 A New Jersey native, Jon Stewart is considered one of
America's top social and comedic voices. From his anchor chair of Comedy
Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," he "has breathed new life into a
show that hadn't even seemed to need it," said The New York Times. Since taking
over as the anchorman of "The Daily Show" in January 1999, Jon Stewart's
presence has seen higher ratings and awareness for himself and Comedy Central.
With an election year, Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" were
poised to lead the way to the White House as the torch bearers of Comedy
Central's "Indecision 2000" election coverage. "Indecision 2000" covered the
elections, debates and candidates from the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary
straight through to the National Conventions and culminated on Election Night
with a one-hour special.
Prior to taking over "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart's most
recent television work was on HBO's critically acclaimed series-within-a-series,
"The Larry Sanders Show," playing a character he should know very well: himself.
The final season saw, among other things, Jon Stewart seemingly being groomed to
take over the fictitious late-night throne from the perpetually paranoid Larry
Sanders (Garry Shandling). Jon Stewart also served as a creative consultant on
the series.
On the feature film front, Jon Stewart starred with Adam
Sandler in one of 1999's biggest hits "Big Daddy." He also starred in the
romantic drama "Playing by Heart" opposite Gillian Anderson which marked a
departure for Jon Stewart in that he was allowed to show more of a dramatic side
of himself than people are accustomed to seeing. Jon Stewartt also starred in
"The Faculty," a horror-comedy directed by Robert Rodriguez.
While it may be the conventional route for stand-up comedians
to sign a book deal and expound on their early days inside dingy comedy clubs,
Jon Stewart took the path less traveled with his debut book, "Naked Pictures of
Famous People" (Rob Weisbach Books). A collection of fictitious and humorous
what-if essays, "Naked Pictures" has appeared on many best-sellers lists
including The New York Times Best-Seller List.
Jon Stewart returned to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"
following the September 11th attack on our nation and shared his insight
regarding the recent tragedies with his viewers. For all those who witnessed
this fine moment, it was touching and eloquently delivered.
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