Sarah Cooper is an American comedian and author who became famous after her 2014 blog post, 10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings, went viral. She later authored several successful books, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings, Draw What Success Looks Like, and How to be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings.
Cooper’s standup career was on the rise before the coronavirus pandemic hit and denied her the chance to perform in front of crowds. However, Cooper innovated and found a way to entertain audiences through social media. Sarah presents President Trump’s controversial comments via satirical skits made using TikTok.
This piece will look at Sarah’s upbringing, her parents, and her husband.
Sarah and her parents immigrated to the United States from Jamaica when she was three
Sarah Anne Cooper was born in the late 1970s in Jamaica. Her mom, Jennifer P. Cooper, and dad, Lance G. Cooper, moved to Maryland when Sarah was three. Her dad was an engineer while her mom worked in human resources.
Cooper was interested in performance from a young age, and the first thing she tried was singing. However, people told her that she had a lousy voice, and consequently, she shelved that dream. Cooper then tried theatre, and she found comfort in telling stories on the open mic. She told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“I had wanted to be an actress when I was little, but I wasn’t very good at it, so I tried a lot of things. One night I went to an open mic and just told a story. I found that I liked that a lot better than playing a character.”
Sarah was ever-present on the stage during high school, and she planned to major in theatre when she graduated.
Sarah’s parents convinced her to study economics rather than theatre
Unfortunately for Sarah, her career choice didn’t sit right with her parents. As she puts it, her parents wanted her to pursue something that would make her money. She enrolled in the University of Maryland and graduated with a degree in economics. Cooper then landed a job at tech giant Yahoo.
However, Sarah wasn’t happy, and at the age of 30, she quit her job to pursue acting. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as successful as she’d hoped – she chocked up during auditions and felt awkward on camera. To try and gain confidence in herself, Sarah tried open-mic comedy, and she fitted right in. Most of her content involved her love life and her parents, who she had moved back in with. She told The Red Bulletin:
“My material started out about being a single girl – a lot of dating stuff. And then I was doing stuff about my family being immigrants, and how my Jamaican parents didn’t identify with African-American culture. How they were black but didn’t really see themselves as black, and how that affected my identity.”
Sarah struggled as a standup comedian and eventually rejoined the tech world. She quit her job at Google after her satirical comedy became a success online. Her stand up career was on the up, but the pandemic came along and halted her progress. Fortunately, Sarah has become a big hit on social media, and she is glad that her success came online. Cooper told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“I feel things happen the way they’re supposed to happen. This might be a little better for me. I do have anxiety, so maybe this was a better way of putting myself out there [more] slowly than if I had gotten bombarded and put on stage in front of 5,000 people where I might have been completely overwhelmed. I see this as kind of a blessing.”
She is secretive about her husband Jeff Palm
Sarah and Palm met as they worked as software designers for Google Docs. The couple married in February 2015 at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau.
Cooper is secretive about her husband, but she does reference him in some of her jokes. In June 2016, Sarah posted a comedy piece on Medium about Jeff.
On March 31st 2020, the couple appeared on a Twitter video in which they stated what they were grateful for. Cooper stated that she was grateful for her marriage.