Louis Szekely (pronounced /ˌsiˈkeɪ/; born 12 September 1967), known professionally as Louis C.K. (and sometimes Louie C.K.), is an American stand-up comedian, Emmy-winning television and film writer, actor, producer and director from Boston, Massachusetts. He currently stars in the FX comedy series Louie, which he also writes, directs and edits.
Szekely was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mary, a software engineer, and Luis Szekely, an economist. His mother is of Irish Catholic descent and his father, a native of Mexico, is of Mexican Catholic and Hungarian Jewish ancestry. His parents met at Harvard University while Luis was trying to finish his degree. Despite being born in the United States, Szekely lived in Mexico City until the age of seven and still retains his Mexican citizenship. Spanish is his first language, but, upon moving to Massachusetts, he quickly learned English. Szekely soon discovered that he wanted to be a writer and comedian, citing George Carlin, Bill… read more
Louis Szekely (pronounced /ˌsiˈkeɪ/; born 12 September 1967), known professionally as Louis C.K. (and sometimes Louie C.K.), is an American stand-up comedian, Emmy-winning television and film writer, actor, producer and director from Boston, Massachusetts. He currently stars in the FX comedy series Louie, which he also writes, directs and edits.
Szekely was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mary, a software engineer, and Luis Szekely, an economist. His mother is of Irish Catholic descent and his father, a native of Mexico, is of Mexican Catholic and Hungarian Jewish ancestry. His parents met at Harvard University while Luis was trying to finish his degree. Despite being born in the United States, Szekely lived in Mexico City until the age of seven and still retains his Mexican citizenship. Spanish is his first language, but, upon moving to Massachusetts, he quickly learned English. Szekely soon discovered that he wanted to be a writer and comedian, citing George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and Steve Martin as some of his influences. Around the age of 10, his parents divorced. One of four children, Szekely was raised by a single mother in Newton, and found that he also wanted to produce movies and television, citing his mother as an influence: “I remember thinking in fifth grade, ‘I have to get inside that box and make this shit better… because she deserves this.’”
After high school, he worked as an auto mechanic in Boston before summoning the courage to try stand-up. His first attempt was in 1984 at a comedy club’s open mic night. He was given 5 minutes of time, but only had 2 minutes of material. It would be two years before he would return to stand-up. Upon his return, Szekely gradually moved up into paid gigs and hosted comedy clubs until he moved to Manhattan, New York.
His credits as a writer include Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Dana Carvey Show and the Chris Rock Show. His work for the Chris Rock Show was nominated for an Emmy Award three times, including winning “Best Writing in a Variety or Comedy Series” in 1999. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for his work writing Late Night with Conan O’Brien. However, the feature film born from the Chris Rock sketches, Pootie Tang, which C.K. wrote and directed, received largely negative reviews by critics but became an instant cult classic. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for writing on his 2008 special, Chewed Up.
C.K. has co-written two screenplays with Chris Rock, Down to Earth in 2001, and I Think I Love My Wife in 2007.
C.K. has performed his stand-up frequently on shows like Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Lopez Tonight, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. In August 2005, C.K. starred in a half-hour HBO special as part of the stand-up series One Night Stand.
In 2006, C.K. starred in his own hour-long HBO special titled Shameless. On March 1, 2008, Louis recorded a stand up special Chewed Up that premiered on Showtime October 4, 2008 and went on to be nominated for an Emmy for “Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Special.” On April 18, 2009, Louis recorded a stand up special entitled Hilarious that was released in 2010. It is the first stand-up comedy film to be accepted into Sundance.
In a 2010 interview, C.K. described returning to stand-up and doing specials after his divorce as a year and a half working “to catch up to” the breakup of his marriage which, although portrayed in the HBO series Lucky Louie as fractious, had nonetheless been central to the show and his life. One element in his preparation for stand-up was training in the boxing gym, including with locally well-known Lowell, Massachusetts fighter Micky Ward, trying to “learn how to … do the grunt work and the boring, constant training so that you’ll be fit enough to take the beating.”
In June 2006, he began starring in Lucky Louie, a sitcom he created. The series premiered on HBO and was videotaped in front of a live studio audience; it was HBO’s first series in that format. Lucky Louie is described as a bluntly realistic portrayal of family life. However, HBO canceled the series after its first season. He also plays a small role as a security guard in Role Models. In 2009, he was added to NBC’s Parks and Recreation, where he appeared in a multi-episode story arc as a potential love interest for Amy Poehler’s character.
In August 2009, FX picked up his new series Louie. In it, C.K. is starring, writing, directing, and editing. The show features his stand-up routines blended with skits of things that have happened in his life. The show premiered on June 29, 2010. The show has been picked up for thirteen episodes. It addresses life as a divorced, aging (42), father: “It’s hard to start again after a marriage,” he started in one of his early routines on the show. “It’s hard to really, like, look at somebody and go, hey, maybe something nice will happen. … Or you’ll meet the perfect person, who you love infinitely, and you even argue well, and you grow together, and you have children, and then you get old together, and then she’s going to die…that’s the best case scenario.”
C.K. has also appeared in the films Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Diminished Capacity and The Invention of Lying.
C.K. gained a degree of fame on the internet after his appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien for his coining of a phrase that has been largely condensed to “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy”, which reflects the observation that the amazing things technology has done for our world causes us to be unhappy when they are slow or faulty.
As a voice actor C.K. portrayed Brendon Small’s estranged father, Andrew Small in Home Movies, and appeared numerous times on Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
C.K. is a frequent guest on the Opie and Anthony radio show, which also stars his Lucky Louie co-star Jim Norton, and he was a part of Opie and Anthony’s Traveling Virus Comedy Tour with other comedians in 2007. He is also an occasional guest on the Bob and Tom radio show which is a popular showcase for comedians and he frequently works with Robert Smigel on TV Funhouse shorts exclusively for Saturday Night Live, ranging from politics to surrealism.
C.K. started his own YouTube channel, featuring sketches and productions that were part of an HBO presentation that was ultimately rejected. In 2007, he wrote a controversial sketch presenting the Catholic Church as existing “solely for the purpose of boy rape”. He also makes many daily appearances on Raw Dog Comedy on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
He was married to New York artist and painter Alix Bailey in 1995; they divorced in 2009. He has two daughters from the marriage and shares joint custody of them with Bailey. –Wikipedia
