Lou Wilson is an American actor, writer, musician, and comedian. He is best known for his work as a writer and his roles on

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gam ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

web series ''

Dimension 20 ''Dimension 20'' is a tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout (media company), Dropout, and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master. Most of the games use Dungeons ...

'' and the creator-owned

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

'' Worlds Beyond Number''. He is also known for founding the band Paraloubis, being the on-air announcer for ''

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 ...

'' and his roles on ''

American Vandal ''American Vandal'' is an American mockumentary television series created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda that premiered on September 15, 2017, on Netflix. The series is a parody of true crime documentaries such as '' Making a Murderer'' and '' ...

'', ''

The King of Staten Island ''The King of Staten Island'' is a 2020 American dark comedy-drama film directed by Judd Apatow, from a screenplay by Apatow, Pete Davidson, and Dave Sirus. It stars Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow, and Steve Buscemi, ...

'', and ''

The Guest Book ''The Guest Book'' is an American anthology comedy television series created by Greg Garcia. Season 1 stars Charlie Robinson, Carly Jibson, Lou Wilson, and Kellie Martin, while season 2 stars Jibson, Eddie Steeples, Kimiko Glenn, Jimmy Ta ...

''.

Early life and education

Wilson was raised in

Altadena, California Altadena () is an unincorporated area, and census-designated place in the San Gabriel Valley and the Verdugos regions of Los Angeles County, California. Directly north of Pasadena, California, Pasadena, it is located approximately from Downtow ...

and has lived 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, ...

for the majority of his life. He attended

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

and studied communications and Italian. While there, he became a member of the university's comedy troupe, My Mother's Fleabag. After his graduation in 2014, Wilson moved back to California and joined the

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

in Los Angeles.

Career

In 2017, Wilson starred as Frank in ''

'' and played Lucas Wiley on Netflix's ''

''. Additionally, he acted alongside

Pete Davidson Peter Michael Davidson (born November 16, 1993) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He began his career in the early 2010s with minor guest roles on ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', ''Friends of the People'', ''Guy Code'', and ''Wild 'n O ...

in ''

'' (2020), where he played the role of Richie. He began writing for ''

'' in 2020 and was promoted to on-air announcer in 2022, replacing

Dicky Barrett Richard Michael Barrett (born June 22, 1964), better known as Dicky Barrett, is an American singer who was the frontman of ska punk band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. He was the announcer for ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' from 2004 until 2022. Barrett is ...

after he retired. Wilson is known within the

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

community as a primary cast member of ''

'', an

web series which premiered in 2018; it was created by

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

for the streaming service Dropout. In 2022, he was a cast member of the actual play series ''

Exandria Unlimited ''Exandria Unlimited'' (''ExU'') is an American actual play anthology web series where the cast plays ''Dungeons & Dragons'' using the fifth edition ruleset. It is set in the Exandria campaign setting and is a spin-off of the web series ''Critica ...

: Calamity'', a

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

of the web series ''

Critical Role ''Critical Role'' is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 aft ...

''. In January 2023, it was announced that Wilson, alongside

Erika Ishii Erika Mari Ishii (born March 7, 1987) is an American voice actor and Television presenter, host. They are best known as the voice of video game characters such as Valkyrie in ''Apex Legends'', and for their appearances in actual play web series ...

Aabria Iyengar Aabria Iyengar ( ) is an American web series actress known primarily for tabletop role-playing game anthologies, streams and podcasts. She was the Dungeon Master (DM) for the first season of ''Exandria Unlimited''. Iyengar has been both a play ...

, and

Brennan Lee Mulligan Brennan Lee Mulligan (born January 4, 1988) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and gamemaster. He often works with Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor) as a writer, performer, and producer. He is the creator and regular gamemaster for Dropout' ...

, would star in the creator-owned actual play

'' Worlds Beyond Number''; the show premiered in March 2023. Wilson is also an improvisational comedian. He is currently a member of the improv troupe Yeti, which includes fellow Dropout cast members Zac Oyama,

Ally Beardsley Ally Beardsley (born June 25, 1988) is an American actor and comedian. They are best known for their roles in various Dropout (formerly known as CollegeHumor) productions, such as CollegeHumor Originals, ''Game Changer'', and ''Total Forgivenes ...

Vic Michaelis Vic Michaelis is an American-Canadian improvisational comedian and actor. They have appeared on Dropout comedy shows including as the host of '' Very Important People'' (2023–). Early life Michaelis was born in New Jersey and raised in Il ...

, and

Jacob Wysocki Jacob Wysocki (born June 20, 1990) is an American actor and comedian. Life and career Wysocki became interested in acting while still at Narbonne High School. During these years, he also performed with ComedySportz and started to act in scho ...

. and performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. On January 1st 2025 Wilson’s band Paraloubis released their debut EP of the same name, featuring five songs including their Disney parody “Burbank Princess”.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Lou 1991 births 21st-century American male actors Actors from Los Angeles Actual play performers African-American male comedians African-American comedians African-American television writers American comedy writers American male comedians American male television actors American male television writers American television writers Boston College alumni CollegeHumor people Comedians from California Living people Upright Citizens Brigade Theater performers