1964-present
Latest News: Stephen Colbert Recovering from Ruptured Appendix
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert announced Monday he is recovering after surgery for a ruptured appendix. Luckily, the 59-year-old comedian still managed to have a sense of humor regarding the health scare. “I’m grateful to my doctors for their care and to [my wife] Evie and the kids for putting up with me. Going forward, all emails to my appendix will be handled by my pancreas,” he wrote jokingly in an Instagram post.
As a result, Colbert and CBS canceled The Late Show tapings for the rest of the week. The host was set to welcome a number of high-profile guests, including actors Jennifer Garner and Patrick Stewart, as well as musician Jon Batiste, the show’s former house band leader who recently received several 2024 Grammy nominations.
Who Is Stephen Colbert?
Comedian Stephen Colbert has hosted The Late Show since 2015, a gig he took over from David Letterman. Colbert got his start in showbiz through Chicago’s Second City comedy troupe. After he met fellow comedians Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, they created and starred in the TV shows Exit 57 and Strangers with Candy. Colbert began appearing as a correspondent on The Daily Show in 1997, leading to the creation of his own show, The Colbert Report, in 2005 on Comedy Central. To date, he has won 10 Primetime Emmy Awards.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Stephen Tyrone Colbert
BORN: May 13, 1964
BIRTHPLACE: Washington, D.C.
SPOUSE: Evelyn McGee-Colbert (1993-present)
CHILDREN: Madeleine, Peter, and John
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus
Early Years
Stephen Tyrone Colbert was born on May 13, 1964, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, as the youngest of 11 children. In 1974, when he was 10, Colbert experienced what was likely the defining event of his childhood when his father and two of his brothers were killed in a plane crash. He grew introverted, finding solace in reading, especially science fiction and fantasy novels by authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien.
Colbert found a way to express himself through acting, which he did in several school plays at Charleston’s Episcopal Porter-Gaud School. He later enrolled at Hampden-Sydney College of Virginia with the intention of becoming a philosophy major, but it wasn’t long before he reconsidered and transferred to Northwestern University, enrolling as a theater major.
Second City to The Daily Show
After graduating from Northwestern in 1986, Colbert moved to Chicago and took a job in the offices of the Second City comedy troupe. Two years later, after taking improv classes there, he was asked to join the traveling group. He accepted the offer and spent the next two years on the road.
At Second City, he met comedians Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, and together, they created and starred in two TV comedies: the sketch show Exit 57 (1995-1996) and the spoof of after-school specials Strangers with Candy (1999-2000). A movie based on Strangers with Candy came out in 2005.
In 1997, just before Strangers got picked up by Comedy Central, Colbert began appearing in episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a conservative correspondent, in the guise of a humorless but hilarious persona he had perfected. With both Strangers and The Daily Show running—and the latter becoming a huge hit in the early 2000s—Colbert’s career was gaining traction.
The Colbert Report
In the fall of 2005, The Colbert Report began airing on Comedy Central. As a starchy, blustery right-wing host, Colbert parodied pundits who dominated the talk show airwaves. The show was instantly one of Comedy Central’s highest-rated shows, bringing in over a million viewers per episode in its first week.
Six months after The Colbert Report debuted, Colbert appeared as the featured speaker at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. With President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush just a few feet away, Colbert proceeded to give an off-color tirade that left the audience silent and had the critics divided—some praised him and others said he had crossed the line into disrespect. The controversy only ignited his popularity, though. The Colbert Report became a Comedy Central powerhouse, winning several Emmys, including 2013 and 2014 awards for Outstanding Variety Series.
Offscreen, Colbert published I Am America (and So Can You!) in 2007 and contributed to 2004’s America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction. He and Jon Stewart also arranged the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, a gathering in Washington, D.C., that served both to parody events staged by conservative commentator Glenn Beck and liberal activist Al Sharpton and to spark a serious dialogue about issues of the day.
On December 18, 2014, Colbert appeared in his final episode of The Colbert Report. His featured guest for the program was his friend “Grimmy,” also known as the grim reaper.
Hosting The Late Show
In April 2014, after David Letterman announced his plans to retire in 2015, Colbert was selected to replace him as host of The Late Show. “Simply being a guest on David Letterman’s show has been a highlight of my career,” Colbert said. “I never dreamed that I would follow in his footsteps, though everyone in late night follows Dave’s lead. I’m thrilled and grateful that CBS chose me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go grind a gap in my front teeth.”
The Late Show took some time to find its new voice after premiering with Colbert on September 8, 2015, but it eventually climbed to the top of the ratings thanks to the host’s deft handling of politically charged humor, particularly after President Donald Trump began dominating the news cycle. Colbert also became known for recurring segments like Big Questions with Even Bigger Stars, which had him gazing up at the sky with his guest and engaging in absurd philosophical hypotheticals.
Through The Late Show, Colbert also increased the visibility of Jon Batiste, the leader of the show’s house band Stay Human. Batiste—a five-time Grammy winner, including in 2022 for Album of the Year with We Are—served in the role for about seven years before departing the show in 2022 to work on individual projects. “Me and Stephen are friends for life,” he told The Guardian. “You don’t go through something like that and not bond with the person who you’ve been onstage with for seven years.”
After the COVID-19 outbreak shut down production on The Late Show in March 2020, Colbert made headlines by taping monologues from his porch, his bathtub, and other areas of his home.
In June 2023, with his contract set to expire at the end of the year, Colbert signed an extension with CBS to remain with the network through at least 2026. Financial details of the agreement weren’t made public, but Colbert’s annual salary was believed to be around $15 million under his previous deal.
Wife and Children
Colbert has been married to his wife, Evelyn, since 1993. They have three children: a daughter named Madeleine, born in 1995, as well as sons Peter, born in 1998, and John, born in 2002.
In 2018, the comic opened up to Rolling Stone about his battles with anxiety. He said he used to take medication, until realizing during his time with Second City that the symptoms went away while he was performing. “Creating something is what helped me from just spinning apart like an unweighted flywheel,” he told the publication. “And I haven’t stopped since. Even when I was a writer, I always had to be in front of a camera a little bit. I have to perform.”
Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Colbert’s net worth is estimated around $75 million.
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