Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert born May 13 1964 is an American political satirist writer comedian television host and actor He is the host of Comedy Centrals The Colbert Report a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits Colbert originally studied to be an actor but became interested in improvisational theatre when he met famed Second City director Del Close while attending Northwestern University He first performed professionally as an understudy for Steve Carell at Second City Chicago among his troupe mates were comedians Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris with whom he developed the critically acclaimed sketch comedy series Exit 57 Colbert also wrote and performed on the shortlived Dana Carvey Show before collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello again on the cult television series Strangers with Candy He gained considerable attention for his role on the latter as closeted gay history teacher Chuck Noblet It was his work as a correspondent on Comedy Centrals newsparody series The Daily Show however that first introduced him to a wide audience In 2005 he left The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to host a spinoff series The Colbert Report Following The Daily Shows newsparody concept The Colbert Report is a parody of personalitydriven political opinion shows such as The OReilly Factor Since its debut the series has established itself as one of Comedy Centrals highestrated series earning Colbert three Emmy Award nominations and an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in 2006 Colbert was named one of Times 100 most influential people in 2006 His book I Am America And So Can You was No 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list Description above from the Wikipedia article Stephen Colbert licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia