Jim Gaffigan

James Christopher Gaffigan (born July 7, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using little profanity in his routines, although he does use it from time to time. He has released twelve successful comedy specials, including Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, and Quality Time, all of which have received Grammy nominations.

Gaffigan's memoir Dad Is Fat (2013) and book Food: A Love Story (2014) were both published by Crown Publishers. He co-created and starred in the TV Land series The Jim Gaffigan Show, based on his life. He is married to actress, producer and writer Jeannie Gaffigan, with whom he has five children.

Early life Gaffigan was born on July 7, 1966, in Elgin, Illinois, the youngest of six children born to charity worker and fundraiser Marcia Miriam (née Mitchell) and banker Michael Ambrose Gaffigan. Of Irish descent, his family's surname was Gavahan. and often jokes about growing up in a large family. She died of cancer in 1990 at age 53. A former seminarian, he was also actively involved in local charity work. He died of lung cancer in 1999. However, at about the age of five, Gaffigan announced that he wanted to be an actor.

As a teenager, Gaffigan watched Saturday Night Live. He played football at Georgetown and Purdue. Although he "hated" studying finance, he worked as a litigation consultant for a short time after graduating and "was horrible at it".

Career

Stand-up

Gaffigan moved to New York in 1990 to pursue comedy, His career began in earnest when a friend from his acting class dared him to take a stand-up seminar that required a live set at the end. He was often found sleeping at his day job; his boss had to wake him up to fire him. Gaffigan did a successful stand-up routine on the show in 1999, and his career took off. He has now largely removed profanity from his routine, as he feels his subject matter doesn't lend itself to cursing and that it reduced the effort he put into crafting his jokes.

In 2004, Gaffigan's stand-up material was featured in Comedy Central's animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties. In October 2005, he filmed a live Comedy Central special that aired the following January, His 2009 album King Baby was also a television special filmed in Austin, Texas, at the end of his "The Sexy Tour". Comedy Central released King Baby on DVD. In a March 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Gaffigan defended his naming of the tour, stating that he thought it would be funny that parents would be unsure about whether to bring their teenage children to the show. Four years later, on March 14, 2013, Gaffigan was named the "King of Clean" by the Wall Street Journal.

On February 25, 2012, Gaffigan taped a one-hour stand-up special—Mr. Universe—at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C.; it was nominated for a Grammy. an organization that provides support to military veterans. In 2012, he was among the top-ten grossing comics in the US, according to Pollstar. Obsessed premiered on Comedy Central on April 27 becoming the most watched stand-up comedy special of the year for the network. The accompanying album, also titled Obsessed, debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the Billboard Comedy Album charts. 2015 saw him embark on a headlining tour, culminating in a winter show at Madison Square Garden. Gaffigan performed at the 2013 Stand Up for Heroes charity event benefitting the Bob Woodruff Foundation alongside fellow stand-up comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby and Jon Stewart. Gaffigan also performed at the 2013 CNN Heroes event, which celebrates everyday heroes doing extraordinary work around the world. In May 2014, Gaffigan performed at the Make It Right Gala, an organization founded by Brad Pitt, which builds sustainable homes and buildings for communities in need. On September 26, 2015, he performed at the Festival of Families, a Catholic event held in Philadelphia. Gaffigan was the only comedian on the bill at the festival, and the event was visited by Pope Francis. The event had more than one million attendees.

Gaffigan embarked on his Fully Dressed Tour in 2016, performing in the United States, Canada, and the UK.

Gaffigan has appeared at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, Quebec, numerous times.

Gaffigan has also pioneered exploring new and different platforms for his comedy specials. He was one of the first comedians to experiment with limited theatrical and website releases of comedy specials. He had the first original stand-up comedy special released on both Amazon's Prime video (Noble Ape, 2018) and Hulu (The Skinny, 2024).

On July 29, 2020, Gaffigan was announced as the first stand-up comic to hit over one billion streams on Pandora.com.

On November 23, 2025, Gaffigan released Live from Old Forester—The Bourbon Set as a surprise drop on his YouTube channel, which has garnered 4.7 million views. It was documented at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville. Gaffigan has described the show as a passion project stemming from his recent obsession with bourbon and love for the whiskey community.

