Barry Lubin

Barry Lubin, the creator of Grandma, retired as the star of the Big Apple Circus in 2012.

Lubin was born on July 3, 1952, in Atlantic City, New Jersey to Edythe Weinberg Lubin, a homemaker, and George Simon Lubin, an audiovisual engineer. As a junior at Emerson College in 1973, he decided to take off a year. He enrolled in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, where he created his character, Grandma.

Starting in 1975, Lubin performed for five seasons with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where Grandma made her debut. After he left Ringling Bros., Lubin partnered with Dick Monday in 1980 to do stand-up comedy. Their acts included A Couple Guys Who Gotta Do A Show and Pass The Popcorn. In 1982, he joined the Big Apple Circus, Grandma eventually becoming the star of the show. In addition to performing, he became the show's Director of Clowning and Production Consultant in 2001.

The Big Apple Circus estimates that in her 25 seasons with the show, Grandma made more than nine million people laugh in-person.

In 2002, Lubin was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame and the Sarasota Ring of Fame in 2012, the highest honor in American Circus. In 1999, he was the fifth person to receive the Legend of the Parade Award of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where he appeared over 15 times. In 2007, he received the Lou Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award from ClownAlley.net.

He has performed twice (1977 and 2008) at the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, as well as at the International Circus Festivals in Budapest, in Izhevsk and Moscow, Russia. In addition, Lubin is one of only two American clowns to appear at the Wintercirckus of Circus Krone in Munich where he was named, "The World’s Funniest Grandma."

Lubin has two daughters, Danielle and Emily. His brother, Jay Lubin is an executive in the insurance industry.

Upon his retirement from the Big Apple Circus in 2012, he moved to Stockholm, Sweden with his companion, Ann Hageus.

Lubin is a member of SAG-AFTRA.