Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert, who is an actor by trade, turned a quirky conservative persona into a popular comedic talk show host on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert was born May 13, 1964, the youngest of 11 children, in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where his father, James Colbert, worked as the vice president of academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina and his mother, Lorna, was a homemaker. Colbert’s father and two of his brothers (Peter and Paul) were killed in an airplane crash when Stephen was 10 years old.

While in high school, he performed in plays and wrote for the school newspaper. Following graduation, he attended Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, studying philosophy, while also appearing in plays.

Colbert’s interest in acting took him to Northwestern University after two years at Hampden-Sydney, where he studied to become a dramatic actor. He soon discovered improvisational theater, first performing at the Annoyance Theatre, and after graduating in 1986, he joined the famed Second City in Chicago – answering phones. As an employee, he took classes at the Second City training center and was later hired for the touring company. The comedy troupe included a number of actors that he would go on to work with in the future, including Paul Dinello, Amy Sedaris and Steve Carell (Colbert was initially Carell’s understudy).

Colbert left Second City to collaborate with Sedaris and Dinello on a Comedy Central sketch series called Exit 57. While the show only ran from 1995 to 1996, it was nominated for five Cable ACE Awards.

Following Exit 57, Colbert went on to write and perform on the short-lived series The Dana Carvey Show. Again, Colbert was reunited with Carell, but the show was canceled after just seven episodes.

After working as a script consultant for VH1 and MTV, Good Morning America hired Colbert to film humor segments for the morning show. Only one segment aired, but it landed him a trial job corresponding for The Daily Show in 1997, during the show’s second season. At the time, original host Craig Kilborn served as the main anchor, while four roving correspondents provided their segments from the field. Jon Stewart took over as host in 1999 and the show’s format changed slightly to include more correspondent segments. Colbert played an uninformed newsman whom he described as "a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool." Colbert’s recurring segments included “Even Stephven” (a heated debate with Carell) and “This Week in God.”

At the same time as his job was beginning with The Daily Show, his series Strangers with Candy, which he developed with Sedaris and Dinello, was picked up by Comedy Central. As a result, Colbert took on fewer segments for The Daily Show while working on Strangers with Candy. Colbert both wrote and co-starred on the series, playing history teacher Chuck Noblet. The series aired from 1999 to 2000 and a film of the show was released in 2006.

As The Daily Show grew in popularity and viewership, Colbert started to become more of a household name. He was offered a spin-off show called The Colbert Report, and subsequently left The Daily Show in 2005. The Colbert Report is a parody of political news shows such as The O’Reilly Factor; in fact, Colbert often refers to Bill O’Reilly as “Papa Bear.”

The Colbert Report earned three Emmy nominations and a Television Critics Association nomination. In 2006, Colbert spoke at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

Colbert met Evelyn McGee in 1990; the couple have three children: Madeline, Peter, and John. McGee-Colbert has appeared in the television and film version of Strangers with Candy. Their children have appeared on The Daily Show.

• Colbert is deaf in his right ear, the result of damage during surgery that was meant to repair a perforated eardrum.
• He worked for a short time as a freelance writer for Saturday Night Live.
• Colbert voiced Ace in the Robert Smigel animated short The Ambiguously Gay Duo, which aired on both Dana Carvey and SNL.
• He was one of Time magazine’s "100 Most Influential People" in 2006.
• Stephen Colbert co-wrote a satirical novel Wigfield: The Can Do Town That Just May Not, with Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. His book I am America (and So Can You!) will be released in October 2007.
• Colbert appeared in the film Bewitched, as well as television series Spin City, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• The American Dialect Society named the word “truthiness,” which he used in the first episode of The Colbert Report, as the 2005 Word of the Year. Merriam-Webster selected truthiness for its 2006 Word of the Year.
• The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival named Colbert “Person of the Year” in 2007.
• Maxim Online named him as “2nd Sexiest TV News Anchor” in 2006.
• He was one of GQ’s 2006 “Men of the Year.”
• Colbert has a Ben & Jerry ice cream flavor named after him: Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream. Proceeds go to various charitable causes through the AmeriCone Dream Fund.
• One of Virgin America’s airplanes is named Air Colbert.
• Colbert sustained a wrist injury in 2007 and his cast sold on eBay for $17,600.

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