The Truthiness about Stephen Colbert!Stephen Colbert is an American comedian, actor, writer, and co-creator of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.
Colbert has gained national fame for his parody of Bill O'Reilly and right-wing pundits and Fox News anchors generally, with their slavish promotion of the policies of the administration of President George W. Bush. Colbert collaborated with Jon Stewart and Ben Karlin of The Daily Show in creating The Colbert Report, a spin-off of The Daily Show, which premiered on television in October 2005. Within the first month on the air, the show became one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows. Colbert has received three Emmy nominations and was the featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In 2006, Time Magazine named Colbert "one of the 100 most influential people" and The New Yorker named him one of the most influential media personas.
The youngest of eleven children, Stephen Tyrone Colbert comes from an Irish Catholic family. He was born in Washington, D.C.and raised on James Island in South Carolina. He attended school at the Episcopal Porter-Gaud School but, by his own admission, was not academically motivated.
Surgery on a perforated eardrum, as a child, left Colbert deaf in his right ear.
His father, James Colbert, was vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina. His mother Lorna Colbert was a home-maker. James Colbert preferred to pronounce Colbert with a silent t. Colbert lost his father and two brothers, Peter and Paul, in an airline crash on September 11, 1974.
Colbert studied philosophy at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. After two years, he transferred to Northwestern University's School of Communication. At Northwestern he joined the improvisational troupe ImprovOlympic.
Colbert's first professional performance was with Second City, an improvisational comedy troupe in Chicago. In his troupe were Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, with whom Colbert collaborated with to produce the sketch comedy series, Exit 57 (1995); the TV series, Strangers With Candy (1999) and a satirical novel, Wigfield: The Can Do Town That Just May Not (2003).
Following the Cancellation of Exit 57, Colbert worked, for a short time, as a writer and cast member of The Dana Carvey Show. The show was cancelled within its first year after one reviewer described it as "kamikaze satire" in "borderline-questionable" taste. Colbert has been a free-lance writer for Saturday Night Live and was the voice of Ace in the animated sketch The Ambiguously Gay Duo, opposite Dana Carvey.
Colbert joined the The Daily Show in its second season with host Craig Kilborn as one of four Washington correspondents. Kilborn referred to Colbert as "the new guy". With the advent of Jon Stewart as host, the show took on a more political edge and Colbert's character gained more screen time and a name for himself. Colbert describes his character as "a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool."
While working on The Daily Show in 1998, Colbert took the role of Chuck Noblit; a closet gay history teacher, in the comedy series Strangers with Candy that parodies the after-school specials. The show was cancelled in 2000.
At the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Colbert addressed President Bush and White House correspondents while in character. He stated, "I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And, that send a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound -- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world." His performance did not stray from The Colbert Report and was not enthusiastically received by the dinner party.
The American Dialect Society named Colbert's buzz word truthiness as word of the year for 2005.
In 2006, Colbert was nominated for three Emmys for The Colbert Report but lost to Barry Manilow. However, Colbert won an Emmy for his writing on the The Daily Show.
Stephen Colbert was named "2nd Sexiest TV News Anchor" by Maxim Online in 2006. Also in 2006, People Magazine named him one of the "Sexiest Men Alive" and GQ named him one of the "Men of the Year".
Unlike his TV persona, Colbert describes himself as a Democrat, a practicing Roman Catholic and Sunday school teacher. He is a fan of science fiction author, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.
Colbert is married to Evelyn McGee-Colbert. They live in Montclair, New Jersey and have three children: Madeline, Peter and John. Evelyn appeared on an episode, as well as the movie, of Strangers with Candy as the mother of Colbert's character. All three of his children have made appearances on The Daily Show.
| |
Your Comments About Stephen Colbert | Comments to date: 1. The most recent comment is below.
| |
Jenna Smith Marin County, C.A. | Posted at 1:32am on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 | I love Stephen. He is Irresistible when I see him on T.V. I bought his book and reading it is like hearing Stephen's voice say the words like he would on his show. And from the few times I've seen of the real Stephen Colbert, I love much more than the character he pertrays on his show, not that he isn't Hilarious and very entertaining. I hope very much that I will get the chance to meet him in person someday soon.
|
See all Stephen Colbert comments, where you can also add your comments. |
|