| Intro | American screenwriter |
| A.K.A. | Colin Kelly Jost |
| Is |
Screenwriter Actor |
| From | United States of America |
| Type | Film, TV, Stage & Radio |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 29 June 1982, Staten Island, New York City, New York, U.S.A. |
| Age: | 38 years |
Colin Kelly Jost (, born June 29, 1982) is an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He is known for his work on Saturday Night Live, where he has served as a writer since 2005 and “Weekend Update” co-anchor since 2014. He also served as one of the show’s co-head writers from 2012 to 2015, and it was announced that he would come back as one of the show’s head writers in December 2017.
Early life
Colin Jost was born and raised on Staten Island, New York. He has one brother, Casey Jost, who had a role in Staten Island Summer and is a writer for Impractical Jokers. His mother, Kerry J. Kelly, was the chief medical officerfor the New York City Fire Department and a physician on Staten Island, and his father, Daniel A. Jost, is an engineer and former teacher at Staten Island Technical High School. Jost was raised Roman Catholic. He attended Regis High School in Manhattan, where he was the editor of the school newspaper, The Owl, and Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Lampoon.
Career
While at Harvard, Jost won $5,250 on a college-edition of The Weakest Link. Shortly after graduating from Harvard, Jost was hired as a writer at NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 2005 at 22 years old and later became SNL’s writing supervisor from 2009-12, before becoming co-head writer from 2012-15 and regained that status in late 2017. He often collaborates with fellow SNL co-head writer Rob Klein. During the summer hiatus following the 2012-13 season, he was asked by executive producer Lorne Michaels if he could do the “Weekend Update” feature, as co-anchor Seth Meyers would soon be leaving to host Late Night With Seth Meyers. Jost accepted and replaced Meyers with the March 1, 2014, episode. Jost names Norm Macdonald as a primary influence for his “Update” anchor work, as Macdonald’s tone was the one Jost grew up with in high school. He also names Tina Fey as an influence. In addition to Weekend Update, Jost made a brief cameo appearance as Ohio Governor John Kasich in a Republican presidential debate sketch.
As a stand-up comedian, Colin has appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon as well as on TBS and HBO. He was selected as a “New Face” at the Montréal Just for Laughs festival in 2009, and has since appeared several times at the Chicago Just for Laughs festival (2011 and 2012) and the Montréal festival (2010 and 2012). Jost has published three “Shouts and Murmurs” pieces in The New Yorker magazine, in addition to writing for The New York Times Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Staten Island Advance and Radar.
Jost wrote the screenplay and played a minor role in the 2015 comedy film Staten Island Summer. He also played a minor role as Paul in the 2016 romcom feature How to Be Single.
Awards and honors
Jost has been nominated for nine Emmy Awards. He won a Peabody Award in 2009 and four Writers Guild (WGA) awards (2007, 2009, 2010, and 2017) for his work on Saturday Night Live.
He was named a Breakout Artist by Carolines on Broadway in 2011.