Who Is Tom Papa's Wife? Meet Cynthia Koury-Papa, Who's Married To The 'You're Doing Great!' Comedian
She's also a stand-up comedian.
Getty New Jersey native Tom Papa got his start in stand-up comedy in the early 1990s. A long-time friend of Jerry Seinfeld, he has not only opened for Seinfeld on the road but has been part of multiple Seinfeld-produced projects, including Bee Movie.
Beyond stand-up, television and film work, Papa has also found success with radio and podcast-related projects. He has hosted Sirius XM programming (What A Joke With Papa & Fortune alongside Fortune Feimster) and his own podcast (Come To Papa).
Papa's first televised stand-up special was a 2001 Comedy Central Presents episode. His most recent stand-up special is 2020's You're Doing Great!, which premiered on Netflix. Interestingly, two of Papa's stand-up specials were directed by singer-turned-director Rob Zombie.
Papa is not the only funny person in his household. Who is Tom Papa's wife, Cynthia Koury-Papa? She's also a comedian by trade. Here's more information on Koury-Papa, her marriage, and work-related projects for the Papas.
1. Who Is Tom Papa's wife, Cynthia Koury-Papa?
Koury-Papa splits time between New York and Los Angeles with her husband and their two children. Her IMDb page shows two credits: 2002's Comedian — as starring the aforementioned Seinfeld — and 2005's The Life Coach.
Koury-Papa works as a stand-up comedian under the name "Cynthia Koury." She has appeared on stand-up shows alongside the likes of Todd Barry, Tony Rock, Dave Attell, Jim Norton, Nick DiPaolo and Judah Friedlander.
2. Papa was briefly a marriage expert on television.
As created by Seinfeld, his wife Jessica Seinfeld, and Ellen Rakieten, The Marriage Ref aired on NBC for two seasons. On the series, couples' marriage problems were discussed by a celebrity panel to decide who was right in particular situations.
Papa served as host — and defacto moderator — of the series on both of its seasons. Among the celebrity panelists featured were Rachael Ray, Colin Quinn, Seth Meyers, Joel McHale, J.B. Smoove, Denise Richards, Madonna, Larry David and Tina Fey.
However, Koury-Papa did not appear on-screen as a panelist nor a guest within the show's 24 aired episodes.
3. Papa and Koury-Papa have appeared together professionally.
While the two were not on-air together as part of The Marriage Ref, Papa and wife have both appeared together on SiriusXM and the Come To Papa podcast. Among their joint appearances are the Christmas episode taped on December 18, 2012, the "Live at Largo" episodes taped on March 10, 2015 and the SF Sketchfest episode taped on January 20, 2017.
The 2015 episode taped at Los Angeles hotspot Largo is especially of note for its star-studded cast. Besides the Papas, it includes Nick Kroll, Kevin Nealon, Kevin Pollak, Bill Burr, Tom Segura, Jerrod Carmichael and Maz Jobrani.
4. Papa has gone on the record about his keys to a happy marriage.
In a 2010 interview, Papa stated, "When I do my stand-up, I always talk about being married and my wife. And she was able to separate herself from the wife character in my stand-up." He continued, "Things will happen in our relationship, and she’ll be like, ‘Don’t you talk about this!’ But what I hear her say is, ‘Wait a while to talk about this.'"
A few years later when appearing on Conan O'Brien's show, Papa offered slightly-varying advice about marriage, saying, "You have to lower your expectations. In turn, you ought to be prepared for the monotony of listening to the same person’s stories over and over again for the rest of your life."
5. Papa talks about his wife in his new Netflix special.
While Papa tends not to reveal much about his personal life beyond the stage, he doesn't shy away his Koury-Papa in You're Doing Great!. As he explained about the special in a recent interview, "The theme of the special was that we should be hopeful and we should be grateful. At some points, the theme carried through to global warming or the culture or social media, but then it's also more personal, to my life and my kids and my wife and my parents and back to all of us together again. It's just the way I see the world."
The opening line of trailer on January 22nd kicks off with the line: "I made a horrible business decision. I got married and had two children." It later includes a joke about one of his daughters.
6. Koury-Papa is on social media, but her account is private.
While Koury-Papa has an Instagram account, it is currently set to private. It lists her as having published 252 posts.
A Facebook account was located but doesn't feature any publicly-available postings after 2012. A GoFundMe fundraiser organized by her in 2016 could also be found. However, she doesn't appear to have an official account on Twitter or YouTube.
While Papa's Instagram account often features friends and photos of home-cooked items, no postings from the past three months show or name Koury-Papa. In turn, the best way to learn more about Koury-Papa may be catching her on Come To Papa, seeing one of her stand-up gigs or listening closely to Papa's new Netflix special.
Darren Paltrowitz is a New York-based writer, editor and author. He is also the host of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast, as co-produced with PureGrainAudio.com.