Silverman won an Emmy and a Peabody Award as a member of The Daily Show's writing staff before joining Late Night in 2002. During this period, Silverman was notably the only female writer on staff for both The Daily Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[7] She moved to The Colbert Report in 2005 shortly after it was picked up to series. Although most of Silverman's work on the Report was off-camera, she occasionally made appearances on the show, as an audience member, as the voice of the alien woman "Juliax" in a Tek Jansen cartoon, and as "Your Soulmate" in the abridged audiobook of I Am America (And So Can You!), which she co-wrote. Silverman's contributions to The Colbert Report would win the show a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award, and multiple Emmy nominations. Stephen Colbert has said that she has "the mind of Jonathan Swift had he mated with the Cookie Monster."[8]
She was a 2009 recipient of NYWIFT's Muse Award,[9] celebrating the achievements of women who work in film and television. She left The Colbert Report in August 2009.[10]
In 2011 Silverman was a writer for the comedy series Portlandia, and served as co-executive producer for the show's next season in 2012.[1] In an interview, Carrie Brownstein reflected about the encouragement that she received from Silverman on the first season of Portlandia:
"I try to sort of model what she did for me in my own life, which was just to listen, to understand that there is that fear when you first enter a room—a figurative or literal room—where you're kind of forced to speak in a different register. I really am so grateful for her generosity and kindness."[11]
In March 2011, Silverman was a writer and contributor on the radio program This American Life in an episode titled "Oh You Shouldn't Have".[12]
Between the years of 2011–2013, Silverman was a writer on The Office, before she began working as executive producer on the comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.[1] She was a writer and producer on the show from 2015 to 2017.[13] She was also a writer on the Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon! which stars Cecily Strong.[14]
Silverman was a writer and producer on both first and second seasons Russian Doll series, which premiered in 2019 and 2022, respectively. Silverman was named a finalist for the 2019 Ray Bradbury Award for Dramatic Presentation for her work on the episode "The Way Out",[15] as well as receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the episode "A Warm Body".
Nominated – 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, Or Comedy Program (Head Writer) Nominated – 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Supervising Producer) Winner – 2007 Peabody Award Nominated – 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Co-Executive Producer) Nominated – 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, Or Comedy Program (Writer) Winner – 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program Nominated – 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Executive Producer) Nominated – 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Executive Producer) Winner – 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program Nominated – 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Executive Producer)
Nominated – 2015 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Co-Executive Producer) Nominated – 2016 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Co-Executive Producer) Nominated – 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Co-Executive Producer)
Nominated – 2019 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series (Executive Producer) Nominated – 2019 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program (Writer) Nominated – 2019 Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series
Michael Brumm, Nate Charny, Aaron Cohen, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Gabe Gronli, Barry Julien, Jay Katsir, Sam Kim, Matthew Lappin, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Meredith Scardino, and Max Werner (2014)