Anthony Jeselnik

Anthony Jeselnik ( ; born December 22, 1978) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and producer. He is known for his dark comedy style, which emphasizes ironic misdirection, non sequiturs, biting insults, an arrogant demeanor, and a stage persona that frequently takes amoral stances.

Jeselnik was a writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in its first season and hosted a Comedy Central Presents in 2009. After releasing his critically acclaimed debut album Shakespeare in 2010, he began writing for the Comedy Central Roasts and moved up to performer in the 2011 roast of Donald Trump. He continued to perform on the roasts of Charlie Sheen and Roseanne Barr in 2012. In 2013, he hosted his own Comedy Central series for two seasons, The Jeselnik Offensive, and released his second album, Caligula, which doubles as an hour-long stand-up special.

On July 22, 2015, Jeselnik replaced J. B. Smoove as the new host of NBC's Emmy Award-nominated series Last Comic Standing. His second stand-up special, Thoughts and Prayers, premiered in October 2015 on Netflix; his third, Fire in the Maternity Ward, premiered on Netflix in April 2019; his fourth, Bones and All, premiered on Netflix in November 2024. Jeselnik starred in the first season of the NFL Media podcast The Rosenthal & Jeselnik Vanity Project (or RJVP) along with best friend Gregg Rosenthal. The second season debuted in 2018 on the Comedy Central Podcast Network under the slightly different name of The Jeselnik & Rosenthal Vanity Project (or JRVP).

Early life Anthony Jeselnik grew up the oldest of five children in a Catholic family in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. His father was a lawyer and his mother a housewife.

Jeselnik was interested in making others laugh from an early age. In elementary school, he would often interrupt the class to tell a joke. On one occasion, a classmate was moving to a different town that was not generally regarded well, and Jeselnik cracked a sarcastic comment: "Oh, well, send us a postcard."

Jeselnik first tried standup in the early 2000s, while in his early 20s, after moving to Los Angeles and taking a day job at a Borders. He found a book by writer and comedian Greg Dean that promoted Dean's Santa Monica comedy workshops. and Steven Wright, it was two years into his stand-up comedy career when Jeselnik had a "lightbulb moment".

At the Comedy Cellar, Jeselnik was influenced by how comedians derided each other, especially Jim Norton, Colin Quinn, Bobby Kelly, and Keith Robinson.

Career Jeselnik's Comedy Central Presents stand-up special premiered in 2009, and he was named one of Comedy Central's breakout comedians of the year alongside Nick Kroll, Aziz Ansari, Whitney Cummings, Donald Glover, Matt Braunger, T. J. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jon Lajoie. In 2009, Jeselnik was hired as a writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. His dream job, predating stand-up or his first comedy class, was to sit around a table and "throw out jokes with people you respected." Jeselnik would work hard each day for the show and then proceed to go to Comedy Cellar, have a "big stiff drink", and do his act, feeling "miserable". In March 2010, he approached the show's producers and told them he wanted to leave. "We understand—you want to go be Anthony Jeselnik", they said.

Jeselnik appeared at the Power of Comedy event in November 2012.

In 2013, Jeselnik hosted his own Comedy Central series, The Jeselnik Offensive. In preparing the show, Comedy Central was looking for a half-hour, a four-nights-a-week show following The Colbert Report titled Midnight.

October 2015 saw the debut of The Rosenthal & Jeselnik Vanity Project (RJVP), a podcast available on NFL.com hosted by Jeselnik and fellow Tulane graduate, NFL Network's Gregg Rosenthal.

In 2015 Jeselnik released his critically acclaimed third stand up special, and first for Netflix, Thoughts and Prayers. The hourlong special offers Jeselnik's trademark dark humor for the first forty minutes and personal anecdotes for the last twenty. He discusses his grandmother's funeral, the Boston Marathon bombing, the cancelation of The Jeselnik Offensive, and the death threats he receives.

In September 2018 Jeselnik returned to Comedy Central, signing a multi-platform development deal which includes new episodes of a weekly podcast, The Jeselnik & Rosenthal Vanity Project (JRVP), where Jeselnik is joined by his friend and NFL Network analyst Gregg Rosenthal, and by producer and NFL Network director Erica Tamposi. , over 240 episodes have been released.

Jeselnik's fourth stand-up special, Fire in the Maternity Ward, was released by Netflix on April 30, 2019. This was followed recently by a fifth Netflix special, Bones and All, released on November 26, 2024.

Personal life Jeselnik dated comedian Amy Schumer from 2009 until 2011.

Jeselnik is an atheist. He said that he found out online that the surname Jeselnik is Slovenian.

Discography Shakespeare (2010) Caligula (2013) Thoughts and Prayers (2015) Fire in the Maternity Ward (2019) Bones and All (2024)

Filmography

Television

As writer Year Title Notes 2007 2007 MTV Movie Awards TV special 2008 Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Concert for Autism Education TV special2010 Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff TV special Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Concert for Autism Education TV special 2013 Comedy Central Roast of James Franco TV special