Alison Martin

Alison Martin is an American actress, writer, and producer born on September 8 in the Bronx, New York. She is the only child of Joseph G. Martin and Josephine DiLorenzo, both journalists who met while working at the New York Daily News. Her father's career at the paper spanned more than 45 years and earned him numerous honors, including a Selurians Award in 1950, two George Polk Awards in 1952 and 1973, and a Newspaper Guild Page One Award in 1956. In 1959, he received a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for a ten-part series co-written with Philip Santori examining Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, which the Pulitzer committee described as "prophetic journalism" for anticipating Batista's fall. He also served as New York Deputy Police Commissioner for public relations from 1965 to 1968. Martin's mother, Josephine DiLorenzo, graduated high school at 15 and entered Hunter College at 16. She became one of the first female copyboys at the New York Daily News, eventually rising to reporter and conducting celebrity interviews with figures including Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. After leaving the workforce to raise her family, DiLorenzo continued writing a weekly column for the Daily News titled "Trips and Treats."

Martin attended Ursuline High School in the Bronx before enrolling at Boston College, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Broadcast Communications and Theater. During her time there, she co-founded a collegiate improv comedy troupe called My Mother's Fleabag, which became America's second oldest such troupe and counts Amy Poehler among its alumni.

Her theater career began in Boston, where she performed in Shear Madness, described as America's longest-running comedy. After relocating to New York, she appeared Off-Broadway in original productions by playwrights Peter Tolan, David Ives, and David Mamet. In 1995, Martin made her Broadway debut in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor, performing opposite Nathan Lane. She subsequently joined the national tour of the production. Martin is also a member of The Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles, where she performed the role of Soccer Mom in the company's 2019 production of The Wolves, which received the LA Drama Critics Circle award that year.

On television, Martin won an Emmy Award for acting in the children's series A Likely Story, a production for which she also served as a writer. She received a second Emmy nomination for her work on the Lifetime Channel series The World According to Us, again contributing as both writer and performer. Her television appearances span more than forty recurring and guest star roles across series including The Big Bang Theory, How to Get Away with Murder, Code Black, Grace and Frankie, The Office, American Princess, and There's... Johnny! She has also appeared in hundreds of commercials, two of which she improvised and which went on to win Clio Awards.

Martin's film credits include Soul Survivor, Blades of Glory, Four Christmases, Sleepover, The Year of Spectacular Men, Trail of the Screaming Forehead, and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, the latter two directed by Larry Blamire. In audio, she produced and performed in The Audio Adventurebook of Big Dan Frater, which won the Gold Nick Danger Mark Time Award for best comedy album in 2015. Martin co-hosts the insidewink podcast alongside Jean Trebek and serves as co-founder and editor of the associated online magazine.