Louis C.K.
Louis Alfred Székely, known professionally as Louis C.K., is an American stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker. C.K. has won six Emmy Awards, and three Grammy Awards, three Critics' Choice Awards, three Peabody Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards. He was listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and Rolling Stone ranked him fourth on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
C.K. began his career in the 1990s writing for comedians including David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Dana Carvey, Chris Rock, and Saturday Night Live. He was also directing surreal short films and directed two features—Tomorrow Night and Pootie Tang. In 2001, C.K. released his debut comedy album, Live in Houston, directly through his website and became among the first performers to offer direct-to-fan sales of tickets to his stand-up shows and DRM-free video concert downloads via his website. He became prolific releasing nine comedy albums, often directing and editing his specials as well. These specials include Shameless, Chewed Up, Hilarious, and Oh My God.
He gained prominence and widespread acclaim for his FX semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series Louie, which he created, directed and starred in. The series received numerous accolades with C.K. winning two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series. In 2016, he created and starred in his self-funded web series Horace and Pete, and co-created the shows Baskets and Better Things for FX. In film, he acted in American Hustle, Blue Jasmine, Trumbo, and The Secret Life of Pets.
In 2017, he admitted to several incidents of sexual misconduct following the release of an article in The New York Times. This resulted in widespread criticism and caused his 2017 film I Love You, Daddy to be pulled from distribution prior to its release. In 2018, he returned to stand-up comedy, and in 2019, he announced an international tour. He has also released the specials Sincerely Louis C.K. and Sorry on his website, receiving a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the former. C.K. also co-wrote and directed the film Fourth of July.
Early life
Louis Alfred Székely was born in Washington, D.C., on September 12, 1967, the son of software engineer Mary Louise and economist Luis Székely. He has three sisters. His father is of Mexican and Hungarian-Jewish descent. C.K.'s Jewish paternal grandfather, Géza Székely Schweiger, had immigrated from Hungary to Mexico; he and his Mexican wife, Rosario Sánchez Morales, raised their children in the Catholic faith. C.K.'s mother, an American, was a Catholic with Irish ancestry.When C.K. was an infant, his family moved to his father's home country of Mexico, where his father had earned a degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico prior to graduating from Harvard. C.K.'s first language was Spanish; it was not until after they moved back to the U.S. when he was 7 that he began to learn English. He has said that he has since forgotten much of his Spanish. C.K.'s family left Mexico and moved back to the United States, settling in the Boston area, initially for a year in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Upon moving from Mexico to suburban Boston, C.K. wanted to become a writer and comedian, citing George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor as some of his influences. When he was 10, his parents divorced. C.K. said that his father was around but he did not see him much and when he remarried, C.K.'s father converted to Orthodox Judaism, the faith of his new wife and the birth heritage of his paternal grandfather, which his father had begun to explore while studying at Harvard. C.K. and his three sisters were raised by their single mother in Newton, Massachusetts. The fact that his mother had only "bad" TV shows to view upon returning home from work inspired him to work on television. C.K.'s mother raised their children as Catholic and they attended after-school Catholic class until they completed communion. C.K. has said that his father's whole family still lives in Mexico. C.K.'s paternal uncle Dr. Francisco Székely is an academic and an international consultant on environmental affairs who served as Mexico's Deputy Minister of Environment.
C.K. attended Newton North High School and graduated in 1985. He graduated with future Friends star Matt LeBlanc. After graduation, C.K. worked as an auto mechanic and at a public access TV cable station in Boston. According to C.K., working in public access TV gave him the tools and technical knowledge to make his short films and later his television shows. "Learning is my favorite thing", he said. He also worked for a time as a cook and in a video store.
Career
1984–1997: Career beginnings
In 1984 at 17, C.K. directed the comedic short film Trash Day. The New York University Tisch School of the Arts showed an interest in him as a filmmaker, but he instead decided to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. C.K.'s first attempt at stand-up was in 1985 at an open mic night at a comedy club in Boston, Massachusetts, during the apex of the comedy boom. He was given five minutes of time, but had only two minutes of material. He was so discouraged by the experience that he did not perform again for two years. As Boston's comedy scene grew, C.K. gradually achieved success, performing alongside acts such as Denis Leary and Lenny Clarke, and eventually he moved up to paid gigs, opening for Jerry Seinfeld and hosting comedy clubs until he moved to Manhattan in 1989. He performed his act on many televised programs, including Evening at the Improv and Star Search. C.K.'s short film Ice Cream, was submitted to the Aspen Shortsfest in 1994.In 1993, he unsuccessfully auditioned for Saturday Night Live, although he did later work with Robert Smigel, writing on the TV Funhouse shorts for the program. C.K.'s earliest writing job was for Conan O'Brien on the late-night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 1993 to 1994, before briefly writing for Late Show with David Letterman in 1995. C.K. has stated that Conan O'Brien kept C.K. in comedy by hiring him, as he planned to quit comedy the following day if he had not been hired for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Throughout the spring of 1996, C.K. served as the head writer for The Dana Carvey Show; its writers also included Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel, and Charlie Kaufman. It was canceled after seven episodes. In 1996, HBO released his first half-hour comedy special. C.K. appeared several times on the animated show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
From 1997 to 1999, he wrote for The Chris Rock Show. His work on the show was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for writing three times, winning "Best Writing in a Variety or Comedy Series" in 1999. He was also nominated for an Emmy for his work writing for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He has been quoted as describing his approach to writing as a "deconstruction" that is both painful and frightening.
