The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 2. Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com.
The 2025 GRAMMYs telecast will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Donate to the Recording Academy's and MusiCares' Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort To Support Music Professionals.
Get to know more rising artists and beloved stars in our Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee series.
"The jokes are hard-hitting, but I'm not out for blood," Nikki Glaser told Entertainment Tonight ahead of her hosting duties at the 2025 Golden Globes, where she took lighthearted shots at the likes of everyone from Nicole Kidman to Timothée Chalamet. "If I make a joke about you, I promise you it's not a joke that is meant to, like, take you down, or point out something about yourself that no one else has noticed."
While Glaser has been in the game for more than two decades, her playful, yet pointed approach has taken the comedian far in the past eight months. In May 2024, her fiery turn on "The Roast of Tom Brady" made headlines — and made the world curious about what else she has up her sleeve.
Not even a week later, Glaser had another chance to show what she's made of on her second HBO special, "Someday You'll Die." The hour-long affair solidified the St. Louis native as comedy's latest it-girl — sex jokes and all — and earned Glaser her first-ever award show accolades, including a nod for Best Comedy Album at the 2025 GRAMMYs.
The nomination is one of many bucket list items Glaser has checked off amid her breakthrough year. Perhaps surprisingly, recognition from the Recording Academy is the most important accomplishment for the comedian, who is so obsessed with music that she devoted her free time during her busy 2024 to following Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. (She recently admitted to spending nearly $100,000 to attend 22 shows.)
In fact, the proud Swiftie has musical dreams of her own, evidenced by the titular theme song for "Someday You'll Die," which was written and sung by Glaser herself. The Swift-tinged tune is as self-deprecating and dark as her signature, often jarring brand of humor. But that's exactly what has made Glaser an undeniable star — and it's all proof that she's only just getting started.
Glaser sat down with GRAMMY.com to discuss her new level of fame, the most "annoying" parts of it, and why she's not afraid of a joke that might go too far.
The New York Times named you Comedian Of The Year for 2024, and in their write-up they said, "In 2024, Nikki Glaser finally broke big." Does it feel that way for you?
Yeah, it really does. You know, it wasn't the type of thing where I was like, When are people gonna notice? Like, my career was amazing — and it is now, but it was already. I was selling out theater shows and had a pretty big fan base for a comedian, [and I was] well respected by my peers. That's all I could have ever wished for.
After "The Roast of Tom Brady," I felt this next level step up. The week after the roast, I literally thought I was gonna have to hire private security because I just couldn't walk anywhere alone anymore. [That died down] as soon as I stopped appearing in everyone's feeds, but now my name has more recognition. The greatest place to be is where you don't have to beg people to know who you are.
And it's cool that you achieved that level of fame because of who you are. It's what you've been doing for 21 years, but now people are recognizing it on a larger scale.
That's a really good point. Even though I'm not a roast person all the time — I'm not just constantly criticizing people and tearing people down — I think that the person that you saw on that roast was who I am. My spirit and my personality really shined through in a way that it hadn't in other roasts. You could tell that I had a lot of guilt around saying a lot of the things I was saying. I came across as a really good joke writer, but someone who has actually had, like, human emotions.
And then with my special that came out the week after, it was kind of like a one-two punch. It's nice being a comedian. People know you because of who you are, and what you think, and what you say. I don't have to change who I am based on where I show up.
Like you mentioned, the Tom Brady roast and "Someday You'll Die" debuted within a week of each other. When did you feel like your career trajectory was changing? Was it immediate?
It was a night or night and day kind of thing for me. I was like, Oh s—, I gotta put more effort into my appearance. I gotta put more effort into my social media. I gotta put more effort into everything.
That's been one of the most annoying parts of it, having to look the part now. I have to have glam every time I appear on TV now, because there's a level that people expect of you. You can't shop at Target anymore for your clothes, and if you do, it's gotta be like, minimal pieces, and you can't wear that dirty backpack anymore.
It's hard, because, even though I'm like, Everyone likes me for me, it's like, Oh, but they also like celebrities looking like celebrities. It's become more pressure in that way. But definitely not complaining. My life is f—ing great.
You've talked about how you struggle with imposter syndrome, and I can imagine that pressure to look a certain way makes you feel even more like, Is this me? Do I belong here?
It's an astute observation, because, yeah, it makes it worse.
