Seth Meyers Biography

Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American actor, voice actor, writer, producer and comedian. He currently serves as head writer for NBC's Saturday Night Live and hosts its news parody segment Weekend Update. In 2013, it was announced that Meyers had been chosen to replace Jimmy Fallon the following year when his edition of Late Night ceases production in 2014.

Early life

Meyers was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Hilary Claire (née Olson), a middle school teacher of French, and Laurence Meyers, Jr., who works in finance. His younger brother is actor Josh Meyers. He was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, and its suburb, Bedford, and graduated from Manchester High School West. He went on to graduate from Northwestern University in Evanston, where he became a member of the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta.

Career

Before SNL, Meyers got his improv comedy start as a member of the Northwestern University improv sketch group Mee-Ow. He continued his career at ImprovOlympic with the group Preponderate as well as overseas as a cast member of Boom Chicago, an English language improv troupe based in Amsterdam, where his brother was also a cast member.

Meyers appeared with Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem in the 2008 3D film Journey to the Center of the Earth. He also makes a cameo in the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as a drunk man who mistakes the main character's Yugo for a taxi. Meyers is currently writing and will star in a movie called Key Party. He also starred in the 2004 comedy See This Movie with John Cho. In July 2008, Meyers directed the web series The Line on Crackle. Meyers has hosted the Webby Awards twice, in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, Meyers hosted the Microsoft Company Meeting at Safeco Field in Seattle, WA. Meyers hosted the 2010 and 2011 ESPY Awards on ESPN. In 2011, Seth Meyers was the keynote speaker at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in April 2011. During his introductory remarks, he made a joke about Osama bin Laden's actions while in hiding; namely, that Bin Laden was hosting his own afternoon television show on CSPAN. Meyers was unaware that US intelligence had, in the meantime, found bin Laden and an attack by U.S. Navy Seals had been successfully launched. Meyers was the special guest speaker for PwC's Promotion Day on June 29, 2012.

Saturday Night Live

Meyers joined the SNL cast in 2001. In 2005, he was promoted to writing supervisor, and in January 2006 he became co-head writer, sharing the role with Tina Fey and Andrew Steele. In 2004, he auditioned to co-anchor "Weekend Update" with Fey, but lost out to Amy Poehler. With Fey's departure, Meyers became head writer for the 2006"2007 season and also took on the role of Weekend Update co-anchor with Amy Poehler. Since Poehler left the show during the 2008"2009 season, Meyers has anchored solo. In fall 2009, Meyers co-anchored two episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday with Poehler.

During the 2008 United States presidential election, while appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman, former SNL cast member Tina Fey credited Meyers with writing the sketches involving Fey's impression of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

On SNL, Meyers has impersonated such figures as John Kerry, Michael Caine, Anderson Cooper, Carrot Top, Prince Charles, Ryan Seacrest, Sean Penn, Stone Phillips, Tobey Maguire, Peyton Manning, Ben Curtis (also known as the Dell Dude), Ty Pennington, Bill Cowher, Brian Williams, Nicollette Sheridan, Wade Robson, Donald Trump, Jr., Tom Cruise, and Kevin Federline. His recurring characters include Zach Ricky, host of the kids' hidden camera show "Pranksters"; Nerod, the receptionist in the recurring sketch "Appalachian Emergency Room"; David Zinger, a scientist who often insults his fellow workers; DJ Johnathan Feinstein, the DJ on the webcam show "Jarett's Room"; Dan Needler, half of a married couple "that should be divorced," (opposite Amy Poehler); William Fitzpatrick, from the Irish talk show "Top o' the Morning," and Boston Powers (one of the comedians in the "Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy" series). In the season 29 episode hosted by Lindsay Lohan, he did an impression of Ron Weasley in a parody of Harry Potter. Since the departure of both Fey and Poehler, Meyers has now been promoted to the post of head writer of SNL.

Meyers supported and picketed during the 2007"08 Writers Guild of America strike. When interviewed he said, "We all know how lucky we are to have the jobs we have. We're not asking for much. You have to change the rules because people are watching TV in a different way." Even so, he mentioned in interviews that he regretted missing much of the presidential election primary season.

Late Night

On May 12, 2013, NBC announced that Meyers will be the new host of Late Night in 2014 succeeding Jimmy Fallon as Fallon will take over as the new host of The Tonight Show (NBC).

Other pursuits

Meyers won the third season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown and donated the $100,000 prize to the Boston-based Jimmy Fund. In 2008, Meyers donated over $4,000 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Meyers and SNL castmate Bill Hader penned a Spider-Man one-off entitled "The Short Halloween". It was illustrated by Kevin Maguire and came out May 29, 2009, to positive reviews. Meyers, along with Mike Shoemaker of SNL, created an animated half-hour series "The Awesomes" that was picked up by Hulu.com and will be produced by Lorne Michaels's production company, Broadway Video.

Personal life

Meyers became engaged to his girlfriend of several years, human rights lawyer Alexi Ashe, in July 2013. On September 1, 2013, Meyers married Ashe in Martha's Vineyard.

Meyers is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, the Pittsburgh Steelers (his father being a Pittsburgh native), the Northwestern Wildcats (his alma mater) and soccer club West Ham United in the Premier League.

Meyers has performed at several Jewish Community Centers, though he himself is not Jewish.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Other Notes
2004	See This Movie	Jake Barrymore
	Maestro	Tim Healy
2005	Perception	Steven
	The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and his Little Friend	Disgruntled Dork
2006	American Dreamz	Chet Krogl
2007	Spring Breakdown	William Rushfield
2008	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Professor Alan Kitzens
	Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist	Drunk Guy in Yugo
2011	I Don't Know How She Does It	Chris Bunce
	New Year's Eve	Griffin

Television

Year	Title	Role	Other Notes
2001	Spin City	Doug	Episode "Rain on My Charades"
2001"2013	Saturday Night Live	Himself, Various	Head Writer
2008"2012	Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday	Himself	8 episodes
2010	ESPY Awards	Himself (host)	TV Special
2011	ESPY Awards	Himself (host)	TV Special
	White House Correspondents Dinner	Himself	TV Special
2012	The Mindy Project	Matt	Episode "Hiring and Firing"
2013	The Awesomes	Prock (voice)	Creator, Writer, Executive Producer, Voice Artist
	The Office	Himself	Episode: "Finale"
2014	Late Night with Seth Meyers	Himself	Host, starting on February 24, 2014