1998–2004: Focus on filmmaking
In 1998, C.K. wrote and directed the independent black-and-white film Tomorrow Night, which premiered at Sundance, marking his feature film directorial debut after making several shorter films, including six short films for the sketch comedy show Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies on the Showtime cable network. C.K. self-released Tomorrow Night in 2014. He hosted the PBS show ShortCuts in 1999, which featured independent short films, including some made by C.K. himself. Also that year, C.K. devised and starred in The Filthy Stupid Talent Show, a mock talent show television special. He had an early acting role in the independent comedy Tuna, alongside Nick Offerman, in 2000 and performed on the stand-up showcase series Comedy Central Presents the following year.C.K. wrote and directed the feature film Pootie Tang, which was adapted from a sketch that was featured on The Chris Rock Show and featured Chris Rock in a supporting role. The film received largely negative reviews from critics, but has become a cult classic; in a half-star review, Roger Ebert declared it a "train wreck" and felt the film was "not in a releasable condition". Though C.K. is credited as the director, he was fired at the end of filming with the film being re-edited by the studio. C.K. has since co-written two screenplays with Rock: Down to Earth and I Think I Love My Wife. His first comedy album, Live in Houston, was released in 2001. In 2002, he voiced Brendon Small's estranged father, Andrew Small, in the animated sitcom Home Movies. C.K. was among the writing staff of the sketch comedy show Cedric the Entertainer Presents.
2005–2009: ''Lucky Louie'' and standup breakthrough
In August 2005, C.K. starred in a half-hour HBO special as part of the stand-up series One Night Stand. Inspired by the work ethic of fellow comedian George Carlin, who had committed to dropping all of his existing material and starting over every year, in June 2006, C.K. starred in and wrote Lucky Louie, a sitcom he created. The series premiered on HBO and was videotaped in front of a studio audience; it was HBO's first series in that format. Lucky Louie is described as a bluntly realistic portrayal of family life. HBO canceled the series after its first season.C.K. was a part of Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour with other comedians in 2007. In 2007, he hosted a three-hour phone-in show on the service at the request of Opie & Anthony, during which he advised callers on their relationship troubles. During an interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the show, C.K. repeatedly asked Rumsfeld whether he is in fact a reptilian space alien who "eats Mexican babies". Rumsfeld declined to comment and the video has since gone viral. He appeared in three films in 2008: Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Diminished Capacity, and Role Models.
C.K. launched his first hour-long special, Shameless, in 2007, which aired on HBO and was later released on DVD. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked C.K.'s stand-up special Shameless number three on their "Divine Comedy: 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies of All Time" list In March 2008, he recorded a second hour-long special, Chewed Up, which premiered on Showtime Network on October 4, 2008, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy or Variety Special. C.K. and his wife Alix Bailey divorced in 2008, with C.K. and Bailey sharing joint custody of their children. In a 2010 interview, C.K. talked about how, after his divorce, he thought, "well, there goes my act." He alluded to the way that his marriage had been central to his act and his life, and he said that it took him approximately a year to realize "I'm accumulating stories here that are worth telling." One element in his preparation for stand-up was training at the same boxing gym as Lowell, Massachusetts fighter Micky Ward, trying to "learn how to... do the grunt work and the boring, constant training so that you'll be fit enough to take the beating." A clip from an appearance by C.K. on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in October 2008 titled "Everything's Amazing and Nobody is Happy" became a viral hit on YouTube in 2009, helping his standup career to propel forward.
On April 18, 2009, C.K. recorded a concert film titled Hilarious. Unlike his previous specials—which had all been produced for television networks—Hilarious was produced independently, directed by C.K. himself, and sold to Epix and Comedy Central after it was complete. As a result, it was not released until late 2010. It was published on DVD and CD in 2011. It is the first stand-up comedy film accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. From 2009 to 2012, C.K. played Dave Sanderson, a police officer and ex-boyfriend of Leslie Knope in the sitcom Parks and Recreation. He also co-starred in the romantic comedy fantasy film The Invention of Lying, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais, in 2009.