"I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I'm beautiful. I say if I'm strong. You will not determine my story—I will." —Amy Schumer Who is Amy Schumer Amy Beth Schumer (born June 1, 1981) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She ventured into comedy in the early 2000s before appearing as a contestant on the fifth season of the NBC reality competition series Last Comic Standing in 2007. From 2013 to 2016, she was the creator, co-producer, co-writer, and star of the Comedy Central sketch comedy series Inside Amy Schumer, for which she received a Peabody Award and was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, winning Outstanding Variety Sketch Series in 2015. Her Early Life and Background Schumer was born on June 1, 1981, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, New York, to Sandra Jane (née Jones) and Gordon David Schumer, who owned a baby-furniture company. Schumer's father was born to a Jewish family from Ukraine. He is a second cousin of U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Her mother, who is from a Protestant background and has deep New England roots, converted to Judaism before her marriage. Schumer was raised Jewish and says she had to deal with antisemitism as a child. Her mother's ancestry included Puritans in the 17th-century English colony of Massachusetts. As a guest on Finding Your Roots in 2017, Schumer learned that in 1704, three children from her ancestor Thomas Tarbell's family were captured at Groton, Massachusetts, in a French-Abenaki raid and taken to Montreal. The girl was ransomed by a French-Canadian family and ultimately joined a French Catholic convent; the two boys were each adopted by Mohawk families at Kahnawake and became thoroughly assimilated. Under The Spotlight In 2015, Schumer was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. In 2015, Schumer was also named to Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People list for 2015. Schumer has received praise for addressing various social issues through comedy. In June 2015, Monica Heisey of The Guardian criticized her for "a shockingly large blind spot around race." Schumer responded on Twitter, stating "I go in and out of playing an irreverent idiot. That includes making dumb jokes involving race... You can call it a 'blind spot for racism' or 'lazy,' but you are wrong. It is a joke ... I am not racist." Schumer was again criticized in July 2020 by Kyndall Cunningham of The Daily Beast for her earlier work, which included "objectifying black men" and calling Latina women "crazy". Cunningham described her "sudden" decision to support the Black Lives Matter movement as "befuddling and laughable".