Interviewee: Stephen Colbert
Interviewer: Bill O’Reilly
Date: January 18, 2007

Comedian Stephen Colbert has been tickling a multitude of Americans with his high-rating TV shows and top-selling books. So famous is he that a Virgin America plane, trapdoor spider, and NASA treadmill, among so many others, have been named in his honor.

Stephen Colbert’s name initially attained fabled status during his time with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he had been correspondent and writer since 1997. He was instrumental in helping the show win a number of Peabody and Emmy Awards.

After awhile, Stephen Colbert gained so much fame that there has to be a spinoff of The Daily Show. As host, writer, and executive producer of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, he continues to amuse millions of liberal Americans with his spot-on send-ups of Republicans. The Colbert Report is a parody of opinion shows that are similar to Bill O’Reilly’s hard hitting show.

Since premiering in October 2005, The Colbert Report has become a ratings dynamo. It eventually won a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting in 2008, plus several Emmys. The New York Times even dubbed it “one of the best television shows of the year.”

As is the case with most funnymen, Stephen Colbert had an “unfunny” childhood. In 1974, two of his siblings and his father died in a plane crash.

Born and raised in South Carolina, Stephen Colbert graduated with a theater degree in 1986 from Northwestern University in Illinois. Years later, he would go on to receive an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Knox College.

After his Northwestern University studies, Stephen Colbert joined Second City, Chicago’s famous improvisational troupe. Here he became acquainted with Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, with whom he created and acted in Comedy Central’s Exit 57. Their comedy show lasted for three seasons and earned five CableACE nominations. The threesome later reunited for Strangers with Candy, Comedy Central’s cult live-action narrative show.

Stephen Colbert is also a distinguished author. His book, I Am America (And So Can You!), debuted at no. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller’s List and spent 13 weeks on top. He is the co-author of Wigfield, acclaimed by Publisher’s Weekly as “unlike anything the genre of humorous fiction has seen before.” He is also a contributor to America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, another New York Times bestseller.

In 2010, Stephen Colbert won a Grammy Award for his comedy album A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!