Peter Gwinn is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

writer and

improviser Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

from

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN. He was a member of

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

Touring Company from 1997 to 2000. He has taught at both the I.O. and

Upright Citizens Brigade The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, ...

theaters and is the founder of the musical improv group Baby Wants Candy. He is the author of the 2003 book, ''Group Improvisation: The Manual of Ensemble Improv Games''. Gwinn was a staff writer for the TV political satire ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show fo ...

'' until 2012-06-14. He has made several on-screen appearances, as Jimmy the director, as a singer in a "Formula 401" sperm commercial and as a barbecue attendee. He has also written and appeared on the 2013 TV series

Alpha House ''Alpha House'' is an American political satire streaming television series produced by Amazon Studios. The show starred John Goodman, Clark Johnson, Matt Malloy, and Mark Consuelos as four Republican U.S. Senators who share a house in Washingt ...

, produced by

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

. Colbert announced in the final segment of his 2012-06-14 show that Gwinn was leaving the staff, giving no reason, but playing a clip package that ended with a stuffed effigy of Gwinn being thrown off the roof of the studio building, bouncing off a car into the street, and being run over by a minivan which backed up over the doll, twice, then drove away. Gwinn now works for Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

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* Living people American comedy writers Carleton College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-tv-bio-stub