Influences Gaffigan credits David Letterman and Bill Murray as influences, and asserted that Richard Pryor was the greatest stand-up comedian ever.

On the episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee featuring Gaffigan, he admitted that the show's host Jerry Seinfeld was a big influence for him.

Reception Gaffigan is widely noted as an everyman and a clean comic;

Acting I did my set, I walked off stage and they said the executive producer wants to meet you up in his office. I thought maybe it was going to be something good. I thought maybe Dave wants me to be a writer. But they wanted me to develop my own show. source=Jim Gaffigan, Laugh Spin interview, 2005 He also performed in a trio of Sierra Mist commercials for the 2007 Super Bowl as part of the comedy ensemble "The Mis-Takes". He appeared in an ad series for Sierra Mist alongside fellow comedian Michael Ian Black.

After his first appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1999, Gaffigan was tapped by the host to develop a sitcom called Welcome to New York in which he also co-starred alongside Christine Baranski. During the 2000/2001 TV season, he was a cast member of The Ellen Show on CBS, Ellen DeGeneres's second sitcom. He appeared in two movies chosen for the 2001 Sundance Film Festival: Super Troopers and 30 Years to Life. He appeared on That '70s Show, and was a regular cast member of the TBS original sitcom My Boys, which he left at the end of its third season.

In 2008, he appeared in the movie The Love Guru starring Mike Myers.

In 2009, Gaffigan guest-starred as the best friend of Murray Hewitt in an episode of the HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords. Later that year, he appeared in the Sam Mendes–directed dramedy Away We Go and the teen comedy 17 Again. On June 11, 2009, Gaffigan appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. He appeared on Law & Order episodes "Flight" and "Reality Bites", and in the "Smile" episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Gaffigan was in an episode of The Daily Show as a man posing as a Daily Show correspondent who knows nothing about the show (he refers to it as "The John Daily Show") and just wants to be seen with Jon Stewart. It was meant as a parody of the 2009 White House gatecrash incident.

Gaffigan appeared on Broadway in That Championship Season, which opened in March 2011, opposite Brian Cox, Chris Noth, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jason Patric. ABC News correspondent Sandy Kenyon praised his performance as "the most moving" and said that he "may steal the show". Gaffigan called being on Broadway "an amazing experience, really hard but really fun". Reflecting on the incident in an interview for The Daily Beast, Gaffigan said, "There's no greater sin in the stand-up world than thievery...So you do not want to be associated with thievery," but added, "I don't have any hard feelings about it because I don't think people think I had anything to do with it."

In the 2010s, Gaffigan, his wife, and Peter Tolan began to develop material for a show based loosely on their own life. CBS agreed to shoot a pilot of their show in March 2013, with casting by Marc Hirschfeld, and Mira Sorvino playing his wife; When the cable network TV Land began efforts to broadcast original material and attract younger audiences, it offered the Gaffigans complete creative control. The result was The Jim Gaffigan Show, a sitcom about a couple raising their five kids in a two-bedroom New York City apartment. After the release of two online-only episodes in June 2015, the pilot episode aired on July 15, 2015. The show stars Gaffigan as a fictionalized version of himself, with his wife Jeannie played by Ashley Williams. Other characters include their real-estate agent (and Jeannie's best friend) Daniel (played by Michael Ian Black), Jim's fellow comic and best friend Dave (Adam Goldberg), and their priest, Father Nicholas (Tongayi Chirisa). After 2 seasons of the show, in 2016 Jim and his wife Jeannie decided not to continue with a third season so they could spend more time with their kids.

Gaffigan co-starred in the film Experimenter, a fictionalized account of the experiments of the Yale professor Stanley Milgram. Gaffigan plays an actor hired to collaborate in the experiments. replacing Norm Macdonald.

Since April 8, 2016, Gaffigan has appeared with his family in a marketing campaign for the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica.

