Comedian, musician and performance artist Bo Burnham is making his major film debut as the writer and director of “Eighth Grade”, a movie about a girl who is trying to survive her final week of middle school before leaving and beginning high school. This will be Burnham’s first writing and directional role.

The movie will premiere on the first week of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, which also premiered the movie Burnham had a minor acting role in: “The Big Sick”. That, however, was not Burnham’s first entry into the acting world. He has guest starred on “Parks and Rec” as stereotypical country singer Chip McCap and played the lead character in the cancelled MTV mockumentary “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous”. Burnham has also worked on screenwriting in the past. He has an unreleased script for a comedy movie he wrote about a bullied girl and her friend who disguise themselves and get revenge on their bullies, which made a top list of blacklisted screenplays.

The film has been in the works for a while, at least ever since Burnham took his hiatus from stand-up after finishing his Make Happy tour. He claimed that the pressure of performance had taken a toll on his mental health and he wanted to take a break to work behind the scenes. He had gotten sick of writing for himself and wanted to write for others.  

Burnham’s portfolio is one unique to most comedians. Instead of running the gauntlet in nightclubs and open mics, Burnham, at 16, posted videos on Youtube of comedic songs he had written and performed in his bedroom. The videos have racked up millions of views, giving him the opportunity to release his music at a wider level and to book shows. Now, he has two Netflix stand-up specials, “What.” and “Make Happy” that are well-known for their hilarity, cleverness and underlying complexity. Throughout his stand-up routine, Burnham likes to rotate between his piano and his feet, cycling from joke to song to joke. He also incorporates lighting to add a unique twist to his comedy by involving it in the punchline.