Sal Iacono (born July 5, 1971),Sal Iacono profile at IMDb
/ref> also known as Cousin Sal, is an American comedian, writer, podcaster, and game show host. He is known for his roles on ''

The Man Show ''The Man Show'' is an American sketch comedy television show on Comedy Central that aired from 1999 to 2004. It was created by its two original co-hosts, Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison. The pilot ...

'' and the late night television show ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

''. He is

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967), known professionally as Jimmy Kimmel, is an American television host, comedian, writer, voice actor, and producer. He has been the host and executive producer of '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-n ...

's cousin, hence his nickname Cousin Sal.

Early life

Iacono was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

to Fran Iacono and Vincent Iacono. He graduated from

Elwood-John Glenn High School Elwood-John H. Glenn High School (often shortened to simply John Glenn High School) is a four-year high school of about 700 students and 70 faculty members, located in the hamlet of Elwood, Town of Huntington, Long Island, New York. The school s ...

in 1989 and attended

SUNY Oswego State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego or Oswego State) is a public university in Oswego, New York. It has a total student population of 6,756 and the campus size is 700 acres. SUNY Oswego offers more than 120 undergraduate, graduate ...

, earning a degree in

Public Justice In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

in 1993. He went on to study law at

Touro Law Center Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, commonly known as Touro Law Center, is an ABA accredited law school. It is located on Long Island, New York, in the hamlet of Central Islip. The Law Center is part of Touro University, a privat ...

Huntington, New York Huntington is one of ten Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The town's population was 204,127 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the 11 ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, receiving his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in 1996. In 1997, Iacono moved from

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

to pursue a career in television.

Career

Television writing and hosting

Iacono's first foray into television writing was on the

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

program '' Sports Geniuses'', a sports-themed game show starring

Matt Vasgersian Matt Vasgersian (né Vasgerdsian; '; September 28, 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is the alternative play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and Major Leagu ...

on which Sal also appeared nightly in a trivia challenge. From there, he joined the writing staff of

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's ''

'' starring

Adam Carolla Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio personality, comedian, actor and podcaster. He hosts '' The Adam Carolla Show'', a talk show distributed as a podcast which set the record as the "most downloaded podcast" as judged by ''Guin ...

and Iacono's cousin

. In 2002, Iacono joined Kimmel during his weekly prognostication sketches on ''

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL ...

''. Iacono wrote for the puppet show ''

Crank Yankers ''Crank Yankers'' is an American television sketch comedy show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison. It features actual prank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, with on-screen re-enactments by puppets. The sh ...

''. When ''

Win Ben Stein's Money ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' is an American television game show created by Al Burton and Donnie Brainard that aired first-run episodes from July 28, 1997, to January 31, 2003, on Comedy Central. The show features three contestants who compete to an ...

'' co-host

Nancy Pimental Nancy Marie Pimental (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and film and television writer. Early life and education Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and of Portuguese descent, Pimental graduated from Somerset High School in 1983 and Worceste ...

left the show in 2002, Iacono replaced her, becoming

Ben Stein Benjamin Jeremy Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before enter ...

's co-host and comic tormentor. Iacono was the co-host through the rest of the run of the series and was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in the Outstanding Game Show Host category.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''

Iacono has been a permanent member of the ''

'' writing staff since 2003. He also appears frequently on the show in comedy sketches. These comedy bits are often shot using a hidden camera, and "Cousin Sal" either helps Jimmy prank their aunt Chippy or he pretends to be a store employee or delivery person who is incredibly inept or annoying. Cousin Sal's victims are invariably dumbfounded or become extremely infuriated, much to the delight of the viewing audience.

WWE

On ''

'' on May 16, 2008, Iacono had a birthday cake delivered to Kimmel on air by his favorite wrestler

Rowdy Roddy Piper Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 31, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler and actor. In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for his work with the Worl ...

. He and Piper were confronted by

Santino Marella Anthony Carelli (born March 14, 1974), better known by the ring name Santino Marella, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he works as the on-screen director of authority. He is best kn ...

, who had the cake thrown on him and was attacked by Iacono. The following Monday, Marella (dressed as Piper) brought Iacono to the ring on ''

Monday Night Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Netflix. The show features character ...

'' to "apologize" to "Cousin Sal". The real Piper entered the ring and Marella got his own apology cake thrown on him and on his way back to the locker room, he challenged Iacono to a wrestling match, which Piper accepted on Iacono's behalf. The match took place at the '' Friday Night SmackDown!'' tapings in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

on June 3, 2008. Sal was accompanied to the ring by Kimmel and Piper, and won the match.

Podcasts

Iacono (as Cousin Sal) is a regular guest on The Bill Simmons Podcast, appearing on Sunday nights during the NFL season with Guess the Line for the next weeks NFL games, often defends the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

, and talks about sports and sports betting with Bill. Sal also joined the Adam Carolla Podcast on Mondays during the 2010

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

season to discuss the previous Sunday's

action. In May 2017, Iacono became host of the 'Against All Odds' gambling podcast, part of Simmons's Ringer Podcast Network. In July 2020 Iacono debuted a new podcast called ''Extra Points'' with his friend

Dave Dameshek William David Dameshek (born June 11, 1970) is an American television writer and radio personality. Dameshek is a football analyst, writer and podcaster. Professional career Early career Dameshek began writing for cable television hits inclu ...

as part of a newly formed sports gambling media company of the same name founded by Iacono.

Writing

Along with his appearances on Bill Simmons's podcast, Sal was also a regular columnist on

Grantland.com ''Grantland'' was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. ''Grantland'' was named after famed e ...

, which was a sports and pop culture website formerly run by Simmons. His book, ''You Can't Lose Them All'' was released in early 2021.

Fox Sports

Sal is an analyst on Fox sports gambling show

Fox Bet Live Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

. Its series premier was on September 10, 2018. In 2002, Sal was a guest prognosticator with his cousin Jimmy Kimmel on FOX NFL Sunday. In addition, starting in 2019 for FOX NFL Thursday, Sal will be the prognosticator. Kimmel has also made a guest appearance on it.

Personal life

Iacono lives near

with his wife, Melissa, and three sons.''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' biopage

References

External links

Jimmy Kimmel Live! website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iacono, Sal 1971 births American game show hosts American male comedians American people of Italian descent Living people Comedians from Brooklyn New York (state) lawyers State University of New York at Oswego alumni Touro Law Center alumni 21st-century American comedians Fox Sports 1 people Primetime Emmy Award winners Writers Guild of America Award winners Jimmy Kimmel Live!