Carol Burnett was one of the most popular comediennes on television during the 1960s and 1970s. After studying at the University of California, Los Angeles, she made her way to New York City.

Carol Burnett made her first television appearance in early 1950s with a short stint on a children’s television show. She became a regular on the Garry Moore Show in 1959 and was also featured on occasional CBS-TV specials over the years. Already a popular performer, she got her own comedy-variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, in 1967. The show featured usually opened with a question and answer session with the audience and the silliness ensued—broad comedy skits and sketches with Burnett using her expressive face to great humorous ends. The show ran for eleven seasons, leaving the air in 1978. Burnett later returned to television with the comedy series Carol & Company in 1990 and The Carol Burnett Show in 1991—neither effort lasted long. Most recently Carol Burnett has made a guest appearance on the hit television series Desperate Housewives in 2006.

In addition to her television work, Carol Burnett has appeared in a number of feature films, including Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974), Annie (1982), and Noises Off (1992). She has also done a lot of stage work. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Once Upon a Mattress in 1959. Over the years, Burnett went on to appear in a few other Broadway shows, including Moon Over Buffalo (1995-1996) and Putting It Together (1999-2000). Her 1986 autobiography, One More Time: A Memoir, provided the source material for the play Hollywood Arms, which played on Broadway from October 2002 to January 2003. Burnett co-wrote the piece with her daughter Carrie Hamilton.

Carol Burnett has been married twice. Her first marriage to Don Saroyan lasted from 1955 to 1962. The following year she married Joe Hamilton. The couple has three daughters before divorcing in 1984. Sadly, their daughter Carrie died in 2002, and Burnett has been working to establish the Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse in her honor.