PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: comedian
American actor and director
Woody Allen, American motion-picture director, screenwriter, actor, comedian, playwright, and author, best known for his bittersweet comic films containing elements of parody, slapstick, and the absurd...
British actor, director, writer, and composer
Charlie Chaplin, British comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion-picture history....
American actor and entertainer
Bob Hope, British-born American entertainer and comic actor known for his rapid-fire delivery of jokes and one-liners and for his success in virtually all entertainment media. He was also known for his...
American actor and writer
Steve Martin, American comedian, writer, and producer who began his career as a stand-up comic and eventually achieved success in motion pictures, on television, on Broadway, and in literature. Martin...
American comedian
Lenny Bruce, American stand-up comic and social satirist during the 1950s and early ’60s. Although public authorities increasingly denounced his performances as dirty and sick and courts across the United...
American entertainer and producer
Bill Cosby, American comedian, actor, and producer who played a major role in the development of a more-positive portrayal of Blacks on television but whose sterling reputation was tarnished by dozens...
American comedian and actor
Robin Williams, American comedian and actor known for his manic stand-up routines and his diverse film performances. He won an Academy Award for his role in Good Will Hunting (1997). Williams’s father,...
American talk-show host
David Letterman, American late-night talk-show personality, producer, and comedian, best known as the host of the long-running Late Show with David Letterman. After graduating from Ball State University...
American comedian, musician, and actor
Jamie Foxx, American comedian, musician, and actor, who became known for his impersonations on the television sketch-comedy show In Living Color and later proved himself a versatile film actor, especially...
American actor and comedian
Billy Crystal, American actor, writer, director, and comedian, known for a highly expressive manner that lent itself to a wide range of comedic characters. Crystal, whose father was a jazz promoter and...
American comedian and actor
Chris Rock , American comedian whose popular stand-up routine—which often addressed racial matters—led to a successful film career. Rock grew up in the impoverished Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn,...
Italian comedian and social critic
Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian and social critic who cofounded the Five Star Movement, a political party in Italy that espoused a broadly populist, antiestablishment platform. Grillo grew up in working-class...
American comedian
Adam Sandler, American comedian known for his portrayal of infantile but endearing characters. Sandler was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, the youngest of four children. Academically disinclined,...
American comedian, writer, director, and producer
Louis C.K., American comedian, writer, director, and producer known for his ribald confessional stand-up comedy and for his television show Louie. Szekely was raised in Mexico City until age seven, when...
American comedian and actor
Dave Chappelle, American comedian and actor who was best known for cocreating, writing, and starring in the groundbreaking television sketch comedy program Chappelle’s Show (2003–06). Chappelle’s childhood...
Japanese actor, director, writer, and television personality
Kitano Takeshi, Japanese actor, director, writer, and television personality who was known for his dexterity with both comedic and dramatic material. Kitano was born into a working-class family in Tokyo....
American entertainer
Rosie O’Donnell, American actress of film, television, and stage who was perhaps best known for her hosting duties on the talk shows The Rosie O’Donnell Show (1996–2002) and The View (2006–07; 2014–15)....
American actor and comedian
Bob Newhart, American comedian and actor who achieved fame as a stand-up performer and later starred in television sitcoms. He was known for his genial mild-mannered persona and for his skillfully delivered...
Canadian comedian and actor
Jim Carrey , Canadian American comedian who established himself as a leading comedic actor with a series of over-the-top performances and who won plaudits for his more-serious portrayals as his career...
American comedian and writer
Jay Leno, American comedian and writer who became host of The Tonight Show (1992–2009, 2010–14). Leno was raised in Andover, Massachusetts. While attending Emerson College in Boston, where he graduated...
American comedian and author
Chelsea Handler, American comedian and author known for her earthy, bawdy style and her late-night talk show, Chelsea Lately (2007–14). Handler grew up in New Jersey, the youngest of six siblings. As a...
American comedian
Jonathan Winters, American comedian who used sound effects, facial contortions, a gift for mimicry, and breakneck improvisational skills to entertain nightclub, radio, television, and film audiences. He...
American comedian, writer, and director
Jon Stewart, American comedian, writer, and director who was best known for hosting (1999–2015) the satiric television news program The Daily Show. Stewart graduated from the College of William & Mary...
American comedian and actor
Don Rickles, American comedian and actor known for a cheerfully belligerent brand of humour that relied heavily on ad-libbed insults and broad cultural stereotypes. Rickles grew up in Jackson Heights,...
American comedian and television host
Ellen DeGeneres, American comedian and television host known for her quirky observational humour. DeGeneres briefly attended the University of New Orleans, where she majored in communications. Dissatisfied...
