When you think of Susie Essman, chances are you’re thinking of her iconic character Susie Greene from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. On the show, which ran for a whopping 12 seasons over 24 years, Essman made an indelible mark as the fiery, foul-mouthed wife of Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin). Beyond Curb, Essman has had a successful decades-long stand-up career, performing nationwide and appearing on The Tonight Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She’s also voiced characters in animated series, including Family Guy and The Simpsons.
More: Susie Essman on her 24 years as Susie Greene in Curb Your Enthusiasm (The Treatment, 2024)
For her Treat, Essman lovingly recalls the remarkable life of her grandmother, a woman who overcame immense challenges as an immigrant. Forced to leave school early, enduring an arranged marriage, and later grappling with dementia — her grandmother's life was far from easy. Yet, through it all, she never lost her sense of humor. For Essman, this humor wasn’t just a coping mechanism… It was her grandmother’s way of surviving, of finding light even in the darkest times. It also became a gift to those around her, bringing joy and laughter even through her struggles with dementia. Essman deeply admires her grandmother’s resilience, viewing her humor as almost sacred — a lens through which she herself now sees the world. The lessons she learned from her grandmother about the power of humor continue to shape Essman’s life, reminding her of its transformative power.
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I was thinking about something that's been inspiring in my life, and I thought about my grandmother. The reason is that my grandmother had a really hard life. She came to this country as an immigrant and then she left school in the third grade to go work in a factory. She never had an education. She had an arranged marriage that was horrible. Got married at 18 to a man she never loved and had never met before.
The thing that was so inspiring about her is that she was really, really funny. She never gave up her sense of humor, and that was her survival technique. And when she was dying — she had dementia for many years — she didn't know who anybody was. She had given up everything: Her dignity, her memory, her family. And I would go to the nursing home to visit her, and the nurses would tell me that she kept them laughing all day long. So here was this woman who gave everything up and had a really tough life, but the thing she held onto was her sense of humor. That, to me, means everything.
She was my favorite person in the world, my grandmother. My favorite person in the world. I think about her every day. She's the one person I want to meet when I die. She was so strong and so loving. I had such a crazy family and she was the one that kept me sane; she was the love that I felt that kept me sane.
She was the one who had friends and related to people in the world. And I saw how she related to people in the world through humor. She was always kibitzing with this one, with that one, whoever it was. And that was how I learned how to be — from her.
Humor is my religion. I pray to the comedy gods. Humor is my religion and it's the prism through which I see the world. And I got that from her.