In October 2016, it was announced Gaffigan would be joining the cast of the third season of the anthology drama series Fargo. However, he was ultimately forced to drop out due to scheduling difficulties; he was replaced by Mark Forward. In 2018, he portrayed Paul Markham in the biographical drama Chappaquiddick, starring Jason Clarke and Kate Mara, to positive reviews. Gaffigan next took on the lead role in the 2018 neo-noir film American Dreamer, which was released on September 20, 2019. Gaffigan's dark portrayal of a broken man driven to desperate actions was very well received by critics, with the Chicago Sun-Times review calling it "a career-best dramatic performance" by Gaffigan.

Gaffigan co-starred in three movies premiering at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, includingTroop Zero directed by Bert and Bertie and co-starring Viola Davis and Allison Janney, Them That Follow and Light From Light.

Gaffigan portrayed George Westinghouse in Michael Almereyda's 2020 film Tesla. Also that year, Gaffigan was announced to provide the voice of Thunderbolt in season two of Stargirl. By season three, the role recast to Seth Green.

In January 2021, he joined the cast of Disney's Peter Pan & Wendy as Mr. Smee. In 2021, Gaffigan voiced Lorenzo Paguro in the Pixar film Luca. That year, Gaffigan was on the Sundance Film Festival Jury.

In 2024, Gaffigan began appearing on Saturday Night Live to portray Democratic nominee for vice president Tim Walz. His portrayal of Walz was widely praised.

Gaffigan appears as President Grover Cleveland in the fourth season of HBO's The Gilded Age.

In 2026, Gaffigan co-starred in Joshua Caldwell' s Three People In The Woods, with Katherine McPhee and Henry Thomas. He was also in Blaise Bayhan's New England Toys with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jason Schwartzmann, and Crosshairs with Alec Bladwin directed by Mukunda Michael Dewil. Gaffigan was reunited with director Colin West on the film Outside of Cleveland, with Alex Wolff and Sarah Wayne Callies.

Animation Gaffigan is also noted for his voice-over work. He voiced an animated version of himself on Pale Force with Conan O'Brien from 2005 to 2008. He has also voiced characters on the animated shows Bob's Burgers, Shorty McShorts' Shorts, WordGirl, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and the animated feature Duck Duck Goose.

Writing alt=Gaffigan standing next to a car reading "JIM GAFFIGAN / FOR PRESIDENT" Gaffigan produced a series of animated shorts for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, titled Pale Force (2005–2008). The animated sketches featured Gaffigan and O'Brien as superheroes who fight crime with their extremely pale skin.

Gaffigan's humorous quips have earned him over two and a half million followers on Twitter. He was listed by Rolling Stone as one of the "25 funniest people on Twitter" in 2012.

In 2013, Gaffigan released Dad Is Fat, a title derived from the first complete sentence his eldest son wrote on a dry-erase board at the age of four or five. "He showed it to me," Gaffigan recalled in an interview, "and I laughed, and then I put him up for adoption." In support of the volume, he appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, ABC's The View, and MSNBC's Morning Joe, spoke at BEA in New York, and embarked on a nine-stop bus tour that ended on Father's Day.

It debuted at number five on The New York Times Best Seller list, remaining on the list for three months. The book received tepid reviews from critics. Kirkus Reviews said of the book that it's "hardly groundbreaking comedy material, but the book will appeal to Gaffigan's fans". Lou Harry of the Indianapolis Business Journal said that while "no new ground is broken in Jim Gaffigan's book...'Dad is Fat' should be a fun intermezzo in your summer reading pile." Regarding the audiobook, which Gaffigan read, Audiofile said his "performance strikes the right balance between his near-deadpan comedy delivery and the energy needed to keep a beleaguered parent engaged".

Gaffigan signed with Crown Publishing in June 2013 to write a second book of comic essays. The book, Food: A Love Story, was released in Fall 2014. Publishers Weekly said the book "packs plenty of laughs". Kirkus Reviews remarked that "Gaffigan somehow manages to work 'clean' without ever becoming sickeningly saccharine," and that "laughs [are] served up just right on every page". Of the accompanying audiobook, the Library Journal said, "The witty commentary is peppered with jokes and funny stories that will have listeners smiling throughout and occasionally laughing out loud."

