Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( /koʊlˈbɛər/ or /ˈkoʊlbərt/;[5] born May 13, 1964) is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's 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 short-lived Dana Carvey Show before collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello again on the cult television series Strangers with Candy. He gained considerable attention f! or his role on the latter as closeted gay history teacher Chuck Noblet . It was his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's news-parody 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 spin-off series, The Colbert Report. Following The Daily Show's news-parody concept, The Colbert Report is a parody of personality-driven political opinion shows such as The O'Reilly Factor. Since its debut, the series has established itself as one of Comedy Central's highest-rated 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 Time's 100 most influential people in 2006.[10] His book I Am America (And So Can You!) was No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list. Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career in comedy 3 Television career 3.1 Strangers wit! h Candy 3.2 The Daily Show 3.3 The Colbert Report 4 Politics 4! .1 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner 4.2 2008 Presidential bid 4.3 2010 Congressional testimony 4.4 2010 Washington D.C. rallies 4.5 Super PAC and 2012 Presidential campaign 4.6 Other work 5 Personal life 6 Awards and honors 6.1 COLBERT Treadmill 7 Filmography 8 Bibliography 9 Discography 10 References 11 Further reading and external links Early life Colbert was born in Washington, D.C.[11] and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, on James Island, the youngest of eleven children in an Irish Catholic family.[5][12][13] Colbert and his siblings, in order from oldest to youngest, are James ("Jimmy"), Edward ("Eddie"), Mary, William ("Billy"), Margo, Thomas ("Tommy"), Jay, Elizabeth ("Lulu"), Paul, Peter, and Stephen. Many of his ancestors immigrated to North America from Ireland in the 1800s before and during the Great Famine.[14][15] His father, James William Colbert, Jr., was the vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carol! ina. His mother, Lorna Colbert (née Tuck), was a homemaker.[14][16] In interviews, Colbert describes his parents as devout people who also strongly value intellectualism and taught their children that it was possible to question the Church and still be Catholic.[17] The emphasis his family placed on intelligence and his observation of negative stereotypes of Southerners led Colbert to train himself to suppress his Southern accent while he was still quite young. As a child, he observed that Southerners were often depicted as being less intelligent than other characters on scripted television; to avoid that stereotype, he taught himself to imitate the speech of American news anchors.[18][19] Colbert sometimes comedically claims his surname is French, but his family is actually of Irish, English, and distant German descent.[5][20] Originally, the name was pronounced /ˈkoʊlbərt/ in English; Stephen Colbert's father, James, wanted to pronounce the name /koʊlˈbɛər/, but m! aintained the /ˈkoʊlbərt/ pronunciation out of respect for his own f! ather. However, James offered his children the option to pronounce the name whichever way they preferred.[12] Stephen started using /koʊlˈbɛər/ later in life when he transferred to Northwestern University, taking advantage of the opportunity to reinvent himself in a new place where no one knew him.[5] Stephen's brother Ed, an intellectual property attorney, retained /ˈkoʊlbərt/; this was shown in a February 12, 2009 appearance on The Colbert Report, when his youngest brother asked him, "/ˈkoʊlbərt/ or /koʊlˈbɛər/?" Ed responded "/ˈkoʊlbərt/", to which Stephen jokingly replied, "See you in Hell".[21] On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and two of his brothers, Peter and Paul, were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 while it was attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were en route to enroll the two boys at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut.[13][22] Shortly thereafter, Lorna Colbert relo! cated the family downtown to the more urban environment of East Bay Street in Charleston. By his own account, Colbert found the transition difficult and did not easily make new friends in his new neighborhood.[12] Colbert later described himself during this time as detached, lacking a sense of importance regarding the things with which other children concerned themselves.[19][23] He developed a love of science fiction and fantasy novels, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, of which he remains an avid fan. During his adolescence, he also developed an intense interest in fantasy role-playing games, especially Dungeons & Dragons,[23][24] a pastime which he later characterized as an early experience in acting and improvisation.[4] Colbert attended Charleston's Episcopal Porter-Gaud School, where he participated in several school plays and contributed to the school newspaper but, by his own assessment, was not highly motivated academically.[23] During his time as a tee! nager, he also briefly fronted a Rolling Stones cover band.[25] When he! was younger, he had hoped to study marine biology, but surgery intended to repair a severely perforated eardrum caused him inner ear damage. The damage was severe enough that he was unable to pursue a career that would involve scuba diving. The damage also left him deaf in his right ear.[12][26] For a while, he was uncertain whether he would attend college,[27] but ultimately he applied and was accepted to Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where a friend had also enrolled. There he continued to participate in plays while studying mainly philosophy;[2][23] he found the curriculum rigorous but was more focused than he had been in high school and was able to apply himself to his studies. Despite the lack of a significant theater community at Hampden-Sydney, Colbert's interest in acting escalated during this time. After two years, he transferred to Northwestern University as a Theater Major to study performance, emboldened by the realization that he loved performing even whe! n no one was coming to shows.[23] Early career in comedy Stephen Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert at the 2006 Time 100 While at Northwestern, Colbert studied with the intent of becoming a dramatic actor; mostly he performed in experimental plays and was uninterested in comedy. He began performing improvisation while in college, both in the campus improv team No Fun Mud Piranhas[28] and at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago as a part of Del Close's ImprovOlympic at a time when the project was focused on competitive, long form improvisation, rather than improvisational comedy. "I wasn't gonna do Second City", Colbert later recalled, "because those Annoyance people looked down on Second City because they thought it wasn't pure improv—there was a slightly snobby, mystical quality to the Annoyance people".[4] After Colbert graduated in 1986, however, he was in need of a job, and a friend who was employed at Second City's box office offered him work answering phones and ! selling souvenirs.[23] Colbert accepted, and discovered that Second Cit! y employees were entitled to take classes at their training center for free.[4] Despite his earlier aversion to the comedy group, he signed up for improvisation classes, and enjoyed the experience greatly. Shortly thereafter, he was hired to perform with Second City's touring company, initially as an understudy for Steve Carell. It was there he met Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, with whom he often collaborated later in his career. By their retelling, the three comedians did not get along at first—Dinello thought Colbert was uptight, pretentious and cold, while Colbert thought of Dinello as "an illiterate thug"[29]—but the trio became close friends while touring together, discovering that they shared a similar comic sensibility.[23] When Sedaris and Dinello were offered the opportunity to create a television series for HBO Downtown Productions, Colbert left The Second City and relocated to New York in order to work with them on the sketch comedy show Exit 57.[23] The seri! es debuted on Comedy Central in 1995 and aired through 1996. Despite only lasting for 12 episodes, the show received favorable reviews[30][31] and was nominated for five CableACE Awards in 1995, in categories including best writing, performance, and comedy series.[32] Following the cancellation of Exit 57, Colbert worked for six months as a cast member and writer on The Dana Carvey Show, alongside former Second City cast mate Steve Carell, as well as Robert Smigel, Charlie Kaufman, Louis C.K., and Dino Stamatopoulos, among others. The series, described by one reviewer as "kamikaze satire" in "borderline-questionable taste", had sponsors pull out after its first episode aired, and was canceled after seven episodes.[33] Colbert then worked briefly as a freelance writer for Saturday Night Live with Robert Smigel. Smigel also brought his animat
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