Patti Harrison

The Set of Discomfort

Patti Harrison stepped onto the set of Jimmy Fallon in 2017 to comment on the ban on transgender people in the military. She did it with such aggressive, absurd humor that it threw the NBC audience off balance. That night, she wasn't looking for easy applause or validation from the industry.

She was born in Orient, a small town in Ohio, and grew up as the youngest of seven sisters. Her father died when she was just a little girl. That mix of rural isolation and family drama shaped a comedic style that steers clear of the conventional.

When she first started out in New York, she worked at a comic book store while honing a surrealist-based voice. That allowed her to develop her own voice in the alternative scene in Brooklyn, far from the commercial circuits of Manhattan.

The Comedy of Discomfort

She appeared in Shrill in 2019, bringing Ruthie to life. Her character was a rude assistant who spouted outrageous remarks with icy calm. But her breakout into the big leagues came when Tim Robinson recruited her for I Think You Should Leave.

That changed the rules of the game.

In Robinson's sketches, she showed she can hold a close-up while screaming over glass tables without blinking. She is an expert at repetition and at pushing situations to an unbearable breaking point for the viewer.

Her name began to turn up in the offices of major Hollywood studios.

The Year of Dramatic Validation

In 2021, she starred in Together Together alongside Ed Helms. She plays a woman who decides to become a surrogate for a single man. Sundance critics were surprised because Harrison avoided all the physical comedy tics to deliver a restrained, naturalistic performance.

The film grossed close to $1 million during its limited release in the United States.

That role let her move beyond niche labels. And she did it without giving up her identity. Harrison has always made it clear that being a trans woman is a biographical detail, not the core of her scripts or the reason she gets hired.

In 2022, she appeared in The Lost City, sharing scenes with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Her role as a social media manager brought the cynical edge needed in a big-budget production. That same year, she lent her voice to the series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

Voice Acting and Studio Projects

During 2023, she joined the cast of Theater Camp, a film that parodies summer camps for child performers. She plays a financial executive who knows nothing about art. The shoot relied almost entirely on the actors' improvisation during long takes.

In 2024, the animated series Exploding Kittens premiered on Netflix. She voices God, a character trapped in the body of a chubby house cat. Mike Judge and Greg Daniels served as executive producers.

The contract for the second season of this series was signed under the new SAG-AFTRA union terms following the 2023 strikes.