Elizabeth Littleford (born July 17, 1968) is an American actress and comedian known as an original correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show from 1996 to 2000. She was among the former correspondents recognized when The Daily Show with Jon Stewart received a 2015 institutional Peabody Award.
Littleford's later television roles include Nancy Blaford on the Fox sitcom Method & Red and Ellen Jennings on the Disney Channel series Dog with a Blog. Her film roles include Claire Riley in the 2011 romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love.
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Early life
Littleford was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of Jackie, a professor, and Philip O. Littleford, a cardiologist and inventor. She grew up in Winter Park, Florida and attended the Park Maitland School. Her father and brother died when she was sixteen in a pontoon plane accident during an Alaskan fishing trip.
A National Merit Scholarship Program finalist in high school, she attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania for three years before taking up acting classes at New York University; she eventually graduated from The New School for Social Research.
Career
Early in her acting career, Littleford worked in improvisational theatre with Chicago City Limits, wrote and performed the one-woman show This Is Where I Get Off at the Circle Repertory Company, and appeared in the romantic comedy film Picture This.
Littleford was one of the original correspondents on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, appearing during both Craig Kilborn's and Jon Stewart's tenures as host. Her recurring celebrity-interview segments were performed in the style of Barbara Walters. In 1998, Comedy Central aired The Beth Littleford Interview Special, a compilation of her previously shown interview segments. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly described The Daily Show as a launching pad for Littleford and other correspondents, noting that she was expanding her recurring role on Spin City and had appeared in the film Mystery, Alaska. That year, she was also listed among the celebrity participants at Austin's Big Stinkin' International Improv & Sketch Comedy Festival.
Littleford played Nancy Blaford on the 2004 Fox sitcom Method & Red. She later appeared in several television comedy and family series, including The Hard Times of RJ Berger, in which she played Suzanne Berger, and the Disney Channel series Dog with a Blog, in which she played Ellen Jennings.
Her later screen appearances include the Netflix series Dead to Me, in which she appeared in the 2019 episode "I Can Handle It", and the 2021 film Senior Moment, in which she played Tess Woodson.
Personal life
Littleford lives in Los Angeles. She was married to Rob Fox, a director and producer who worked alongside her on The Daily Show, from 1998 to 2015; they had a son (b. 2005) and an adopted daughter (b. 2012). Fox died in 2017.
