Hannah Berner has perfected the art of the overshare.
Spend even a few minutes consuming the comedian and podcaster's content—whether on social media, on stage, or on her and best friend Paige DeSorbo’s hit podcast “Giggly Squad,”—and you'll quickly pick up deeply intimate details about her life. Her bowel movements. Her underwear preferences. The McDonald's order that nearly made her miss a flight. The exact conversation she had with her mom that morning.
But unlike the many creators spinning Internet fame into mainstream careers, for the 34-year-old, access isn’t a means to an end or a tool for influence. It is the product itself. Vulnerability, she says, is her “superpower.”
"My job is to be myself and put myself out there and, not to get too deep, but try to make people less alone," she tells Marie Claire during a whirlwind week that includes filming a still-under-wraps acting project (separate from the scripted Netflix series she's developing with DeSorbo, Amy Poehler, and Kay Cannon) and presenting at the American Music Awards alongside fellow reality TV vet Lisa Rinna.
Berner has a number of projects in the works, including a scripted Netflix series.
Berner doubles down on that philosophy in her second comedy special, None of My Business, now streaming on Hulu. Across the hour, she mines everything from sexting disasters and body insecurities to the increasingly complicated question of whether she wants children—and how that decision intersects with her ambitions, her career, and a husband (comedian Des Bishop) who is 16 years older than she is. The result is a set that’s both fearlessly personal and surprisingly universal, as if Berner is the inner voice of a generation that processes life's biggest questions in real time and often online.
"It takes a lot for me to be embarrassed," she says. "I purposely talk about not shaving my legs above my knee, me sweating, and awkward situations I get in; I think it normalizes being human and a multifaceted woman."
So when Berner appears on Zoom from a Los Angeles hotel room, bedhead and all, it feels reasonable to assume there isn't much left to uncover. Yet away from the rapid-fire punchlines, she's more measured than expected—still warm, giggly, and disarmingly candid, but also intentional about the business of being herself. Here, she talks about building a comedy career in public, navigating fame without losing herself, the friendship-powered empire she's built with DeSorbo, and the Summer House scandal that continues to reverberate across the Bravoverse.
None of My Business debuted to acclaim on Hulu on June 5.
Marie Claire: Your comedy special is called None of My Business, but as a Giggler, I feel like I know all of your business. As your platform's grown, how do you navigate what parts of yourself to protect?
HB: Number one is protecting the family—not to be so Italian. I learned early in my career that other people didn't sign up for public access and also that not everyone has a sense of humor—if you make a joke about something, people can take it seriously. When I bring up my family or my husband in public, I make sure it's either really, really hilarious and worth the joke or I don't. I never talk about my marriage, and that's probably the number one thing that I think is really healthy.
MC: Hannah-the-person and Hannah-the-character feel closely linked, but do you feel there’s a distinction between you and that public perception of you?
HB: It's been really hard for me to be PR trained. I'm still not good at it because I just believe in honesty. I do think, though, why my comedy connects with people is because people want to feel like they're just FaceTiming their friends. And I also never tried to replicate a different comedic voice because I've done reality TV, because I've done sketches online, I yearned to be myself.
MC: There’s a common saying with comics: the first special's easy to write because it's a lifetime worth of material, but with second specials, you have to start from scratch. How did working on this one compare to your first special on Netflix, We Ride at Dawn?
HB: You feel like you won a Super Bowl when your special comes out, and then you have to learn how to play football again because you literally have zero jokes. [This time around] I was going to the clubs being like, "Are cankles funny?" I literally started from nothing. And you wonder, Was I funny because I'd written these jokes that I know work, or am I just good at performing?
I was able to realize I knew my voice even more. I was insecure [in the beginning], and my husband, who's done like a trillion specials, was like, “It's always scary in the beginning.” But I love this hour so much. It's almost sad to have to burn it and not be able to tour it anymore.
Hulu's None of My Business marks Berner's sophomore comedy special after Netflix's We Ride at Dawn.
MC: What’s your typical writing process?
HB: I was lucky that after the Netflix special came out, I went on tour with “Giggly Squad.” So I didn't have pressure to be coming up with jokes every day. But I do think hanging out with your friends, like when you're riffing with them, you see where there's something. So if I make someone laugh really hard, whatever I said, I write it down. If Paige starts dying laughing at something, there's something there. Sometimes, also, I'll say a story on “Giggly Squad” that will cause a lot of reaction where people DM me, and I'll think, Okay, let's expand that on stage. I'm like a dog sniffing around, just trying to collect stuff, and then when I'm finally ready to start putting it together, I take all of my notes, and I start to combine themes, and write it out, and then you don't know if it's all crap or any of it's good until you go on stage.
MC: You've also earned so many celebrity fans like Nikki Glaser, Chelsea Handler, and Amy Poehler. Is there someone's opinion, whether in that group or otherwise, who still makes you nervous? Or whose feedback matters more on jokes?
HB: Comedians are so insecure because, well, if the people don't laugh, they are the judges. So I don't care how much you can intellectualize the bit; I'm like, “If the crowd didn't laugh, the crowd didn't laugh.”
But also just being able to like make those comedians laugh in conversation is my favorite. Having Chelsea or Nikki make fun of me, that's my favorite. The fact that they're shooting the shit and busting my balls is an honor and a privilege. To be around these women and be able to ask questions and see how their brain works is really, really, really cool.
My job is to be myself and put myself out there and, not to get too deep, but try to make people less alone.
