"There's this weird thing about being a professional comedian- people expect you to be spitting out one liners literally all the time. When you make people laugh for a living, there's never a minute where you're not supposed to be making people laugh."

Nany Deville can confirm that when you try out for the illustrious Saturday Night Live, there's a group of very notorious comedians who stumble into the back of a crowded New York club and stare at you like they're witnessing an execution. "That's what it feels like," she says. "They want to make sure you can handle it if you don't get a laugh. Live TV is unforgiving- if you can't keep going when there's nothing but dead air, no energy to feed off of, you can't make it on the show."
Deville auditioned three times before she finally got a slot on the show- and her now infamous first episode, in which she dropped an f bomb in the middle of a skit she had written herself, quickly ended her career on what had been her lifelong pipe dream. While she was able to finish out the season, her contract was not renewed, and she was back to where she started- square one. Where do you go when you've made it to the top, and quite literally fucked yourself out of it?
Nanette Francesca Deville was a Jewish child born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up, she was either the notoriously obnoxious girl or the notoriously funny one, and her constant sunny disposition was enough to make her a polarizing figure even in the second grade- she was the kind of classmate you either loved or hated, and that carried forward for much of her life.
Deville developed an anxiety disorder very early in her life, and social situations were particularly difficult. To compensate for this, she would make jokes- the hope, of course, was that no one would notice that she was scared shitless of the act of getting to know another person or letting down their expectations. What was originally a coping mechanisn for poor mental health (possbly onset by the grisly divorce of her parents at the age of five,) became Nanette- now commonly known as Nany-'s favorite hobbie. And when she realized that she could make a job out of making people laugh- well- her mother quickly realized she should shelve any hope that Nany would grow up to be a Doctor, a teacher, or an astronaut. The gigantic poster of Gilda Radner hanging over her bed probably didn't help.
Deville went to Boston University where she majored in theater and stumbled her way through her more dramatic courses. She signed up for an improv class, she tried netowrking- as much as was humanly possible for a seventeen year old who probably smoked a lot of weed right before she got here- and every day, she tried to shove her foot into a closin door to wiggle her way into a hallowed institution of comedy. After landing a small role on Artie Grein's late night show, the end was in sight- of course, a different ending than she expected was coming.
After Deville was fired from Saturday Night Live for her unnoticed slur, she was sure that her life was over. She gave herself a week to wallow, to make the pizza guy deliver the pizza to her bedroom, to e-mail her mother about how she hoped she hadn't made her cry, and generally act like a pessimistic sack of shit before she finally got up on her feet again and realized it might have been a blessing in disguise. Sure, she wasn't the Teddy Roosevelt of SNL, but you might just be the Nixon.
So, what do you do? You go back to networking. You start handing out those filled out rolodex cards. You call up all your new funny friends and remind them how totally funny you are. You go to auditions and prove that you're more than just that girl. You and a good friend of yours make a short film about a shell with shoes on, and you use your characteristically peculiar voice to bring it life. You keep pushing because you're not sure what else to do, and in the end, it works in your favor.
Over time, Nany used that distinctive voice to land her jobs on multiple hit cartoons like Bob's Burgers and Bojack Horseman. While voice acting quickly became a passion, she thrived in front of an audience, and continued to do standup as much as possible. An honest and authentic disposition seemed to attract fans, and a friendship with Kristen Wiig, her on-screen cohost for the SNL gaffe, landed her in the 2011 hit Bridesmaids. Nany had always been in a rush to capitalize on any chance of fame she could get- but she'd made enough money to pay her rent and order at least three pizzas a week, so she decided for a while, she wouldn't compromise on her principles, and she'd only attach herself to projects she really enjoyed- then again, she was a literal child who enjoyed just about everything. Nany's heart lies within her ablity to do just about anything for a laugh. She'll write jokes, she'll read jokes, she'll do improv, she'll make stupid faces. She's the kind of obnoxiously happy person who believes that there will always be light in the world, and to take the time to stand in the darkness is a waste of her precious Earth girl time. Because, well, she wouldn't be quite surprised if she found out she were an alien.