Morgan Murphy
Morgan Murphy is an actor.
Stand-up is the day job, and it explains how she has been used on screen. Morgan Murphy came up through the American alternative comedy circuit, touring with Comedians of Comedy and appearing on its Live at the Troubadour release, and the parts that followed have mostly been written for someone who can land a flat, deadpan line and then get out.
Bobcat Goldthwait is the director who kept hiring her, in Sleeping Dogs Lie, which is not among the credits listed here, and in World's Greatest Dad in 2009, where the character is simply called Morgan. Elsewhere the credits are one-line jobs whose character names tell the story on their own: Fast Food Employee in God Bless America, Karaoke Bartender in The Goods, and Joanie in It's Kind of a Funny Story.
The steadier work has been writing. She has written for Jimmy Kimmel Live! as well as appearing on it repeatedly, performed in all three years of Aimee Mann's Christmas Spectacular tours, and turned up in the video for Mann's 31 Today. Taken together that is a precise portrait of a particular kind of comedy career: respected inside the room, cast in the margins outside it, and most visible to the public through other people's shows.
Movies (4)
TV (1)
Where to start with Morgan Murphy
Watch World's Greatest Dad first. The part is the largest she has had, but the better reason is tonal: the film is bleak in a way that needs performers who refuse to signal the joke, which is exactly her register. God Bless America comes from the same director and the same nerve, though her role is a single scene. It's Kind of a Funny Story is the softest thing here and the easiest watch. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is a broad studio comedy where she is behind a karaoke bar and then gone, worth it only if you are collecting. After Midnight has her as herself, which, given how much of the good stuff is stand-up and writing, may be the truest item on the list.