Steven Wright Biography

Steven Wright was born in 1955 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduating from Emerson College in 1978, Wright began performing stand-up in comedy clubs around Boston, and quickly established a following for his deadpan, lethargic one-liner deliveries.  By the early 1980’s, Wright had caught the attention of the Tonight Show producers, and he was invited to perform on the show. Johnny Carson was so taken with Wright’s performance that he had him return the following week, and Steven Wright’s career as a comedian was born.

In the mid 1980’s, Steven Wright released the album I Have a Pony, which earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. The recognition led to an HBO special which was equally successful. In 1989, Steven Wright’s short film, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, earned him an Academy Award in the shorts category, and by the early 1990’s, Steven Wright was a regular on the show Mad About You.  For most of the 1990’s, Steven Wright chose to focus on his stand-up performances, which were incredibly successful.  A number of these were recorded for television, such as Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away, which aired on Comedy Central in 2006 and was later released as a DVD. I Still Have a Pony came next, earning Steven another Grammy nomination, and in 2008, Steven Wright was inducted into the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame.

Throughout his career, Steven Wright has appeared in a number of films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Stars and Bars (1988), So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), Half Baked (1998), Coffe and Cigarettes (2003), and Son of the Mask (2005.) In recent years, Steven Wright has also branched out into music, having recorded some songs, and experimented as a painter. Most recently, he can be seen on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, assisting in the show’s fan mail segment.