Seth Meyers

Early life and education

Meyers was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was raised in Okemos, Michigan, from four to ten years of age, and Bedford, New Hampshire, after that.

Meyers's mother, Hilary Claire (née Olson), was a French teacher, and his father, Laurence Meyers Jr., worked in finance. His younger brother is actor Josh Meyers. His paternal grandfather was Jewish; and, although Meyers has performed at several Jewish Community Centers, he does not consider himself Jewish. Meyers's other ancestry is Czech–Austrian and Croatian (from his paternal grandmother), Swedish, English, and German.

Meyers' mother Hilary and Carolyn Stanton—the maternal grandmother of comedian John Mulaney, Meyers' future Saturday Night Live coworker—were both from Marblehead, Massachusetts, and once performed together in a hospital benefit show called Pills A Poppin' directed by future Tony Award-winner Tommy Tune, then 19.

Meyers attended Edgewood Elementary in Okemos and later graduated from Manchester High School West in New Hampshire. He then attended and graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, where he became a member of the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta.

Career

Before SNL, Meyers got his improv comedy start as a member of the Northwestern University improv sketch group, Mee-Ow Show. He continued his career at ImprovOlympic with the group Preponderate as well as overseas as a cast member of Boom Chicago, an English language improv troupe based in Amsterdam, where his brother was also a cast member.

Meyers appeared with Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem in the 2008 3D film Journey to the Center of the Earth. He also makes a cameo in the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as a drunk man who mistakes the main character's Yugo for a taxi. He starred in the 2004 comedy See This Movie with John Cho. In July 2008, Meyers directed the web series The Line on Crackle. Meyers has hosted the Webby Awards twice, in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, Meyers hosted the Microsoft Company Meeting at Safeco Field in Seattle. Meyers hosted the 2010 and 2011 ESPY Awards on ESPN. In April 2011, Seth Meyers was the keynote speaker at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. During his introductory remarks, he made a joke about Osama bin Laden's actions while in hiding; namely, that bin Laden was hosting his own afternoon television show on CSPAN. Meyers was unaware that US intelligence had located bin Laden and the Navy SEALs planned an attack the next day.

Saturday Night Live

Meyers joined the SNL cast in 2001. In 2005, he was promoted to writing supervisor, and in January 2006 he became co-head writer, sharing the role with Tina Fey and Andrew Steele. In 2004, he auditioned to co-anchor Weekend Update with Fey, but lost to Amy Poehler. With Fey's departure, Meyers became head writer for the 2006–2007 season and also assumed the role of Weekend Update co-anchor with Amy Poehler. After Poehler's departure, Meyers anchored solo between 2008 and 2013. In the 2013–2014 season, Cecily Strong joined Meyers as co-anchor. In fall 2009, Meyers co-anchored two episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday with Poehler.

On SNL, Meyers impersonated such figures as John Kerry, Michael Caine, Anderson Cooper, Carrot Top, Prince Charles, Ryan Seacrest, Sean Penn, Stone Phillips, Tobey Maguire, Peyton Manning, Ben Curtis (also known as the Dell Dude), Ty Pennington, Bill Cowher, Brian Williams, Nicollette Sheridan, Wade Robson, Donald Trump, Jr., Tom Cruise, and Kevin Federline. His recurring characters included Zach Ricky, host of the kids' hidden camera show "Pranksters"; Nerod, the receptionist in the recurring sketch "Appalachian Emergency Room"; David Zinger, a scientist who often insults his fellow workers; DJ Johnathan Feinstein, the DJ on the webcam show "Jarett's Room"; Dan Needler, half of a married couple "that should be divorced," (opposite Amy Poehler); William Fitzpatrick, from the Irish talk show "Top o' the Morning," and Boston Powers (one of the comedians in the "Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy" series). In the season 29 episode hosted by Lindsay Lohan, he portrayed Ron Weasley in a parody of Harry Potter.

Meyers received critical praise for his part in several iconic SNL sketches during his tenure. During the 2008 United States presidential election, Meyers wrote the sketches for former SNL cast member Tina Fey, who returned as a guest star to impersonate Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Meyers created the famed phrase uttered by Fey's Palin, "I can see Russia from my house."

During their time as hosts on Weekend Update, Meyers and Poehler had a popular recurring bit, "Really!?! with Seth and Amy." Both hosts would take turns mocking people in the news, ending each point with a heavily sarcastic "Really!?!", which Rolling Stone writer Jon Blistein characterized as a "torrent of exasperation and bewilderment." Following Poehler's departure from the show in 2008, they revived the "Really!?!" segment several times when she returned as a guest. After Meyers left the show for his own talk show, Poehler made a surprise appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in June 2015 to join Meyers in mocking Sports Illustrated sportswriter Andy Benoit after he disparaged women's sports as "not worth watching."

Additionally, the "Abe Lincoln" sketch Meyers wrote for Louis C.K., done in the style of his sitcom, Louie, and the Girls parody starring Tina Fey as the new Albanian "girl" were praised by critics as among the best sketches Meyers contributed to SNL.

Meyers supported and picketed during the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. When interviewed, he said, "We all know how lucky we are to have the jobs we have. We're not asking for much. You have to change the rules because people are watching TV in a different way." Even so, he mentioned in interviews that he regretted missing much of the presidential election primary season.

Meyers performed in his final episode of SNL February 1, 2014. Strong, Poehler, Bill Hader in character as Stefon, Andy Samberg, and Fred Armisen as former New York state governor David Paterson joined him at the Weekend Update desk.

Late Night

NBC announced May 12, 2013, that Meyers would be the new host of Late Night in 2014 succeeding Jimmy Fallon, as Fallon became host of The Tonight Show. Meyers assumed his role on Late Night February 24, 2014, and his first guest was fellow SNL alumnus and Weekend Update anchor Amy Poehler. Meyers announced February 10, 2014, that the bandleader for his house band "The 8G Band" would be Meyers' former SNL colleague Fred Armisen.

Other pursuits

Meyers won the third season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2009, and donated the $100,000 prize to the Boston-based Jimmy Fund. In 2008, Meyers donated over $4,000 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Meyers and SNL castmate Bill Hader penned a Spider-Man one-off entitled The Short Halloween. It was illustrated by Kevin Maguire and was published May 29, 2009. Benjamin Birdie of Comic Book Resources gave the work three and a half stars on a scale of five. Meyers, along with Mike Shoemaker of SNL, created an animated half-hour series entitled The Awesomes, produced by Lorne Michaels' company, Broadway Video, that aired on Hulu.com beginning August 2013.

In 2014 Meyers hosted the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Personal life

Meyers became engaged to his girlfriend of five years, human rights lawyer Alexi Ashe, in July 2013. The two married September 1, 2013, on Martha's Vineyard. Their son, Ashe Olson Meyers, was born at Lenox Hill Hospital on March 27, 2016.

Meyers is a fan of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Pirates, the Pittsburgh Penguins (his father being a Pittsburgh native), the Northwestern Wildcats (his alma mater), the Dutch National Football Team and football club West Ham United in the Premier League. He is also a fan of Joe Hill's supernatural comic book series, Locke & Key. IDW Publishing gave him some of the replica keys they had licensed. He is a huge fan of Game of Thrones; one of the show's stars, Carice van Houten, is a friend of his and mentioned during an appearance on his show that once she got the role, the first thing she did was tell him about it.