Mary Beth Barone

Mary Elizabeth Barone (born May 28, 1991) is an American comedian and actress. , she stars as Grace on Benito Skinner's Amazon Prime Video comedy series Overcompensating (2025–present), for which she also writes, and co-hosts the Dear Media podcast Ride (2023–present) with Skinner. The two also previously co-hosted the Spotify podcast Obsessed (2021–2023).

Barone began her comedy career in New York City in 2015 after working with the Upright Citizens Brigade. She became known for her live show Drag His Ass: A Fuckboy Treatment Program, which was created in 2019 and adapted into a Comedy Central web series in 2021.

Early life Barone was born on May 28, 1991, and raised in a Catholic family of Italian descent in Stamford, Connecticut, with five older siblings. Her father, James E. Barone, Sr. (1945–2025), She attended Catholic school in Greenwich for 10 years and later graduated from Westhill High School in Stamford. She was raised in a Republican household and identified as a Republican prior to attending college. She began studying English at Boston College, but dropped out two years later and moved to Chinatown, Manhattan, at age 20, where she lived for several years.

Career While working at a start-up, Barone took two months of improv classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade before doing stand-up during an all-women open mic for the group in 2015, after which she decided to pursue comedy full-time. Also in 2019, she performed a stand-up set for Comedy Central and started the Instagram account and Brooklyn–based live comedy show Drag His Ass: A Fuckboy Treatment Program. In May 2021, Drag His Ass had been adapted into a Comedy Central web series. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she started Coming Clean, a livestreamed comedy show on Instagram filmed from her bathtub.

Barone and Skinner co-hosted the weekly Spotify podcast Obsessed, in which they discussed their pop culture "obsessions", from March 2021 to March 2023. Also in March 2021, Barone performed for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The Atlantic included it on their list of the best podcasts of 2023. In March 2024, she released her self-produced stand-up special, Thought Provoking, on YouTube, and performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote it. During the 2025 New York City mayoral election, she endorsed Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani and interviewed him on Politics for Hot People. as Grace, an uptight and popular college student at the fictional Yates University and the older sister of Benny, a closeted freshman at Yates played by Skinner. She is also a writer for the series. Henry Chandonnet of The Daily Beast called her a "series standout" and one of several "genuine breakouts" on the show, while Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times called her role "poignant" and "perhaps the show's most moving performance". Barone co-starred on the music video for the song "Wild Guess" by Australian singer-songwriter Ruel, which premiered in October 2025.

Barone's first hour-long comedy special Galaxy Brain premiered on July 28, 2026, on Netflix. The special was taped on March 19, 2026, at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The Guardians Owen Myers described the special as "55 minutes of whip-smart laughs that tackle all the no-nos of polite dinner party conversation".

Personal life Barone is bisexual.

Comedic style In 2018, Time Out New York described Barone's comedic style as "dark post-modernism". Her comedy has been described as deadpan, observational, feminist, sex-positive, and focused on topics such as sex, bisexuality, religion, white privilege, the patriarchy, and "fuckboys".

Television Year Title Role Notes 2022 That Damn Michael Che Party Planner #1 Episode: "Black Mediocrity" 2023 Black Mirror Lucy Episode: "Joan Is Awful" 2025 Overcompensating Grace Main cast; also staff writer

Music videos Year Title Artist(s) Notes 2025 "Wild Guess" Ruel Female lead; directed by Jackie! Zhou