Celebrities

10 Red Head Comedians You Should Know

Ten comedians tied to red hair, from natural redheads to stars who made the color their screen look. Some were never born red at all.

By Written Facts StaffMarch 25, 2021Updated October 16, 20266 min read

You've probably watched an I Love Lucy rerun and assumed the most famous red hair in comedy was real. It wasn't. Lucille Ball was born a brunette. Here are ten comedians tied to red hair. A few are documented natural redheads or got their names from it. Others made red a screen signature. The rest earned their place with the work alone. Each one has a story worth knowing, from a Vegas residency to a fight with the IRS.

Red by Birth or by Name

Catherine Tate

Catherine Tate is the clearest case on this list. Born on December 5, 1969, in Bloomsbury, London, she is a natural redhead and has worked her hair color into her comedy. Her characters have earned her seven BAFTA nominations, including a 2015 nod for Female Performance in a Comedy Programme for Catherine Tate's Nan.

Redd Foxx

Redd Foxx's stage name came from his hair. Born John Elroy Sanford on December 9, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri, he was called "Red" for his reddish hair and complexion. In the 1940s, while washing dishes in Harlem, he was known as "Chicago Red." One of the men working beside him was Malcolm Little, then called "Detroit Red," who later became Malcolm X.

Foxx's later years were rough. On November 28, 1989, the IRS seized his Las Vegas home, seven cars and personal property to collect nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest from 1983 to 1986. He died on October 11, 1991, in Los Angeles.

Carrot Top

Like Foxx, Carrot Top wears his hair in his name. He was born Scott Christopher Thompson on February 25, 1965, in Rockledge, Florida, and grew up in nearby Cocoa. His act is prop comedy, not "pro comedy," as it is sometimes misspelled. It became a Las Vegas fixture at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. In November 2023, while marking 18 years there, he signed an extension that was set to keep the show running through 2030.

Red on Screen

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball is the reason many people think of red hair and comedy together, but the color was a career choice. A natural brunette, she adopted her trademark apricot-red shade in 1943 for the Technicolor film Du Barry Was a Lady.

Her past also came up during the Red Scare. On September 4, 1953, she voluntarily gave closed-door testimony to a House Un-American Activities Committee investigator, William A. Wheeler. The subject was her 1936 Communist Party voter registration. She said she had registered to please her socialist grandfather, and she was cleared of disloyalty.

Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett is the other great redhead of TV comedy. Like Ball's, her red is best treated as part of her look rather than proof of what she was born with. She was born Carol Creighton Burnett on April 26, 1933, in San Antonio, Texas.

Burnett also made legal history. In Burnett v. National Enquirer, Inc. (1983), she sued over a false 1976 report about her. The California Court of Appeal ruled that the Enquirer did not count as a newspaper under California Civil Code § 48a and upheld the tabloid's liability. Media lawyers still cite the case.

Madeline Kahn

Madeline Kahn is often listed as a natural redhead, but that claim doesn't hold up well. She wore different hair colors and wigs from role to role. She was born Madeline Gail Wolfson on September 29, 1942, in Boston. She died of ovarian cancer on December 3, 1999, in New York City.

Her husband, John W. Hansbury, later joined the board of the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. He also created "Stand Up for Madeline," an annual benefit at Carolines on Broadway that raises money for research. It is a fitting tribute to a comic actress, since the fundraiser runs on laughs.

Remembered for the Work

These last four are here for their careers, not their hair. Each has a story that most redhead lists skip.

Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts. A DNA test confirmed what his name suggests: 100% Irish ancestry. His most famous business moment came in January 2010, when he left The Tonight Show under a $45 million settlement with NBC. Of that, $33 million went to O'Brien and $12 million went to severance for his staff.

Seth Green

Seth Green was born Seth Benjamin Gesshel-Green on February 8, 1974, in Philadelphia. He married actress Clare Grant on May 1, 2010. His signature comedy project is Robot Chicken, not "Reboot Chicken." It is the stop-motion sketch show that debuted on Adult Swim in 2005. Green co-created it and directs, produces and voices characters on it.

He also had an unusual brush with crypto. In June 2022, after losing his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #8398 to a phishing scam, he paid 165 Ether, about $260,000 at the time, to get it back.

Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. was born Louis Alfred Székely on September 12, 1967, in Washington, D.C. In 2022, he won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Sincerely Louis C.K.

André van Duin

André van Duin is less known outside the Netherlands. At home, he is a comedy institution. He was born Adrianus Marinus Kloot on February 20, 1947, in Rotterdam. In 1966, his family officially changed their surname to Kyvon. The Dutch state has honored him twice: he was made a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1993 and promoted to Officer in 2011.

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