Behar became one of the original panelists of the
ABC daytime talk show
The View, which was co-created by
Barbara Walters. Behar originally appeared only on the days when Walters was off, but she ultimately became a permanent co-host. Behar occasionally hosted a segment called "Joy's Comedy Corner" in which she presented both established and up-and-coming comedians. In August 2009, Behar and the other co-hosts,
Whoopi Goldberg,
Elisabeth Hasselbeck,
Sherri Shepherd, and Walters, won a
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host following over a decade of nominations for the show. On March 7, 2013, it was announced that Behar would be leaving the show at the end of that season. She told
Deadline, "It seemed like the right time...You reach a point when you say to yourself, 'Do I want to keep doing this?' There are other things on my plate I want to do — I've been writing a play, I've been neglecting my standup". After departing in 2013, Behar continued to guest co-host throughout 2014 and 2015. On August 25, 2015, ABC announced that Behar would return as a regular co-host starting with the premiere of the 19th season on September 8, 2015. Behar was quoted as saying, "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Plus, Steve was getting tired of applauding every time I gave my opinion. But I'm happy to be back home. And I'm looking forward to sticking my two cents into the hot topics, especially now that Hillary and the Donald are in the spotlight." In 2018, while analyzing television personality
Omarosa's comments in regards to U.S. Vice President
Mike Pence's religiosity, Behar stated: "It's one thing to talk to Jesus, it's another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct, hearing voices." Conservative content analysis organization
Media Research Center subsequently launched a campaign demanding an apology from Behar and urging viewers to do the same, resulting in 40,000 calls to ABC as well as 6,000 complaints to the show's advertisers. Pence himself responded and accused the show of expressing "religious intolerance". On March 13, 2018, she issued an apology on air, stating: "I think Vice President Pence is right; I was raised to respect everyone's religious faith, and I fell short of that. I sincerely apologize for what I said."
The Joy Behar Show Beginning in 2007, she occasionally filled in as a
guest host on
Larry King Live. On June 11, 2009, Behar announced that she would be hosting her own news/talk program on CNN's HLN beginning in the fall of 2009, titled
The Joy Behar Show. She did not leave
The View but worked on both shows simultaneously. The final broadcast of
The Joy Behar Show aired on December 15, 2011.
Joy Behar: Say Anything! In 2012, Behar began hosting another talk show,
Joy Behar: Say Anything!, on the
Current TV network. Before the new show's launch, Behar began acting as fill-in host for
Eliot Spitzer's Current TV talk show,
Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, starting on July 18, 2012. The show ended in August 2013 after Current TV was sold to
Al Jazeera; the channel was replaced by
Al Jazeera America.
Late Night Joy Behar's short-lived weekly late night talk show,
Late Night Joy, premiered on
TLC on November 4, 2015. Each episode features Behar having intimate chats with friends in her New York City apartment. It was cancelled after 5 episodes.
Other work Behar has performed in theatrical plays, including
The Food Chain,
The Vagina Monologues, and
Love, Loss and What I Wore. She has also performed in an Off-Broadway one-woman show entitled
Me, My Mouth and I. She has written multiple books, such as a collection of humorous essays and stories called
Joy Shtick — Or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments? and a children's book called
Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog, published in 2006. She appeared on the eighth season of
Bravo's
Celebrity Poker Showdown and finished in fourth place, behind
Robin Tunney,
Christopher Meloni and
Macy Gray, but ahead of
Andy Dick. On October 27, 2017, Behar appeared as a guest on
Real Time with Bill Maher. Behar portrayed the role of Dr. Lucy in the 2011 comedy film
Hall Pass. She also recurred in
Woody Allen's Amazon series,
Crisis in Six Scenes. Behar's debut play premiered in 2025 in New York City
Off-Broadway,
My First Ex-Husband. ==Personal life==