Rivkah Sarah Hoffman was born on December 2, 1989, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The seventh of ten siblings, she grew up in an impoverished Hasidic Jewish family that lived in a small apartment in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood. Hoffman jokingly says of her parents, who formerly practiced Reform Judaism and later began to practice Hasidic Judaism: "They're two people who joined a Hasidic cult and had ten kids, and I'm the product of it." Her mother later converted to Christianity.
During her early childhood, Hoffman's parents divorced; she and her siblings were subsequently raised by their single mother in her native Montreal, Canada. Hoffman has said her mother struggled financially to support their family, and that she lived in poverty.
After attending the private high school Bialik Secondary School, Hoffman enrolled at McGill University, where she studied accounting and communications; after graduation, she enrolled in the graduate CPA program at McGill, only to quit a few hours into her first day of the program to pursue a career in comedy.
Career
Hoffman began her writing career and was soon garnering recognition for her work, while writing and performing stand-up comedy. In 2018, she was a headlining act for the New York Comedy Festival. In 2019, she recorded her first one-hour comedy special I'm Nervous at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Toronto for Crave TV.
Hoffman's first television writing job was for the PBS series Odd Squad; she won a 2019 Daytime Emmy Award for her work on the series. Hoffman was a staff writer for Workin' Moms and Baroness Von Sketch Show. She was a staff writer on The Chris Gethard Show; after its cancellation, Hoffman starred in episodes of The Chris Gethard Show with Robby Hoffman on both MNN and Chris Gethard Presents, as well as taking the show live to the Montreal Just For Laughs festival. She hosted Robby Hoffman Consulting Group (formerly Dykevice), a live call-in advice show on Gethard's comedy network Planet Scum Live.
In 2021, it was announced that Rivkah, an autobiographical comedy series created by and starring Hoffman, is in development with Showtime and A24.
Hoffman is a lesbian. According to her, her family was supportive when she came out, and she is close to them.
In August 2023, Hoffman announced her relationship with The Bachelorette alumna Gabby Windey. Hoffman and Windey were married in January 2025.
Hoffman chose to have both her breasts removed and has talked about it openly. While it is common for mastectomy to be performed as an effective treatment for breast cancer or gender dysphoria, she explains that the surgery was elective. Hoffman has described not having breasts as nice as well as comfortable.
12Hoffman, Robby (30 May 2023). "Becoming Robby Hoffman". The Ali Kolbert Show (Interview). Interviewed by Kolbert, Ali. Event occurs at 32:19; 53:44. Archived from the original on 12 January 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2024– via YouTube.
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