Nicholas Rocco Di Paolo[1] (born January 31, 1962)[2] is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, radio personality and podcast host.

[9] His brother also attended the university and did play-by-play commentary for the Maine Black Bears hockey team with Gary Thorne.

[8][9][10] During this time, the stand-up comedy scene in the Boston area had picked up and a friend encouraged Di Paolo to go on stage.

[12] Di Paolo performed his first routine in the summer of 1986 at an open mic night at Stitches club in Boston, traveling from a family barbecue with "about 22 beers in me".

[12][10] He recalled his five-minute set went "pretty well" and wanted to pursue it full time,[7] but his salesman job required a temporary relocation to Rhode Island.

In the spring of 1987, he returned to Boston and started to make regular appearances at local open mic nights.

[8] Upon moving to New York City, Di Paolo's act became more political from reading local newspapers and comparing views of each publication.

[7] He went on to make an early appearance on national television on The Arsenio Hall Show and featured on HBO's Young Comedian's Special, which focused on up and coming comics.

[8] Di Paolo's first stand-up album, Born This Way, was released in 1999 and was recorded at The Comedy Store in La Jolla, California.

[17] In June 2001, Di Paolo made his first appearance on Late Show with David Letterman and later, filmed promos for the Comedy Central roast of Hugh Hefner.

[16] From 2002 to 2004, Di Paolo was a regular guest on the Comedy Central show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.

[20] Other television appearances include The Colin Quinn Show on NBC, NewsRadio, Suddenly Susan and The Smoking Gun Presents.

[22] In April 2011, Di Paolo's special Raw Nerve was released as part of the Comedy Central Presents... series and on the television network Showtime.

[25] Di Paolo was fired from SiriusXM after he posted comments on his Twitter account which read “School shooters, please confine yourself to coll.

[27] The show was cancelled after Di Paolo had posted comments on his Twitter account that management deemed offensive, and was subsequently fired.

Di Paolo maintained that his "poorly worded tweet" should have resulted in a temporary suspension "at best", and that SiriusXM had overreacted.

[4] The talk radio-styled podcast sees Di Paolo delve into various topics, including the news, American politics, modern society, race relations, and social justice.

[32] On May 6, 2019, Di Paolo released his one-hour comedy special, A Breath of Fresh Air, for free on YouTube.

He wanted to release it "without any media/industry filter" that networks such as Netflix or Comedy Central have in place, and his management aimed to present Di Paolo to a wider audience to increase his profile.