Norwegian performer
Shabana Rehman, Pakistani-born Norwegian performer and comedian who courted controversy with her satirical reflections on Islam and the cultural divide that set apart Norway’s Muslim community. Shortly...
American actress and comedian
Mo’Nique, American actress, stand-up comedian, and talk-show host known for her bawdy humour and dramatic gravitas. Mo’Nique, the youngest of four children, was raised in Baltimore county. At her brother’s...
American comedian and actor
Ray Romano, American comedian and actor perhaps best known as the bumbling well-intentioned father in the television show Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005), a witty and insightful portrayal of the quotidian...
American comedian
Flip Wilson, American comedian whose comedy variety show, The Flip Wilson Show, was one of the first television shows hosted by an African American to be a ratings success. The show ran from 1970 to 1974,...
American comedian
Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian whose television show Seinfeld (1989–98) was a landmark of American popular culture in the late 20th century. Seinfeld’s interest in comedy was sparked at an early age...
American comedian and civil rights activist
Dick Gregory, American comedian, civil rights activist, and spokesman for health issues, who became nationally recognized in the 1960s for a biting brand of comedy that attacked racial prejudice. By addressing...
American entertainer
Joan Rivers, American entertainer who launched her career in show business in the 1960s as a raspy-voiced no-holds-barred nightclub and television comic and who was especially known for skewering both...
American comedian and talk-show host
Bill Maher, American comedian and talk-show host known for his acerbic political commentary. Maher grew up in River Vale, New Jersey. As a boy, he idolized The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson but hid his...
American comedian
George Carlin, American comedian whose “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the right to determine...
American comedienne and actress
Phyllis Diller, American comedienne and actress who was one of the first female stand-up comics, noted for her zany and raucous personality and self-deprecating humour. Her routine often included barbs...
American actor and comedian
Eddie Murphy, American comedian, actor, and singer who was a dominant comedic voice in the United States during the 1980s. His comedy was largely personal and observational and at times raunchy and cruel....
American comedian and actress
Roseanne Barr, American comedian and actress who achieved stardom with the popular and innovative television situation comedy Roseanne (1988–97; 2018). After dropping out of high school in her native Salt...
American ventriloquist
Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist and radio comedian whose career in vaudeville, radio, and motion pictures spanned almost 60 years. Bergen was best known as the foil of his ventriloquist’s dummy Charlie...
American comedian and actor
Richard Pryor, American comedian and actor, who was one of the leading comics of the 1970s and ’80s. His comedy routines drew on a variety of downtrodden urban characters, rendered with brutal emotional...
American actor and comedian
Redd Foxx, American comedian known for his raunchy stand-up routines. His style of comedy, which featured foul language and highly adult subject matter, influenced generations of comics. He was also a...
American actor and comedian
Nipsey Russell, American actor and comedian known for the clever impromptu verses that he created for his television appearances. Russell was raised in Atlanta, where he began performing as a child in...
American actor
W.C. Fields, actor whose flawless timing and humorous cantankerousness made him one of America’s greatest comedians. His real-life and screen personalities were often indistinguishable, and he is remembered...
American comedian
Jerry Lewis, American comedian, actor, and director whose unrestrained comic style made him one of the most popular performers of the 1950s and ’60s. Lewis was born into a vaudeville family, and at age...
American comedian
Stephen Colbert, American actor and comedian who was best known as the host of The Colbert Report (2005–14), an ironic send-up of television news programs, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015–...
American actor
Buster Keaton, American film comedian and director, the “Great Stone Face” of the silent screen, known for his deadpan expression and his imaginative and often elaborate visual comedy. (Read Lillian Gish’s...
American actor and writer
Will Ferrell, American comedy actor, writer, and producer known for his impersonations and for his portrayal of dim-witted but endearing characters. Ferrell grew up in suburban Irvine, California, where...
American comedian and actor
Steve Carell, American comedian and actor known for both his television work—most notably on The Daily Show and The Office—and his numerous films. After graduating from Denison University in Granville,...
British actor
Peter Sellers, versatile English comic actor whose astonishing range of characters earned him international stardom at a time when rigid typecasting was usual. Sellers was a descendant of legendary Portuguese-Jewish...
American actor, writer, and director
Ben Stiller, American actor, writer, and director, one of the leading movie stars of the early 21st century, known for his comic portrayal of neurotic or aggrieved characters. Stiller was the son of Jerry...
American actor
Jackie Gleason, American comedian best known for his portrayal of Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. Growing up in the slums of Brooklyn, Gleason frequently attended vaudeville shows,...