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Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and film producer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow,
deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...
delivery of
ironic Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into d ...
, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical
joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...
s,
paraprosdokian A paraprosdokian () is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used fo ...
s, non sequiturs,
anti-humor Anti-humor is a type of indirect and alternative humor that involves the joke-teller's delivering something that is intentionally not funny, or lacking in intrinsic meaning. The practice relies on the expectation on the part of the audience of so ...
, and one-liners with contrived situations. Wright was ranked as the 15th Greatest Comedian by '' Rolling Stone'' in its 2017 list of the 50 Greatest Stand-up Comics. His accolades include the
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under various names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, "Best Short Subject, One- ...
for starring in, writing, and producing the short film ''
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring, co-written and co-produced by Steven Wright, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988. Plot Dennis Jennings (St ...
'' (1988) and two
Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime E ...
nominations as a producer of '' Louie'' (2010–15). He is known for his supporting role as Leon in the Peabody Award–winning tragicomedy web series ''
Horace and Pete ''Horace and Pete'' is an American web series created, written, and directed by Louis C.K., who describes it as a tragedy. In addition to C.K., the series stars Alan Alda, Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco and Jessica Lange. Dealing with the themes of ab ...
''.


Early life and career

Wright was born at
Mount Auburn Hospital Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was founded by Civil War nurse and administrator Emily Elizabeth Parsons as the first hospital in Cambridge in 1866. It was reopened in 1886 a ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, and grew up in
Burlington, Massachusetts Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,377 at the 2020 census. History It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, Yorkshire, but this has never ...
, one of four children of Lucille "Dolly" (née Lomano) and Alexander K. Wright. He was raised
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. His mother was Italian-American, and his father of Scottish descent. Wright's father worked as an electronics technician who "tested a lot of stuff" for NASA during the
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
spacecraft program. When that program ended, he worked as a truck driver. Wright attended Middlesex Community College in
Bedford, Massachusetts Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population of Bedford was 14,383 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. History ''The following compilation comes from Ellen Abrams (1999) based on information ...
, for two years to earn his
associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...
, then continued his education at
Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as ...
. He graduated from Emerson in 1978 and began performing stand-up comedy the following year at the Comedy Connection in Boston. Wright cites comic George Carlin and director and former standup comic Woody Allen as comedic influences. In 1982 executive producer of '' The Tonight Show''
Peter Lassally Peter Lassally (born 1932) is a German-born American former executive who served as the executive producer of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', ''Late Night with David Letterman'', the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' and the '' Lat ...
saw Wright performing on a bill with other local comics at the Ding Ho comedy club in Cambridge, a venue Wright described as "half Chinese restaurant and half comedy club. It was a pretty weird place." Lassally booked Wright on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...
's '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', where the comic so impressed host Johnny Carson and the studio audience that less than a week later Wright was invited to appear on the show again.


