Neal Brennan

Neal Brennan (born October 19, 1973) is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster.

Brennan was born in Villanova, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 1973, the youngest of 10 children born into a family of Irish Catholic descent.

He lived in Villanova until the age of six, moving with his family in 1978 to Wilmette, Illinois.

According to Brennan, his father's side of the family was funny, as were his five older brothers.

He has said that he realized he was funny and liked comedy at about 8 or 9 years of age, and had already been performing material for his classmates in a style that emulated comedians David Brenner, Richard Lewis, and Jerry Seinfeld.

He watched a large amount of comedy on TV during his high school years, often staying up late to see Late Night with David Letterman and The Arsenio Hall Show.

Brennan's older brother Kevin became a comedian and writer who started doing stand-up comedy while Brennan was still in high school.

Brennan would spend weekends attending Kevin's performances at The Improv in New York City, where he would meet comedians such as Dave Attell, David Juskow, Ray Romano, and Mike Royce.

He said in an interview with Independent Film Channel (IFC) that after watching his brother do stand-up, he realized it was possible to make a living in comedy.

He moved to New York to attend film school at NYU, but he dropped out after a year.

He began as a doorman at the now-defunct Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village where he met frequent performer Dave Chappelle.

The two became friends and Brennan would often pitch jokes to Chappelle.

Brennan also shared an apartment with comedian Jay Mohr while living in New York.

In the mid-1990s Brennan moved to Los Angeles.

After six months of working as a doorman at the Boston Comedy Club, Brennan first performed stand-up in 1992, at 18 years of age.

He later recounted that he "got no laughs" and did not perform stand-up again for five years.

He also wrote for The Source magazine in 1992.

In 1995, he became a writer for the dating show Singled Out which was hosted by Jenny McCarthy and Chris Hardwick.

This was followed by writing jobs for the game show Bzzz! in 1996, the sketch comedy-variety show All That from 1996 to 1997, and the teen sitcom Kenan & Kel in 1997.

In 1997, Brennan and Dave Chappelle collaborated for the first time on the screenplay for the film Half Baked.

The film was released in January 1998 and starred Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams, and Guillermo Díaz.

Half Baked was a commercial failure and received mainly negative reviews but has become a cult classic.

Brennan said that he and Chappelle read the book Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (2002), by Tom Shales when they started writing sketches for the show, and found the book very helpful.

The duo wrote the show's sketches with minimal outside help and agreed never to divulge who was responsible for writing which sketch.

Brennan directed some sketches in the show's second season, including the sketch featuring Chappelle as musician Rick James.

He is best known for co-creating and co-writing the Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) with Dave Chappelle and for his Netflix stand-up comedy special 3 Mics (2017).

Brennan and Chappelle came together to co-create, co-write, and co-executive produce the eponymous sketch comedy Chappelle's Show which premiered in January 2003.

Brennan was nominated for three Emmy Awards in 2004 for his work on the show as a director, writer and producer.

By the end of its second season Chappelle's Show was Comedy Central's highest-rated program.

Members of the musical group the Roots worked as music directors on the second and third seasons of the show.

Brennan later recommended the band to Jimmy Fallon as his house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Chappelle's Show was doing well and Chappelle had signed a $50 million deal in 2004 to produce two more seasons, but he abruptly left the show in April 2005 prior to the premiere of the show's third season.

He left without warning Brennan or others of the show's crew.

In a 2006 interview, Brennan referred to the period of the film's release as "probably the worst year of my life, creatively and personally."

In an interview that same year on Inside the Actors Studio, Chappelle recounted how he and Brennan lost touch with each other after the release of Half Baked, saying that it was "like leaving a crime scene".

As a result, the premiere of season three was delayed; Brennan compiled the remaining sketches and aired them in July 2006 as the "lost episodes."

In 2011, Brennan, comedian Moshe Kasher, and DJ Douggpound (Doug Lussenhop) started a podcast called The Champs.

Kasher said of the podcast: "It's Doug dropping sound effects and beats over me and Neal kind of hosting an hour of ridiculous chat. We have a rotating black guy guest, there's a different black guest every week."

Guests on the show included actor/comedians Wayne Brady, Chris Rock, Mario Joyner, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, David Alan Grier, adult film star Lexington Steele, rapper Too $hort, and professional basketball player Blake Griffin.

On occasion the show has strayed from its regular format with guests such as comedian and actor Bobby Lee, former pornographic actress Sasha Grey, former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco, and comedian/actor Aziz Ansari.