Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert (born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host.

His father, James William Colbert Jr.., was an immunologist and medical school dean at Yale University, Saint Louis University, and finally at the Medical University of South Carolina, where, from 1969, he served as the school's first vice president of academic affairs.

Stephen's mother, Lorna Elizabeth Colbert (née Tuck), was a homemaker.

In interviews, Colbert has described his parents as devout people who also strongly valued intellectualism, and taught their children it was possible to question the church, and still be Catholic.

He has said his father was interested in French humanist writers such as Léon Bloy and Jacques Maritain, while his mother was fond of Catholic Worker Movement's leader Dorothy Day.

In an interview, Lorna has described Stephen as rambunctious.

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.

Colbert sometimes jokingly claims that his surname is French.

On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and his brothers Peter and Paul, who were closest to him in age, died 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.

He has discussed the impact on him and his philosophy of grief and suffering.

Lorna Colbert relocated the family from James Island to the George Chisolm House, in downtown Charleston, and ran the carriage house as a bed and breakfast.

Colbert found the transition difficult and did not easily make friends in his new neighborhood.

Colbert later described himself during this time as detached, lacking a sense of importance regarding the things with which other children concerned themselves.

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.

He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since September 2015.

Colbert originally studied to be a dramatic actor, but became interested in improvisational theater while attending Northwestern University, where he met Second City director Del Close.

Colbert first performed professionally as an understudy for Steve Carell at Second City Chicago, where his troupemates included Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, comedians with whom he developed the sketch comedy series Exit 57.

He wrote and performed on The Dana Carvey Show before collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello again on the television series Strangers with Candy.

He gained attention for his role on the latter as closeted gay history teacher Chuck Noblet.

Colbert's work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's news-parody series The Daily Show gained him wide recognition.

In 2005, he left The Daily Show to host The Colbert Report.

Following The Daily Show's news-parody concept, The Colbert Report was a parody of personality-driven political opinion shows including The O'Reilly Factor, in which he portrayed a caricatured version of conservative political pundits, earning Colbert an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2006, which he did in character.

This event led to the series becoming one of Comedy Central's highest-rated series.

Colbert was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2006 and 2012.

His book I Am America (And So Can You!) was listed No.1 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2007.

Colbert was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of eleven children in a Catholic family.

He spent his early years in Bethesda, Maryland.

He grew up in the Charleston, South Carolina, suburb of James Island.

Colbert and his siblings, in descending order by age, are James III, Edward, Mary, William, Margo, Thomas, Jay, Elizabeth, Paul, Peter, and Stephen.

Stephen's brother Edward, an intellectual-property attorney, retained ; this was shown in a February 12, 2009, appearance on The Colbert Report, when his second-oldest brother asked him, " or ?"

Ed responded "", to which Stephen jokingly replied, "See you in Hell".

After ending The Colbert Report, he was hired in 2015 to succeed retiring David Letterman as host of the Late Show on CBS.

His ancestry though is actually 15/16ths Irish, and one of his paternal great-great-grandmothers was of German and English descent.

He hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2017.

Colbert has won nine Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and three Peabody Awards.

Many of his ancestors emigrated from Ireland to North America in the 19th century before and during the Great Famine.

Originally, his surname was pronounced in English; Stephen Colbert's father, James, wanted to pronounce the name , but maintained the pronunciation out of respect for his own father.

He offered his children the option to pronounce the name whichever way they preferred.

Stephen started using 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.