Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945 in Waco, Texas. He studied at Long Beach State College. He has acted in such films as The Jerk; Roxanne; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Bowfinger; Father of the Bride; Cheaper by the Dozen; and Shopgirl, which was adapted from a novel he wrote. He has won an Emmy for his comedy writing and Grammies for his comedy albums. He has made several appearances on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live. He has written several books including Shopgirl, Cruel Shoes, Pure Drivel, The Pleasure of My Company, and An Object of Beauty. He also wrote a play entitled Picasso at the Lapin Agile and a memoir entitled Born Standing Up. During the 1990s, he wrote… various pieces for The New Yorker. In 2002, he adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants, which ran Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company and in 2008, co-wrote and produced Traitor. In 2013 he published a memoir entitled Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. This book tells the story of his beginnings as a magician and comedian at a young age and follows through his career lifetime.
Roz Chast was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 26, 1954. She received a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 1977. Her cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, Scientific American, the Harvard Business Review, Redbook, and Mother Jones. She is the author of several books including The Party, After You Left: Collected Cartoons 1995-2003, What I Hate: From A to Z, Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006, and Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir. She has also illustrated several books including The Alphabet from A to Y, with Bonus Letter, Z by Steve Martin.