John Mulaney

John Edmund Mulaney (born August 26, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer.

Mulaney was born on August 26, 1982, in Chicago, Illinois, to Ellen Mulaney (née Stanton), a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and Charles "Chip" Mulaney Jr., an attorney and partner at Skadden Arps.

His parents are both of Irish Catholic heritage.

Mulaney's maternal great-grandparents were George J. Bates, a Republican mayor of Salem, Massachusetts, who also served as a congressman from that state, and Nora Jennings, who moved to the U.S. from Ballyhaunis, County Mayo.

His maternal great-uncle is William H. Bates, who also served as a U.S. congressman.

Coincidentally, Mulaney's maternal grandmother, Carolyn Stanton, and Hilary Meyers—mother of Mulaney's future Saturday Night Live coworker Seth Meyers—performed together in a hospital benefit show in Marblehead, Massachusetts, called Pills A-Poppin' directed by Tommy Tune, then 19.

Mulaney's parents attended Georgetown University and Yale Law School.

They were at Georgetown and Yale at the same time as future president Bill Clinton (Mulaney has said he met Clinton in 1992).

Growing up, Mulaney was an altar boy.

He is the third of five children.

He has an elder sister, an elder brother, a younger sister, and a younger brother who died at birth.

His confirmation name is Martin, after St. Martin de Porres, to honor his late brother Peter Martin, who died when Mulaney was four.

From watching the lifestyle of the character Ricky Ricardo on the program I Love Lucy, Mulaney knew he wanted to go into show business at age five.

At age seven, he was a member of the Chicago-based children’s sketch group “The Rugrats”.

Because of this, Mulaney had an opportunity to audition for the role of Kevin in the film Home Alone, but his parents declined.

For junior high, he attended St. Clement School where, in lieu of doing reports, he and his best friend, John O'Brien, would offer to perform what they had learned as a skit.

At 14, Mulaney played Wally Webb in a production of Our Town.

He also frequented the Museum of Broadcast Communications, where he watched archived episodes of shows such as I Love Lucy and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

He graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep in 2000.

Mulaney then enrolled at his parents' alma mater, Georgetown University, where he majored in English and minored in theology.

He joined the school's improv group, and met Nick Kroll and Mike Birbiglia.

He later joined Birbiglia on his stand-up tour, which Mulaney cited as helping him overcome his stage fright.

After graduating from Georgetown in 2004, Mulaney moved to New York City with ambitions of a career in comedy, and was hired as an office assistant at Comedy Central.

After a year, he pitched the idea for a parody of I Love the '80s called I Love the '30s, which he developed along with fellow comedian Nick Kroll.

Mulaney was working at the network when Dave Chappelle abruptly left.

Initially, the network had planned to fly Mulaney out to Los Angeles in order to secure the tapes for season three of Chappelle's eponymous show; instead, feeling it was a "hindrance to being a comedian", Mulaney quit and started working freelance.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mulaney first rose to prominence for his work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous sketches and characters, including Stefon, a recurring character that he and Bill Hader co-created.

Since his departure from SNL, Mulaney has hosted it several times, becoming a member of the SNL Five Timers Club in 2022.

After being discovered while performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mulaney was asked to audition for Saturday Night Live in August 2008, along with Kroll, Donald Glover, Ellie Kemper, T.J. Miller and Bobby Moynihan.

Unusually for an SNL audition, Mulaney did not prepare any impressions, instead performing standup with "charactery bits in them".

He went in with low expectations, although he thought it'd be a "cool story".

Mulaney won a spot on the writing team, where he remained for four seasons, writing the monologues for the hosts.

He also occasionally appeared on the show's Weekend Update segment.

Mulaney's stand-up specials include The Top Part (2009), New in Town (2012), The Comeback Kid (2015), Kid Gorgeous (2018) and Baby J (2023).

He won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for Kid Gorgeous and Baby J.

He was the creator and star of the short-lived semi-autobiographical Fox sitcom Mulaney (2014–2015).

Mulaney serves as a co-executive producer, writer, and occasional actor in the IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now! (2015–present).

Mulaney also performs George St. Geegland in a comedic duo with Nick Kroll, and they appeared on television and on Broadway in the show Oh, Hello on Broadway (2016-2017).

Mulaney's voice roles include Andrew Glouberman in the Netflix original animated show Big Mouth (2017–present), Peter Porker / Spider-Ham in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Chip in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers and Big Jack Horner in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022).

Mulaney released a children's musical comedy special on Netflix, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019).