Kristen Schaal

Comedy is all about context, which is why it’s easy to see the appeal of Kristen Schaal: With her girlish, sticky-with-candy voice and perpetually wide eyes, Schaal projects a gawky naiveté that makes the blunt, bizarre shit she says all the more disarming. She’s probably best known for playing Mel, stalker-ish fan-base-of-one on Flight Of The Conchords, or from her recent ascendancy as a Daily Show correspondent, but Schaal’s oeuvre also incorporates everything from surrealist short films involving drunk, gun-toting puppets and Pocahontas having phone sex to the lauded New York variety show Hot Tub, produced with longtime comedy partner Kurt Braunohler. Expect some terrible things delivered with the sweetest of smiles.

Updated 03/09/2010