She is best known for her role as Susie Greene on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bobbi Wexler on Broad City, and the voice of Mittens in Bolt.

Essman told The New York Times that, by the show's third season, she could not "walk down the street anymore without people stopping her and begging her to say [her character's catchphrase] 'You fat fuck'".

[5] She also provided the voice of Helen Higgins on the Comedy Central series Crank Yankers; she was an occasional correspondent on the first season of the network's The Daily Show.

[citation needed] Essman's book, What Would Susie Say: Bullshit Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy, was published in October 2009 by Simon & Schuster.

[6] Essman was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2002[2] and used to be[7] a pescatarian — "not a moral thing," she explains, but "aesthetic"; chicken "grosses me out" — and "lives on sushi".