Dannah Phirman (born April 22, 1975, in Israel as Dannah Feinglass) is an actress, comedienne, and writer best known for voicing the titular character in the PBS Kids animated series WordGirl and currently co-stars as Narge Hemingway in the Adult Swim series Newsreaders. She was a member of the long-running sketch comedy troupe Respecto Montalban, one of the original improv groups at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. She is also the co-creator and co-star of the Hulu reality TV parody series The Hotwives.

Biography

Phirman majored in theater at SUNY Geneseo and graduated in 1997. After moving to New York City in 1998 she became involved with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater where she was a part of the improv sketch group Respecto Montalban. Phirman teaches sketch comedy writing and improv, and has performed in two-person shows like Eye Candy (with Danielle Schneider), which went to the 2002 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and Special Delivery (with Paul Scheer), a parody of a British children's show in which postal workers rummage through people's mail in search of heartwarming lessons and edibles. She and Scheer won a 2004 Nightlife Award for Automatic Vaudeville, called "the best variety show in New York City" by Time Out New York. She has since collaborated with creative partner Danielle Schneider on other sketch shows such as Let's Get Awkward and Dead Heiresses at the Los Angeles UCB, as well as a five-woman improv show Mother F#$@er. Dead Heiresses was also developed as a pilot for Comedy Central in 2007.