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Stephen Colbert
| Stephen Colbert | |
| |
| Birth name | Stephen Tyrone Colbert |
| Born | May 13, 1964 in Washington, DC, USA |
| Notable Shows | Correspondent for The Daily Show
Host of The Colbert Report |
| Awards | |
Stephen Colbert is an American comedian and satirist closely associated with series like The Daily Show, for which he was a correspondent. He is perhaps most well known as the host for The Colbert Report, a spin-off from The Daily Show.
Contents |
Biography
Stephen Colbert was born the youngest child of 11 in a large Catholic family. As a child, he became attached to comedy due to the deaths of his father and brothers Peter and Paul in the infamous Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 plane crash of 1974. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Colbert described his childhood as "withdrawn" and expressed a desire to cheer his mother up after the tragedy.
Following the loss of his father, Colbert and his family members moved into the city, closer to downtown Charleston where he continued to withdraw. It was there that he developed a love of fantasy novels and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Colbert later would attribute the development of his improvisational skills to these games. Colbert also described his life after the loss of his father and brothers, as seemingly unimportant. In school he learned "incidentally" because no threats from teachers could change his attitude because the "threats" seemed insignificant. He graduated from Porter-Gaud School, a Episcopalian private high school and went on to college at Hampden-Sydney College until transferring to Northwestern University in Chicago, where he majored in theater and received a degree in communication. Colbert initially started his acting career as a serious actor and starred in several small avant-garde theatrical productions but found that he would rather try comedy and "sacrifice importance" in favor of a healthier environment to work in.
In Chicago, Colbert was a part of comedy troupes like ImprovOlympic and Second City. While working as an understudy to Steve Carell at Second City, Colbert met Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello and, eventually, left the group to move to New York City and write for a sketch comedy series on Comedy Central called Exit 57 with Dinello and Sedaris. Although the series was cancelled after 12 episodes, Colbert was introduced into television entertainment and found himself in writing positions on other comedy series like The Dana Carvey Show and Saturday Night Live. During this period of Colbert's career, he is most well known for doing the voice of Ace, half of the Ambiguously Gay Duo on Saturday Night Live.
The first hints of Colbert's future career as a political satirist were seen on Good Morning America, who hired him to film several humorous correspondent segments. Only two of the proposed segments were produced and only one aired, but the series led him to Madeline Smithberg, then producer of The Daily Show, who hired him on a trial basis in 1997. His position on the show expanded until 1999 when a sitcom he co-created with Dinello and Sedaris, Strangers with Candy was finally greenlit by Comedy Central.
Following the cancellation of Strangers with Candy, Colbert returned to his expanded role on The Daily Show. On the series, he was featured in recurring segments like This Week in God and Even Stephen. On several occasions, Colbert filled in for Jon Stewart as host of an episode and, at one point, filled in for guest Al Sharpton and did the interview with Stewart as Sharpton.
After 8 years of being on The Daily Show, Colbert, Stewart and Ben Karlin sat down to discuss development for a new vehicle for Colbert, who was worried about becoming burned out on the series even though he wanted to continue working with Stewart. In 2005, Comedy Central greenlit The Colbert Report, a segment on The Daily Show in which Colbert hosted a commercial of a parody of political pundit shows like The O'Reilly Factor, capping off the end of each commercial with, "It's French, bitch." The creation of the spin-off caused Colbert to leave The Daily Show, although he is seen at the end of each episode in a "throw to" segment before the Moment of Zen.
Colbert's hosting duties on his own show made him into a phenomenon. After just a week of programming, he was signed to a long-term contract with Comedy Central. Less than a year after the series' debut, Colbert found himself hosting the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, on a list of Time's 100 most important people and profoundly affecting society with the popularization of words like "truthiness." In December of 2006, "truthiness" was also announced as the word of the year by Merriam-Webster.
Outside of his television career, Colbert has helped write The Daily Show's America (The Book) (and performed on the audiobook) as well as his own "autobiography," I Am America (And So Can You!). Colbert also briefly ran for president in 2007, although his attempt to add himself to the ballot in South Carolina was shot down by the South Carolinian Democratic Party.
Roles
Starring Roles
| Series | Role | Year(s) | Season(s) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exit 57 | Various | 1995–1996 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| The Dana Carvey Show | Various | 1996 | 1 | ||||||||
| The Daily Show | Correspondent | 1997–2005 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Strangers with Candy | Charles Noblet | 1999–2000 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||
| Random Play | Various | 1999 | 1 | ||||||||
| Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law | Phil Ken Sebben Reducto |
2001–2007 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||
| The Colbert Report | Stephen Colbert | 2005–2014 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||
Guest Starring Roles
Specials and Made-for-TV Movies
Talk, News and Game Show Appearances
| Series | Episode | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| Today | 7/24/04 | July 25, 2004 |
| Last Call with Carson Daly | Show 147 | February 8, 2005 |
| Late Show with David Letterman | Show 2418 | September 2, 2005 |
| Late Show with David Letterman | Show 2476 | December 14, 2005 |
| Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Show 2186 | February 3, 2006 |
| This Week | 3/5/06 | March 5, 2006 |
| Late Show with David Letterman | Show 2572 | June 14, 2006 |
| Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Show 2253 | July 12, 2006 |
| The Charlie Rose Show | December 8, 2006 | |
| Larry King Live | Stephen Colbert (October 14, 2007) | October 14, 2007 |
| Meet The Press | October 21, 2007 |
Producer
Series Produced
| Series | Year(s) | Credit | Season(s) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strangers with Candy | 1999 –2000 | Co-Producer | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||
| The Colbert Report | 2005 –2014 | Executive Producer | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | 2015 – | Executive Producer | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| Our Cartoon President | 2018 – | Executive Producer | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
Writer
Series Created
| Series | Premiere Date | Creation Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Strangers with Candy | April 7, 1999 | Co-Creator |
| The Colbert Report | October 17, 2005 | Co-Creator |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | September 8, 2015 | Creator |
| Our Cartoon President | February 11, 2018 | Co-Creator |
Episode Writer
| Series | Episode | Airdate | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our Cartoon President | 1x01 - State of the Union | February 11, 2018 |
Memorable Moments
Awards and Accolades
Primetime Emmy Awards
(6 Nominations, 2 Won)
- Won: Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program (2004)
- Won: Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program (2005)
- Nominated: Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program (2006)
- Nominated: Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program (2006)
- Nominated: Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program (2006)
- Nominated: Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program (2006)
Satellite Awards
(1 Nomination)
- Nominated: Outstanding Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical (2005)
Television Critics Association Awards
(1 Nomination)
- Nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy (2006)
Trivia
- Colbert is deaf in one ear due to a "weird tumor" he had as a kid. An operation on the tumor left him without an eardrum in his right ear, a trait which allows him to fold his earlobe into his inner ear and make it pop back out by winking. Before the operation made it so that scuba diving was out of the question, Colbert had expressed interest in becoming a marine biologist.
