Colin Kelly Jost is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and writer for the television program Saturday Night Live.
Background
Colin Jost was born and raised on Staten Island in New New York His mother, Kerry J. Kelly, is the chief medical officer for the New York City Fire Department and a physician on Staten Island, and his father, Daniel A. Jost, is a former teacher at Staten Island Technical High School.
Education
He attended Regis High School in Manhattan and Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Lampoon.
Career
On March 1, 2014, he joined the show"s cast as a featured player and succeeded Seth Meyers as the co-anchor of Weekend Update. As of October 17, 2015, Jost has stepped away from his duties as the National Broadcasting Company sketch show"s head writer He has one brother, Casey Jost.
Jost was raised Catholic.
Shortly after graduating from Harvard, Jost was hired as a writer at Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 2005 at 22 years old and later became SNL"s writing supervisor from 2009-2012, before becoming co-head writer from 2012 to 2015. He often collaborates with fellow SNL co-head writer Rob Klein.
During the summer hiatus following the 2012-2013 season, he was asked by producer Lorne Michaels if he could do the "Weekend Update" feature, as co-anchor Seth Meyers would soon be leaving to host Late Night with Seth Meyers. Jost accepted and replaced Meyers with the March 1, 2014 episode.
Jost names Norm Macdonald as a primary influence for his "Update" anchor work, as Mcdonald"s tone was the one Jost grew up with in high school.
He also names Tina Faculty as an influence. He was selected as a "New Face" at the Montreal Just Foreign Laughs festival in 2009, and has since appeared several times at the Chicago Just Foreign Laughs festival (2011, 2012) and the Montreal festival (2010, 2012). Jost has published three "Shouts and Murmurs" pieces in magazine, in addition to writing for The New York Times Magazine, the Huffington Post, the Staten Island Advance and Radar.
Jost wrote the screenplay and played a minor role in the 2015 comedy film Staten Island Summer.
Views
As a stand up comedian, Colin has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as well as on Turner Broadcasting System and Home Box Office.