She was the winner of the sixth season of NBCs Last Comic Standing and host of the syndicated dating show Excused. Shlesinger is from Dallas, Texas, where she attended the private Greenhill School and participated on the schools improv team. She is Jewish. She performed with ComedySportz Dallas and attended the University of Kansas for her freshman year. She also participated in Semester at Sea. She transferred to Emerson College in Boston, where she majored in film. There, she was a member of the campus comedy sketch group, Jimmys Traveling All Stars, and refined her writing and editing skills.