Prior to meeting his wife, actress Jeannie Noth, Gaffigan largely wrote alone. However, while working on his first show, Welcome to New York, he was overwhelmed and asked for input from her (then his friend). Although initially hesitant to have a collaborator, as their relationship grew, so did Noth's ability to write material for him. Once they married, she left behind her work with her youth theater project (Shakespeare on the Playground) to devote herself to raising their expanding brood, and after a joke she wrote drew big laughs at a show, she and Jim began to collaborate more. She gradually transferred into the position of Jim's chief co-writer, and they are now full writing partners. She has been a credited writer and/or executive producer on all his comedy endeavors since Beyond the Pale, including his two books and television show. He is also a regular commentator on CBS Sunday Morning, for which he won a Daytime Emmy in 2016.

Personal life

Gaffigan married actress Jeannie Gaffigan (née Noth) in 2003. The family of seven lived in a two-bedroom apartment in the Manhattan borough of New York City before moving to a larger Manhattan home in 2015.

To stay connected to his family, Gaffigan tries to "maintain bedtime rituals while working in the city". When on tour, he reportedly takes his family with him. Jack has opened for his father's shows on occasion.

Gaffigan is a practicing Catholic and has said he avoids working on Sundays, He and his family attend Mass at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Manhattan, which is also where he and his wife were married and where their children were baptized. In May 2016, he and his wife delivered the commencement address at the Catholic University of America. They also delivered the commencement address at his wife's alma mater, Marquette University, in May 2018. They both received honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees as part of the graduation ceremony.

In 2019, Gaffigan apologized on social media after endorsing the "Moriori First" myth in one of his stand-up shows. The myth falsely claims that Māori displaced the Moriori as the first people of New Zealand, and has been used to justify white settler colonialism. Gaffigan also made disparaging remarks about Māori people, which were described as "offensive" and "ignorant" on New Zealand social media.

In 2024, Gaffigan launched his own bourbon whiskey company, Fathertime Bourbon. The brand features a cask strength 121 proof bourbon called "Empty Nester Strength" and also a milder 92.4 proof version called "The Caboose". Fathertime Bourbon won the Best New Bourbon award in the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Discography

Stand-Up Specials

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 1998 The Real Howard Spitz Storekeeper 1999 Personals Waiter Entropy Bucky Three Kings Cuts Troy's Cuff Soldier Puppet Mr. Kamen 2001 Super Troopers Larry Johnson 30 Years to Life Russell Final Dayton 2002 Hacks Arty Hittle No Sleep 'til Madison Owen Igby Goes Down Hilton Manager 2003 Season of Youth Dr. Gelding 2004 13 Going on 30 Chris Grandy Duane Incarnate Bob 2005 The Great New Wonderful Sandie Trust the Man Gordon 2006 Stephanie Daley Joe Daley 2007 The Living Wake Lampert Binew 2008 The Love Guru Trent Lueders Shoot First and Pray You Live (Because Luck Has Nothing to Do with It) Mart Ryder 2009 The Slammin' Salmon Stanley Bellin 17 Again Coach Murphy Away We Go Lowell2010 Ten Stories Tall Simon Going the Distance Phil It's Kind of a Funny Story George 2011 Salvation Boulevard Jerry Hobson 2012 Howard Cantour.com Howard Cantour Short film 2013 Kilimanjaro Bill2015 Walter Corey Experimenter James McDonough Hot Pursuit Red Staten Island Summer Danny's Father 2016 Chuck John Stoehr 2017 Chappaquiddick Paul F. Markham 2018 Duck Duck Goose Peng Voice role Being Frank Frank Hansen Super Troopers 2 Larry Johnson Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation Abraham Van Helsing Voice role American Dreamer Cam2019 Them That Follow Zeke Slaughter Light from Light Richard Troop Zero Ramsey The Day Shall Come Lemmy Drunk Parents Carl Mancini Above the Shadows Paul Jederman Playmobil: The Movie Del Voice role 2020 Tesla George Westinghouse Most Wanted Picker 2021 Luca Lorenzo Paguro Voice role 2022 Hotel Transylvania: Transformania Abraham Van Helsing Collide Peter Linoleum Cameron Edwin/Kent Armstrong Susie Searches Sheriff Loggins 2023 Peter Pan & Wendy Mr. Smee 2024Unfrosted Edsel Kellogg IIIGreedy PeopleThe Irishman Running on EmptyBarry An Almost Christmas Story Papa Owl Voice role; short film2025 Maintenance Required Mr. Miller