I've learned a lot in my career that a lot of it is the aesthetics. You can be as funny as you want, but people like to look at a pretty girl, and it has served me to put effort into that. As much as I wish it wasn't about that, it does still matter, and I haven't earned the right to not wear makeup yet. Pamela Anderson has earned that. I just got here, so I gotta play into the game a little bit more.
As long as you keep good people around you that don't just tell you everything you want to hear all the time — that's why I live in St Louis. I just want to stay away from people who are so obsessed with show business, and that's all they live. The people who I'm trying to entertain are not living in Hollywood. And that's not who I want to be anyway.
You still want to be able to use that dirty backpack.
I still have a heinous backpack, and I still apologize when people meet me, because I feel like I'm disappointing them so much with how I look. Every time, they go, "Why are you apologizing?" And I'm like, "Because this is not what you wanted." [I have] deodorant stains on my sweatshirt, food in my teeth, and ratty hair that's tied up in a clip. [I'm] sleeping on airplanes, drooling all over.
I want to still be able to look like a fool on an airplane. Because I'm still riding in coach. I'm still sleeping on my tray table with a dirty pillow. Sometimes you meet celebrities and you're like, Wow, they are as good looking as they are on TV. But I can't keep it up.
But that's also part of your charm — your self-deprecating humor, and that you are real, and that it plays into how you deliver your jokes. I feel like it would actually be off-brand for you to be so perfect and put-together.
Thank you! That's what I told my assistant when she was like, "You gotta get a Goyard bag." And I'm like, "I'm not spending $3,000 on a f—ing tote." Because why? It's not even that cute! The only reason to have it is so other people know I have $3,500 to spend on a handbag. I might have that money to spend on a handbag, but that's an embarrassing amount of money to spend. I don't like that person. I don't think that's a cool move.
I like eating Subway. I like getting Starbucks. I like flying Southwest. I like wearing Lululemon leggings. I don't really feel comfortable in designer stuff yet, even though that's supposed to be what I'm wearing all the time so that more designers want to dress me. But I'm just gonna make their stuff stink.
I'm just gonna soil all of these amazing designer clothes. My spray tan gets on everything. I could never wear an all-white outfit, or have a home that looks like the Kardashians' home where everything is pearly white. I really can't have nice things.
I'm kind of a piece of s— when all is said and done. And I mean that with such love. I'm disorganized, I'm ADHD. I'm never gonna be, like, graceful and glamorous. As much as I would kill to be those things, if it hasn't happened by the time I'm 40, it ain't happenin'.
You're a Midwest girlie through and through. We're never going to be glam. As a Minnesotan, I get you.
Exactly. Fanny pack for a purse, eating Skinny Pop for lunch. I'm 90 percent Skinny Pop and lattes. [Laughs.]
Comedy is a male-dominated field and, in this GRAMMY Category, you're the only woman nominee. The majority of "Someday You'll Die" is related to being a woman — does being the minority sex play a role in the imposter syndrome too?
I do feel like I've benefited from it more than I've suffered from it. I didn't really notice coming up. I didn't think of myself as different from male comedians. If anything, I have always compared myself to female comics more than male comedians, which isn't really fair to myself. And because I grew up in a time where it was very popular to say women aren't funny, and the bar was so low for us, I felt like, Good, if I'm funny at all, people are gonna be blown away. And they were!
I've probably heard at least 1,000 times in my life, "I don't usually like women comedians, but you were funny." That caveat has been made countless times that it's not even interesting, it's not even remarkable, or, like, bums me out. It's just what people say. I've been able to really impress people with, sometimes, mediocrity, because they're like, "We thought you would suck."
Where I've suffered is talking about sex. People can easily say, "She's just doing that because she's a woman." "She can get away with that because she's a woman." And I didn't really realize that people looked at female comics in that way until later, when I was kind of pigeonholed as just being a dirty comic, and [having people think], You're taking the easy way out.
And that really disturbed me, because I've never looked at myself as someone who was lazy and just wrote to a subject matter that would get easy laughs. If anything, talking about your vagina or your period are ways for people to dismiss you. And it's not like I've gone after those subject matters for either reason — to prove you wrong, or to speak my truth. It's just because I wanted to talk about it.
You also spent some time in "Someday You'll Die" talking about how comedians can get canceled. Is there a trick to navigating being funny and being offensive? Is that in the back of your mind a lot?
I think it was when it was happening more frequently, and you're thinking, What old clips could resurface? And then I was just kind of like, I know that I'm not racist, I know that I'm not a hateful person. I also know that if I'm ever hateful in any way, I am smart enough and emotionally intelligent enough to reassess why I was that way, and apologize for it in a meaningful way. At least for me, in a way that my conscience is cleared. I don't really care if people forgive me or not.