MC: In the special, you're also very candid about motherhood and deciding if you should or shouldn’t have kids. Going into this, did you feel any pressure about how you were presenting that journey?
HB: I honestly was going in purely with curiosity of, I'm touring the country, speaking to women all over the country, I want to do some control groups. And every single show, I would have women debate, “should I, should I not [have kids]?” And I'd tell them my fears, and it was therapeutic for me.
One of my favorite lines of the special is, “I can't just have a baby and leave it at home and go on tour. I'm not a male comedian.” Because I see fellow male comics who are my age and they're like, "Oh, I wanna have a kid." And I'm like, "Yeah, but that's not gonna affect you how it's gonna affect me." And I'm competitive, and I see the career path, and I like to call that out. So I kind of just use it to say all my intrusive thoughts and questions, but I feel like anyone, whether you're a mom or not a mom, relates.
"I'm like a dog sniffing around, just trying to collect stuff," Berner says of her joke-writing process.
MC: I want to ask about Paige because she is such a big part of your life and your career. You guys have built such a brand off your friendship, but how has monetizing the friendship changed it?
HB: We really haven't changed our “business.” I put it in quotations because it's me, Paige, and Grace [Battle Thompson, executive producer]—who really runs the show—and it's an extremely small team. Yes, more people know who we are, but we're just doing what we've always done. I think it's been really beneficial because she's always had her own stuff, and I've always had my own stuff, so we've never needed “Giggly Squad.” It's always been a choice.
It's been able to be this passion project that has ended up being financially really worth it. But because we never went into it for that reason, it's been able to stay consistent, because you can tell we're not doing money grabs with it. Like, we purposely don't make Gigglers pay for our Substack. We only release merch that we're obsessed with. We just want to have this fun community.
MC: Do you guys have any rules around conflict, like couples might, where you say, "This issue we're having is going to stay private," or is everything fair game because it makes you relatable?
HB: I honestly have to thank reality TV because we were put through the wringer. They did everything they could to rip our friendship apart. I can't tell you the things behind the scenes that happened to, like, literally end our friendship [and] we fought against the system. Bravo doesn't want two women to love each other—that's just not good TV.
So I think surviving television drama made our friendship so strong and our communication so strong. Even on the show, we had one or two tiffs that when we had to make up, we couldn't stop laughing, and they were like, "This is horrible TV. You guys are just not giving us what we need." And I'm like, "Because I'm not actually mad at her." So because we've forgiven and overcome difficult things, now when it’s like, "Oh, do you wanna do this video for Dunkin' or this video for Dunkin'?" It's not life or death.
But also, I do have to say we got lucky that creatively we work really well together in that I'm a little more type A with how I want things to be. And Paige is really good at narrowing down all my ideas. She's really good at saying no to things. In a meeting, we can finish each other's sentences.
Our number one thing is making sure the other one's never uncomfortable. So, sometimes teams could be arguing about something, and I'm like, "I'm calling Paige." And Paige is like, "Yeah, let's figure this out, me and you." Because we actually love each other.
MC: Speaking of Bravo, did you watch the Summer House reunion?
HB: I'm not because I have something called PTSD. Ciara’s keeping me in the know. So I'm getting it from the source.
MC: There is a fan theory that you and Paige were a part of how Ciara caught West and Amanda dating because you both hired a PI. Can you confirm or deny this rumor?
HB: I'll just say that we were there for [Ciara], emotionally.
"Creatively, I want to be doing different things," says Berner. "Acting has been on my vision board."
MC: People are rewatching old seasons, and there's a lot of "justice for Hannah" discourse now. Is it satisfying for you to see people reassessing you on the show? Or would you actually rather people leave it in the past because you've moved on?
HB: Reality TV is so crazy. You see this happen with a lot of shows where people realize we did what the storyline wanted us to do, but now that we have more information, we know that it was actually different than what was shown. So I think it's cool for people to understand some of the tricks of reality TV. It's like WWE for people to be like, "Wait, she actually wasn't the worst in this situation.” So I think it's funny.
MC: I also want to ask about your project with Amy Poehler. What can you tease about it?
HB: We're writing. We're trying to figure it out. I feel like I'm a sponge trying to learn everything I can from Amy. So Paige and I are, it feels like, [in] graduate school for TV. I always say, I love keeping the Gigglers and the gays fed, so I just wanna make the best, funniest show for them. Just know if we're quiet, it's because we're working hard to do it.
MC: Stand-up and acting aren’t exactly the same thing, and reality TV is so different. Does working on this scratch a different itch or did it feel like a really natural extension?
HB: It feels natural in terms of they give us a scenario, like, “Let's say you and Paige were in Walgreens, what would you do?” and I'm like, "I'll tell you exactly what we do and what we'd say." So it's cool that we kind of already know our characters in a way, but we're changing it a bit because it is fictional. But creatively, I want to be doing different things. So acting has been on my vision board. Back in the day, stand-up comedians, if you were good enough, you'd get your own series or your own movie. So I think deep down, I always wanted to act, but I just didn't think it was possible. Stand-up was, like, the thing that you could do without waiting to get picked.
MC: Are you taking acting classes or are you learning on the ground from Amy?
HB: We will be taking acting classes for this show. We cannot disappoint the Gigglers. Paige is already researching and stuff, so don't worry: We are gonna take acting classes to act more like ourselves. I always joke that Paige is an incredible actress if you've ever seen Summer House. She should win an Oscar. Some of her one-liners and reactions are just incredible. So I have a lot of confidence in her.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.