Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American comedian, television host, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. He currently hosts Late Night with Seth Meyers, a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to Late Night, Meyers was a cast member on NBC's sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2014, and served as the show's head writer and anchor of their news parody segment, Weekend Update, from 2006 until his departure.
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, Josh Meyers, is an actor and comedian.
His paternal grandfather was an Ashkenazi Jewish emigrant from Kalvarija near Marijampolė in modern-day Lithuania. The rest of his ancestry is Czech, Austrian, Croatian (from his paternal grandmother), Swedish (from his maternal grandfather), English, and German. Meyers discovered on the show Finding Your Roots that his family's original surname, Trakianski, was changed by his great-grandfather to Meyers, after his own father Mejer Trakianski.
Meyers attended Edgewood Elementary in Okemos. He graduated from Manchester High School West in New Hampshire. He graduated in 1996 from Northwestern University in Evanston (the town of his birth), where he became a member of the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta. His college roommate was fellow actor Peter Grosz. He majored in film and television production. In 2011, he was the Grand Marshal for the school's homecoming parade. In 2016, he delivered the commencement address at Northwestern's graduation.
Career
While attending college at Northwestern University, Meyers began performing improv comedy 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. When a Boom Chicago show he developed was mounted in Chicago, he was noticed by Saturday Night Live talent scouts and invited to audition.
Saturday Night Live
Meyers joined the Saturday Night Live 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, though around this time, his cast contract was up. The show wanted him to sign a contract in which he would solely be the head writer, if he didn't get Weekend Update. Meyers refused to sign the contract, and waited to see what the plans for Update were. He considered leaving SNL altogether if he wasn't added to Update. In fall 2009, Meyers co-anchored two episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday with Poehler. After Poehler's departure, Meyers anchored solo between 2008 and 2013. In the 2013–2014 season, Cecily Strong joined Meyers as co-anchor until his departure mid-season.
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.