Jerry Seinfeld — both the man and the TV character — lives on the Upper West Side. (Seinfeld: Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
The Upper West Side is a great place to live: beautiful prewar buildings, Central Park to one side and Riverside Park to the other, Zabar’s. It’s one of the most popular residential areas of Manhattan — and it’s also a hotbed for celebrities. Not the Hollywood stars with a party pad in some flashy glass tower downtown, but the ones who really live here. These Upper West Side celebrities have all chosen this charming Manhattan neighborhood as their home.
Jerry Seinfeld
Both Jerry the fictional sitcom character and Jerry the actual person live on the UWS: West 81st Street, in particular. The TV apartment was at 129 West 81st, a real building between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, but real-life Jerry Seinfeld lives at the Beresford, on the corner of 81st and Central Park West. This iconic 1929 co-op was designed by architect Emery Roth and has also been called home by Glenn Close, John McEnroe, and Diana Ross.
Tina Fey
(Fey: Walter McBride/Getty Images)
This “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock” superstar is another longtime UWS’er, having lived at 300 West End Avenue for years. She even bought the apartment directly above hers in 2016 to create an absolutely enormous duplex. Each apartment in the building has two wood-burning fireplaces, which means Fey and family now have four! And she’s not the only celeb to put down long-term roots here: Harry Belafonte lived in the building for decades.
Ellie Kemper
Speaking of both Tina Fey and West End Avenue, this star of Fey’s Netflix series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is her neighbor, too! Ellie Kemper was nominated for two Emmys for playing Kimmy, and she and her husband live just down the street from her old boss at 325 West End Avenue.
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Steve Martin
Fey is also in good company as far as “SNL” UWS’ers go — no less a comedy legend than Steve Martin lives in the neighborhood as well. Martin’s home is in the renowned San Remo building on Central Park West, another Emery Roth gem. It has housed more bold-faced names than you can shake a stick at, including Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Tiger Woods, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, and Bono, who owns one of the two iconic towers.
Amy Schumer
Comedians do seem to be drawn to this neighborhood, “SNL” connection or not. Amy Schumer sold her 1-bedroom at 129 West 80th Street in 2016, but she didn’t go far. She reportedly upgraded to a much swankier penthouse at 190 Riverside Drive, with 5 bedrooms and a fabulous wraparound terrace. That’s no “Trainwreck”!
John Oliver
(Oliver: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
The host of HBO’s satiric news show “Last Week Tonight” is said to live in a multi-million-dollar condo in the Aldyn at 60 Riverside Boulevard, not far from Fordham University and Lincoln Center. He is also comedically connected to some UWS neighbors through his former stint on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
Samantha Bee & Jason Jones
Oliver’s fellow “Daily Show” alums, the husband-and-wife team of “Full Frontal” host Samantha Bee and actor Jason Jones, live further uptown in a 4-bedroom co-op at 300 Riverside Drive. Bee and Oliver are separated by a couple dozen blocks, at least, but they’re probably both too busy skewering the upcoming election to hang out much, anyway.
Joel Coen & Frances McDormand
Never fear, you don’t have to be a comedian to be an UWS celebrity! Multiple-Oscar-winning power couple Frances McDormand and Joel Coen also make their home here, in a co-op on West End Avenue. With six Academy Awards between them, their apartment must have one heck of a trophy room.
Tony Shalhoub
(Shalhoub: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
And while we’re on the subject of trophies, the multiple-Emmy-winning actor Tony Shalhoub bought a home with a fabulous terrace at 15 West 81st Street in 2016. (It’s right near the Beresford, where Jerry Seinfeld lives. Think they know each other?) Back then he was best known for “Monk,” for which he garnered three Emmys. But he has since reached even greater heights of fame on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” for which he picked up another statue last year. And as a little neighborhood bonus, his character on that show is also an Upper West Side resident!
Joy Behar
“The View” cohost Joy Behar has quite the view of her own from her high-rise condo at the Allegro on West 62nd Street. The unit’s corner living room has two exposures, with skyscrapers and Central Park visible from expansive windows. Before moving here, the longtime UWS’er had lived for years at Astor Court on West 89th Street.
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Michael Strahan
This former NFL football star turned television star, who can be seen on “Good Morning America” and more, lives in an UWS townhouse complete with a private backyard. He sang the neighborhood’s praises in a 2017 New York Times interview, proclaiming his love for the area’s family feel — and for the frozen palomas at Playa Betty’s on Amsterdam Avenue.
Howard Stern
The radio megastar is said to live in a palatial apartment in the Millennium Tower, a gigantic building that takes up the entire square block from Broadway to Columbus Avenue between West 67th and West 68th. His home there is actually several units combined, high in the sky on the 53rd and 54th floors.
Giorgio Armani
(Armani: Peter White/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, this ultra-classy designer lives nearby in what could pass for a genuine palace. Giorgio Armani’s penthouse at 91 Central Park West, on the corner of West 69th Street, is dripping with majestic stained glass and contains an actual tower — so more of a castle than a palace, really. But when you’ve got 1,700 square feet of wraparound terrace space overlooking Central Park, who’s keeping track?
Yoko Ono
Finally, and most infamously, is Yoko Ono. Ono has made her home in the Dakota, the grande dame of Central Park West, for nearly 50 years: She and John Lennon moved there way back in 1973. He was tragically murdered right outside the building in 1980. But Ono continued to live there nevertheless, even donating money for the Strawberry Fields memorial to her husband in Central Park, near West 72nd Street. Today, fans still gather at the site’s “Imagine” mosaic to honor Lennon, and Ono still lives across the street in this venerable Upper West Side icon.
[This post has been updated and republished.]
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