I know that I care about stuff more than comedy. I just feel like I've worked really hard — not just in my career, but in my personal life — to have value and to feel lovable, outside of those things. So as much as it would be devastating, there's a part of me that's kind of like, I'd finally get to sleep a little bit if I get cancelled. I'll be okay either way. I'm not inviting it, but I'm not scared of it.
And if people get a chance to talk to you, they'll realize you're not actually a mean person! I feel like it's so easy to write comedians off as a—holes.
Totally. I appreciate when I meet someone and they end up being nice, and human, and relatable. My best compliment is when people are like, "You're so nice." I know how much it matters to me when people aren't a—holes, whose art I admire. It's rare. It's really important to me to always stay nice. So that means a lot to me, thank you.
Of course! Especially when people are like, Rip me apart! Rip them apart!
It's work. I have to shift my thinking. I have a really dark mind when it comes to myself. I think that's why I'm good at roasting — I'm really mean to myself. Like, really mean. Like, work on it in therapy, my boyfriend can't even stand the things I say to myself. I think that's why I'm able to shift it to other people when I'm hired to do so, but it's not natural for me to hate people that much. It just comes from my own self-loathing.
It's crazy when people are like, "I'm scared of you." I know that I would be like, Oh my God, this girl's gonna be crazy, based on my work. I would be so nervous to interview me! So I'm always looking forward to calming people's fears.
I just can't stand a—holes. My dream is to get famous enough that I can out everyone who's a piece of s—. I am so tired of people being rude to people on sets, and you can't make eye contact with them. That's why I seek power, is so that I can call out that stuff. I'm not there yet, so I gotta keep these names secret, but someday. Someday.
I feel like your magnum opus is going to be a roast of all of the people that you're saving all of this stuff about.
"Hacks" Season 3: Nikki Glaser. Yes. It's going to be my, like, Deborah Vance special, in the story of my life.
You've been dubbed the "Celebrity Roast Pro." Who's next on your roast list?
I'm not, like, dying to do roasts anymore. Because I'm getting to the age where I don't really want to be made fun of by a bunch of comedians who I don't necessarily respect — the same way they feel about me, like, Who's this b— to say this mean stuff about me?
Not to say that I wouldn't do it if it was the right person. Like if it was someone like Taylor Swift — a fame level where it's like, Whoa, that's so cool. That's why, [with] the Tom Brady roast, I was like, I gotta do that. I was already looking to retire from roasts before Tom Brady. But then it was like, I can't not do a Tom Brady roast.
Someone that you would never expect to put themselves out there like that, that's where I would come out of the woodwork for it. Like a LeBron [James] or a Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods. If we're talking celebrities, I think a fun person would be [Lindsay] Lohan. She's having such an amazing comeback year, but there's a lot of fodder there, and I think she has a really good sense of humor about herself.
The answer to your question is, I want to roast anyone that wants to be roasted. I think it is a crazy thing to want, but anyone who is, like, ready and willing to sign up for it, and who wants me there knowing what I am capable of, that's so exciting to me. I only want to do it to people who are getting paid, like, $25 million to do it.
Speaking of Taylor Swift, you attended 22 shows on the Eras Tour last year. What are you going to do with your free time now that the Eras Tour is over?
I literally don't know. Luckily, I have a tour that is as daunting as the Eras Tour was for her. I think I have probably 100 shows lined up — like, my tour schedule, you need a magnifying glass to even read it on Instagram.
But I've shifted focus. I got to know Gracie Abrams from the Eras Tour, and from her album, and from the song she did with Taylor Swift, "Us," which is nominated [for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance]. [She] just announced a tour that I'm working out my tour schedule now to follow her around. Because in a similar way when I first discovered Taylor, it just was all I could listen to. That obsession with her music, and her songwriting, and her voice has started for me with Gracie.
Now that you've dabbled into the music world, maybe you can do your own collaboration with Gracie.
I can't even imagine what that would be like. I'm so tickled by the fact that I might win a GRAMMY for — it's obviously [Best] Comedy Album, but there is a song on it, so I can honestly say I'm a singer/songwriter who's nominated.
I want to keep taking voice lessons, keep studying songwriting, keep writing songs, and, hopefully, make a whole music album that maybe has one track of comedy.
And maybe we'll be talking about your GRAMMY-nominated album with one comedy track on it.
From your mouth to God's ears.