If you know the Livingston, New Jersey area, it is easy to see there are many things about the town that make it unique, family-friendly, and a great place to call home. From its nationally recognized school system, the rich heritage, and its many parks and restaurants, there are a wide variety of attributes that make this little town so special and desirable to visit. What you may not be aware of though is the long list of people who grew up in Livingston and went on to have successful careers, their names known across the nation and the world. A commuting suburb only a few minutes outside New York City, Livingston is a town that breeds talent, with many celebrities raised in this area. Here are the stories of a few people from Livingston, New Jersey.
From Waitress to Celebrity
Born in 1975 to an Ashkenazi Jewish father and a German-born Mormon mother,Chelsea Handler grew up in Livingston and had a love for acting and theatre. She attended Livingston High School, where she would describe herself as an outcast and did not take a liking to teachers. In the first few years of life, she also experienced frequent bouts of tragedy and hardship, with her brother passing away in a hiking accident when she was nine and her mother receiving a cancer diagnosis just a few years later.
At the age of 19, Handler decided to pursue her acting career and moved to Hollywood, staying with her aunt who resided in Bel Air. It was during this time period that she received a DUI charge that would unexpectedly spur an interest in stand up comedy. As she told the story about her offence in a class, other offenders could not help but laugh, helping her to realize her talent as a comedian.
Handler would get her first big break in
2002, appearing on Oxygen’s hit reality show Girls
Behaving Badly. The show aired from 2002 to 2005, with Handler also taking on roles in six other shows during this time period including The Tonight Show and Scarborough Country, hosted by former congressman, Joe Scarborough. All of this would lead up to Chelsea finally getting her own show, The Chelsea Handler Show, airing on E! Network in 2006.
Chelsea Handler’s career would only continue to grow after that year. In 2007, the show
Chelsea Lately premiered on E! Network, a late night comedy series. The show proved to be a hit, averaging half a million viewers an episode. Since then, it has had a successful spinoff featuring many celebrity guests, and Chelsea has gone on to host many specials, including the VMA’s and other stand up comedy events. In 2008, she released a New York Times Bestseller,
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. As of 2018, Chelsea Handler has been working on documentaries for Netflix, including one dealing with the issue of “white privilege”.
A Child Prodigy
Rob Fusari was born and raised in Livingston, New Jersey. From a young age, his gift at playing piano won him competitions and allowed him the honour of playing at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall from the tender age of eight. After a few years of classical studies, Rob began to feel the pull of classic rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. It was seeing the late Prince however at the Roseland Ballroom that Rob cites as his greatest influence.
At the age of 22, Rob began to write music and collaborate with well known names. His first big success was co-producing music with Vincent Herbert and writing the song “No, No, No,” which became an early hit for Destiny’s Child’s. Following this, Fusari would go on to work with Bootylicious, producing their 3rd album, Survivor, in 2003. In addition to working with Destiny’s Child, Fusari worked with both Beyonce and Kelly Rowland, as well as Will Smith, and the late Whitney Houston.
Perhaps Fusari’s most notable work came a few years later, when he introduced Vincent Herbert to a woman he was working with named Stefani Germonatta. Together they would help her to create the Grammy award winning album, The Fame under Germonatta’s stage name, Lady Gaga. Fusari is credited in five songs on this album, one of the most well known being the hit song, “Paparazzi.” The partnership didn’t end well.
In 2012, Rob Fusari was signed to Sony ATV records. To this day he continues to produce and write music. Now known as 8Bit and fronting the band Cary Nokey, he has embarked on a new stage in his career, exploring his own original music.
The Magician who became George Costanza
Jason Alexander was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1959. Raised in Livingston, his original interest was in magic and illusions, aspiring to one day be a magician. Unfortunately, he gave up his magic career after realizing his hands were too small to do card tricks. He turned his attention to the stage at this point, realizing he could continue his love for illusions as an actor. At Livingston High School, Alexander would star in many theatre productions, such as the well known production Guys and Dolls. He would go on to graduate and head on to Boston University. While attending university, a professor redirected him towards a career in comedy, noting his physique was just not fit for it.
Before his career in television Jason Alexander made his debut on
the Broadway stage in New York City as a singer and actor. He appeared in shows
such as Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll
Along and Kander and Ebb’s The Rink. In
1989, he would win a Tony award for the best lead actor in Jerome Robbins’
Broadway.
Alexander
would start his television career in commercials, most notably in a John Deere
and McDonalds commercial. In 1987, he had a role in the short-lived CBS sitcom, Everything’s
Relative. In 1989, Jason Alexander would get the role that defined his
career, playing George Costanza in Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld’s Seinfeld. The show would go on for 9 seasons,
with over 180 episodes. Jason would get many primetime Emmy and Golden Globe nominations
throughout this time period. Seinfeld to this day is regarded as one of the
greatest and most influential sitcoms of all time.
With its diverse community, thriving arts scene, and immaculate education system, it is really no wonder why so much success comes out of Livingston, New Jersey. Hard work and self expression are at the town’s heart and soul and those who go on to have household names are products of those principles. In all sorts of lines of work, people raised in Livingston live loudly and anyone who has had the fortune of growing up in this town knows it to be true.