Television Year Title Role Notes 1998 Soul Man Keats Episode: "Raising Heck" Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist Jim Episode: "Old Man" 1998, 2009 Law & Order Larry Johnson / George Rozakis 2 episodes 1998 Conrad Bloom Oliver Episode: "How Florrie Got Her Groove Back" 1999 LateLine The Del-Ex Kid Episode: "Pearce on Conan" 2000 Third Watch Portis Episode: "Journey to the Himalayas" Comedy Central Presents Jim Gaffigan 1 episode Cry Baby Lane Dan Television film 2000–01 Welcome to New York Jim Gaffigan 13 episodes 2001 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Oliver Tunney Episode: "Countdown" Sex and the City Doug Episode: "Defining Moments" 2001–02 The Ellen Show Rusty Carnouk 18 episodes 2002 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Marty Palin / Russell Matthews 2 episodes 2003 Hope & Faith Brad Episode: "Anger Management" 2003–04 Ed Toby Gibbons 4 episodes That '70s Show Roy Keene 7 episodes 2004 Bad Apple ButtersTelevision film Strip Search Reverend Craig Peterson The Jury Mr. Nifco Episode: "Mail Order Mystery" 2005 Cheap Seats Jerome Block Episode: "Gimmick Sports" 2006 Love, Inc. Jamie Episode: "Anything But Love" Shorty McShorts' Shorts Og, Henrichven (voice) Episode: "My Mom Married A Yeti" 2006–09 My Boys Andy Franklin 40 episodes 2009 Flight of the Conchords Jim Episode: "Murray Takes It to the Next Level" WordGirl Mr. Dudley (voice) 3 episodes 2010 Bored to Death Drug Counsellor Episode: "Super Ray Is Mortal!" 2011 Royal Pains Pete Stanbleck Episode: "Astraphobia" 2012–13 Portlandia Donald 2 episodes 2013–24 Bob's Burgers Henry Haber (voice) 7 episodes 2014 Us & Them Theo 2 episodes 2015 Wallykazam! Mr. Trollman (voice) Episode: "Rock and Troll" 2015–19 Star vs. the Forces of Evil Father Time / additional voices 3 episodes 2015–16 The Jim Gaffigan Show Himself 23 episodes; also co-creator, writer, executive producer2016Comedians in Cars Getting CoffeeHimselfEpisode: "Stick Around for the Pope" 2017 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Officer Krupke Episode: "Kimmy Bites an Onion!" GilbertHimselfDocumentary 2019 Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Himself (voice) Episode: "The Fastest Fast Food Fiend!" 2021 Stargirl Thunderbolt (voice) 2 episodes Rick and Morty Hoovy (voice) Episode: "Mort Dinner Rick Andre" 2022 Reindeer in Here Santa Claus (voice) Television special 2023 Full Circle Manny Broward Miniseries 2024 Jersey Shore: Family Vacation Himself Episode: "Jets Day" Hit-Monkey Snail (voice) Episode: "Never Too Late" Saturday Night Live Tim Walz 4 episodes

Awards and nominations

On April 26, 2014, Gaffigan received the award for Concert Comedian at the American Comedy Awards for his work.

In 2007, Pale Force was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Broadband Program in the Comedy category. Gaffigan served as executive producer, writer, and lead actor.

In 2016, he won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Morning Program for his contributions as a commentator to CBS Sunday Morning.

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Gaffigan has been nominated eight times.

Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 2013 Best Comedy Album Mr. Universe 2015 Obsessed 2018 Cinco 2019 Noble Ape 2020 Quality Time 2021 The Pale Tourist 2023 Comedy Monster 2025 The Prisoner