David Benjamin Rakoff (November 27, 1964 – August 9, 2012) was a Canadian-born American writer of prose and poetry based in New York City, who wrote humorous and sometimes autobiographical non-fiction essays.

[13][14] Rakoff wrote to Sedaris in 1992, after hearing him read on the radio his essay, Santaland Diaries, about being a Christmas elf, which was to make him famous.

Through Sedaris, Rakoff met Ira Glass, who was then a junior reporter on the NPR radio program Morning Edition.

He went on to say "That's a complete lie, really; the central drama of my life is about being lonely, and staying thin, but fraudulence gets a fair amount of play.

In a review Publishers Weekly wrote that "a talented new humorist springs onto the scene: Rakoff has a rapier wit, slashing in all directions with slice-of-life insights and cutting remarks, sometimes nicking himself with self-deprecation in his dexterous duel with the American experience.

"[21] Kevin Cowherd said that in the book, Rakoff "makes a strong bid for the title of Most Neurotic Man on the Planet, and the results are absolutely hilarious – when they're not achingly revealing and tinged with sadness.

The reviewer in The New York Times mentioned (by way of criticism) that Sophocles and Freud had pursued the same idea that forms the book's focus, that is, that we are defined by our fears.

[28] Don't Get Too Comfortable, which is subtitled "The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems" was published in 2005 and also consists of comical autobiographical essays.

[29] The over-riding theme of the articles is the absurdity and excessiveness in American life: the book is about luxuries and privileges being treated as deserved rights.

Emily Gordon says that in his "bursts of pure enthusiasm, he's a delectable Cole Porter, Nicholson Baker and Sarah Vowell smoothie".

Lee said the book was "no more than a collection of vaguely related magazine pieces" rather than "a coherent seriocomic manifesto", that some essays were off-theme, and not about narcissism and excess.

[42] Shortly before his death he recorded it as an audio-book with the help of Ira Glass in the studio of This American Life[43] Rakoff was a regular contributor to the radio program This American Life on Public Radio International, in which each week writers and performers contribute pieces (some documentary, some fiction) on a chosen topic, usually in the first person.

[46] Rakoff was featured on This American Life's live broadcast, "Invisible Made Visible" on May 10, 2012, from the Skirball Theater, NYU.[2].

He returned to the Canadian airwaves with his regular appearances on CBC Radio's Talking Books, hosted by Ian Brown.

The August 17, 2012, episode of This American Life, titled "Our Friend David," was dedicated entirely to his essays on the program.

[47] Rakoff adapted the screenplay for the Academy Award winning short film The New Tenants, originally written by Anders Thomas Jensen.

Rakoff sold what he called a "meta screenplay", written with Dave Hill, based on a fictitious tour to publicize the book Don't Get Too Comfortable.

[52] In a short film based on the same story, Rakoff played a high-maintenance author opposite Dave Hill's patient, accommodating publicist.

[citation needed] Rakoff said that his first career choice was to be an actor: he wrote, "like generations of other misfits before me, be they morphological, sexual or otherwise, I decided that I would make theatre my refuge".

[59] Fudgy McPacker is a stereotypically gay character, who is either supercilious or the loveable queen and Jewy McHebrew is the prototypical Jewish part, involving a careworn, inquiring, furrowed browed, bookish type.

His subsequent film appearances include performances as a librarian in Cheryl Dunyé's film The Watermelon Woman (1996),[61] an appearance by the back of his head as Ben Baron, who is dismissive to Harper Lee, in Bennett Miller's Capote (2005), a non-speaking role as Boswell in Paul Dinello's Strangers with Candy (2005) (which was co-written by Amy Sedaris), and roles as a publishing boss in Bad Bosses Go to Hell (1997) and as a duplicitous director[51][62] in Alison MacLean's film Intolerable.

Rakoff acted in the theater, including off-Broadway, notably in plays written by The Talent Family (David and Amy Sedaris).

[73] and in The Book of Liz (2001), in which he played various characters, including Nathaniel Brightbee, a member of a crypto-Amish order called "The Squeamish", who takes over Amy Sedaris's cheese ball operation.

Based on the creations of American cartoonist and illustrator Michael Kupperman, it aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim channel.

[80] He also directed Jail Babes starring The Duelling Bankheads (David Ilku and Clark Render) at La Mama, E.T.C.

In 2010, while writing the book Half Empty, Rakoff was diagnosed with a malignant tumor, and later developed a post-radiation sarcoma - a result of an ineffective treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma in his 20s - behind his left collarbone and began chemotherapy.