Stand-up success

Wright's 1985 comedy album '' I Have a Pony'' was released on Warner Bros. Records, received critical acclaim and was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album The Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement in comedy." The award was awarded yearly from 1959 to 1993 and then from 2004 to presen ...
. The album's success landed him an
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...
special, in the ''On Location:'' series, taped at ''Wolfgang's'' in San Francisco, as a live performance, for ''A Steven Wright Special.'' By then Wright had firmly developed a new brand of obscure, laid-back performing and was rapidly building a cultlike following and an onstage persona characterized by an aura of obscurity, with his penchant for non sequiturs and impassive, slow delivery adding to his mystique. The performance became one of HBO's longest-running and most requested comedy specials and propelled him to great success on the college-arena concert circuit. In 1989, Wright and fellow producer Dean Parisot won an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for their 30-minute short film ''
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring, co-written and co-produced by Steven Wright, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988. Plot Dennis Jennings (St ...
'', directed by Parisot, written by Mike Armstrong and Wright, and starring Wright and
Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms '' Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and the film series ''Johnny English'' (2003–20 ...
. Upon accepting the Oscar, Wright said, "We're really glad that we cut out the other sixty minutes." In 1992 Wright had a recurring role on the television sitcom ''
Mad About You ''Mad About You'' is an American television sitcom starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City. It initially aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Glo ...
''. He also supplied the voice of the radio DJ in writer-director Quentin Tarantino's film ''
Reservoir Dogs ''Reservoir Dogs'' is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunke ...
'' that year. "Dean Parisot's wife
Sally Menke Sally JoAnne Menke (December 17, 1953 – September 27, 2010) was an American film editor, who worked in cinema and television. Over the span of her 30-year career in film, she accumulated more than 20 feature film credits. She had a long-time c ...
is Quentin Tarantino's ilmeditor, so when she was editing the movie and it was getting down toward the end where they didn't have the radio DJ yet, she thought of me and told Quentin and he liked the idea," Wright explained in 2009. In 1995, Wright provided voiceover work for TBS's Disaster Area cartoon block. Numerous lists of jokes attributed to Wright circulate on the Internet, sometimes of dubious origin. Wright has said, "Someone showed me a site, and half of it that said I wrote it, I didn't write. Recently, I saw one, and I didn't write any of it. What's disturbing is that with a few of these jokes, I wish I had thought of them. A giant amount of them, I'm embarrassed that people think I thought of them because some are really bad." After his 1990 comedy special ''Wicker Chairs and Gravity'', Wright continued to do stand-up performances, but was largely absent from television, doing only occasional guest spots on late-night talk shows. In 1999 he wrote and directed the 30-minute short '' One Soldier'', saying it's "about a soldier who was in the Civil War, right after the war, with all these existentialist thoughts and wondering if there is a God and all that stuff." In May 2000, Wright and other Ding Ho alumni, including
Lenny Clarke Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * '' ...
, Barry Crimmins, Steve Sweeney, Bill Sohonage and Jimmy Tingle, appeared at a reunion benefit for comic
Bob Lazarus Bob Lazarus (January 4, 1956 – January 4, 2009) was an American stand-up comedian and film actor. Lazarus graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.leukemia.Baltrusis, Sam (April 8, 2008)
"Steven Wright headlines Ding Ho reunion benefit"
. LoadedGunBoston.com; accessed April 5, 2022.
In 2006 Wright produced his first stand-up special in 16 years, ''Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away'', originally aired on
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
on October 21, 2006. On September 25, 2007, Wright released his second album, '' I Still Have a Pony'', a CD release of the material from ''When The Leaves Blow Away''. It was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album The Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement in comedy." The award was awarded yearly from 1959 to 1993 and then from 2004 to presen ...
.


Awards and honors

Wright was awarded an Oscar in 1989 for Best Short Live-Action Film for ''
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring, co-written and co-produced by Steven Wright, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988. Plot Dennis Jennings (St ...
'', which he co-wrote (with Michael Armstrong) and starred in. He received two Emmy nominations as part of the producing team of '' Louie'', first in 2014 and again in
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...
. On December 15, 2008, Wright became the first inductee to the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame. In a 2005 poll to find ''The Comedian's Comedian'', he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was named No. 23 on
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.


Other interests

While not well known for works outside of the comedy realm, Wright is a musician and has recorded several non-comedy songs with his friend and occasional actor Mark Wuerthner. He also has an interest in painting. Beginning in 2008, Wright occasionally appeared on ''
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, 2 ...
'' as a visiting celebrity, often dropping by to help with the fan-mail segment. He joined a small cadre of Hollywood comedy celebrities who supported the show.


Filmography


Film


Television


Discography


Albums


Specials


Appearances


References


External links

* * *
Wright-House.com: Jokes attributed to Steven Wright, with actual authors identified

video clip of Steven Wright from ''When the Leaves Blow Away''
an
interview
- Dead-Frog.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Steven 1955 births 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American humorists American male film actors American male television actors American male voice actors American people of Italian descent American people of Scottish descent American stand-up comedians Comedians from Massachusetts Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners Emerson College alumni Living people Male actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts) alumni People from Burlington, Massachusetts Warner Records artists