Biography - Stephen Colbert

Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2006, Stephen Colbert became a household name as a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s wildly popular “The Daily Show”. Currently hosting his own companion show, “The Colbert Report”, the deadpan comic has emerged as one of the more interesting and politically incisive comedians working today.

Colbert was born on May 13, 1964 and was raised in Charleston, South Carolina by his Irish-Catholic family, in which he was the youngest of eleven children. He attended the all-male Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, but eventually transferred to Northwestern University in Chicago due to the first school’s conservatism. At Northwestern Colbert took acting and speech courses, and became involved with the improv comedy troupe ImprovOlympic. He remained in Chicago after college, and performed with the nationally famous Second City improv group. Colbert then spent much of the 1990’s writing or performing for several television comedy shows, including “Exit 57”, “The Dana Carvey Show”, “Strangers with Candy”, and “Saturday Night Live”. His writing stint on “SNL” was brief, but he later returned to voice the role of Ace in Robert Smigel’s cartoon short “The Ambiguously Gay Duo”. “The Daily Show” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” star Steve Carell voiced Ace’s superhero partner, Gary.

Starting in 1997 Colbert began ‘reporting’ for “The Daily Show”, where he served as ‘Senior Washington Correspondent’ and as a reporter for various ‘investigative’ segments in addition to ‘This Week in God’ and ‘Even Stephven’ with Steve Carell. Colbert quickly became the most popular guest star on the Comedy Central hit, with his winkingly earnest, bone-dry performance as a bizarre conservative pundit serving as a hilarious foil to Stewart’s more sarcastic brand of comedy. During his eight-year run on the show Colbert also appeared on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, the 2005 film version of “Bewitched”, and the recently released big-screen version of “Strangers with Candy”. Colbert still occasionally appears on “The Daily Show”, either filling in for Stewart or delivering hilarious promo spots for “The Colbert Report”. The show has become a second comedy-news smash for the network, and his well-publicized lampooning of President Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner has boosted his ratings even higher.