Dallas VideoFest will honor actress and writer Amy Sedaris, a Second City alumna and known for her role as Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central favorite Strangers with Candy, with the coveted Ernie Kovacs Award at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at the Alamo Drafthouse (100 S. Central Expressway at Beltline – Richardson).
She is the first woman to receive the award.
“Amy Sedaris has brought a unique vision to television and cinema, developing strong and funny characters in a Kovacsian way,” said Bart Weiss, founder and artistic director of Dallas VideoFest. “What a wonderful addition to the great artists who have taken home The Ernie Kovacs Award.
“I am sure Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams would be thrilled to be here, but their spirits will infuse the night.”
“Amy Sedaris so firmly embodies Ernie Kovacs’ cockeyed aesthetic that she is a natural to win The Ernie Kovacs Award,” said Joshua Mills of Ediad Productions and the Estate of Ernie Kovacs. “Not only are Amy’s outrageous characters such as the Wine Lady and the Hobo very Kovacsian, but she excels in front of the camera, on radio and as a writer too just like Ernie.”
Born in Endicott, N.Y., and raised in Raleigh, N.C., Sedaris honed her natural talent for comedy at The Second City in Chicago. Sedaris met and began working with comedians Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello at Second City; the three went on to collaborate on the short-lived Comedy Central program Exit 57 and later worked together on Strangers with Candy, a spoof of the after-school specials and that were popular in the 1970s.
Sedaris’ current television show is At Home with Amy Sedaris on truTV
https://www.trutv.com/shows/at-home-with-amy-sedaris/index.html. Her long list of television credits includes appearances on Sex and the City, The Good Wife and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Her voice is heard as the pink cat talent agent, Princess Caroline on BoJack Horseman. Sedaris’ extensive movie career includes roles in STRANGERS WITH CANDY (2005) ELF (2003), SCHOOL OF ROCK (2003) and the voice of Cinderella in SHREK THE THIRD (2007).
Sedaris also authored several satirical lifestyle books, including I Like You: Hospitality, Under the Influence and Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People.
The Ernie Kovacs Award recognizes the career and talents of some of television’s greatest visionaries. Kovacs’ work in the 1950s and early 1960 summed up the spirit of innovation and the development of the language of television as art. The Dallas VideoFest and the Video Association of Dallas announced the first Ernie Kovacs Award at the 1997 festival. Comedian Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science 3000 was the first recipient and subsequent honorees have included Terry Gilliam of Monty Python; Robert Smigel, writer/performer of Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O’Brien; Paul “Pee-wee Herman” Reubens; Martin Mull; Mike Judge; George Schlatter, creator of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In; Harry Shearer, Spinal Tap and The Simpsons; Michael Nesmith; and in 2017, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald of The Kids in the Hall. Actress Edie Adams (
www.edieadams.com), Kovacs’ wife, came to Dallas to host the awards program annually until her death in 2008. Today, Edie’s son, Joshua Mills, runs Ediad Productions, the video and audio archive of both Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams.
Event Listing:
Dallas VideoFest 31 presents the Ernie Kovacs Award to actress Amy Sedaris at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at Alamo Drafthouse (100 S. Central Expressway at Beltline – Richardson).
Admission - $25