[4][5][6] Colbert originally studied to be a dramatic actor, but became interested in improvisational theater while attending Northwestern University, where he met Second City director Del Close.

Colbert was born in Washington, D.C.,[2][9] the youngest of eleven children (James III, Edward, Mary, William, Margo, Thomas, Jay, Elizabeth, Paul, and Peter) in a Catholic family.

[18] He has said his father was interested in French humanist writers including Léon Bloy and Jacques Maritain, while his mother was fond of Catholic Worker Movement leader Dorothy Day.

[22] As a child, he observed that Southerners were often depicted as being less intelligent than other characters on scripted television; to avoid that stereotype, he taught himself to imitate the speech of American news anchors.

"[28] On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and his brothers Paul and Peter, who were closest to him in age, died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 while attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[37] When Sedaris and Dinello were offered the opportunity to create a television series for HBO Downtown Productions, Colbert left Second City and relocated to New York to work with them on the sketch comedy show Exit 57.

[60] Following the cancelation of Exit 57, Colbert worked for six months as a cast member and writer on The Dana Carvey Show, alongside former Second City castmate Steve Carell, and also Robert Smigel, Charlie Kaufman, Louis C.K., and Dino Stamatopoulos, among others.

Smigel brought his animated sketch, The Ambiguously Gay Duo, to SNL from The Dana Carvey Show; Colbert provided the voice of Ace on both series, opposite Steve Carell as Gary.

Needing money, he also worked as a script consultant for VH1 and MTV, before taking a job filming humorous correspondent segments for Good Morning America.

[63] Colbert served as a main writer alongside Sedaris and Dinello, and portrayed Jerri's strict but uninformed history teacher, Chuck Noblet, seen throughout the series dispensing inaccurate information to his classes.

Originally one of four correspondents who filmed segments from remote locations in the style of network news field reporters, Colbert was referred to as "the new guy" on-air for his first two years on the show, during which time Craig Kilborn served as host.

[73] Unlike Stewart, who essentially hosted The Daily Show as himself,[74] Colbert developed a correspondent character for his pieces on the series that was a parody of conservative political pundits such as Bill O'Reilly.

[80] Colbert appeared in several recurring segments for The Daily Show, including "Even Stevphen" with Steve Carell,[81] in which both characters were expected to debate a selected topic but instead would unleash their anger at one another.

Other pieces that have been named as his signature segments include "Grouse Hunting in Shropshire", in which he reported on the "gayness" of British aristocracy, his mock lionization of a smoking-rights activist and apparent chain-smoker, and his cameo appearances during his faux campaign for president.

[90] The final episode on December 18, 2014, featured a rendition of "We'll Meet Again" and appearances from former guests of the show, including Jon Stewart, Randy Newman, Bryan Cranston, Willie Nelson, Yo-Yo Ma, Mandy Patinkin, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, J. J. Abrams, Big Bird, Gloria Steinem, Ken Burns, James Franco, Barry Manilow, Bob Costas, Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston, Bill de Blasio, Katie Couric, Patrick Stewart, George Lucas, Henry Kissinger, Cookie Monster, Alan Alda, Eliot Spitzer, Vince Gilligan, Paul Krugman, and a text from Bill Clinton.

Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor Todd Gitlin claimed that this was because Colbert's routine was as critical of the media as it was of Bush.

[146] Writing six months later, New York Times columnist Frank Rich referred to Colbert's speech as a "cultural primary" and called it the "defining moment" of the 2006 midterm elections.

One anonymous member of the council told CNN that former State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum had placed pressure on them to refuse Colbert's application despite his steady rise in polls.

[160][161][162] Colbert arrived in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 5, 2009, to film a week of shows called "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando" sponsored by the USO (United Service Organizations).

[185][186][187] Immediately after this legal block was out of the way, Colbert announced, "I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina.

The novel was a collaboration between Colbert, Amy Sedaris, and Paul Dinello, and tells the story of a small town threatened by the impending destruction of a massive dam.

He has made guest appearances on the television series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Spin City, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent,[193] and on the first season of the American improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

He voiced the characters of Reducto and Phil Ken Sebben in the Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, but left the show in 2005 to work on The Colbert Report.

[209][210] Every year since its foundation, he has participated by hosting an annual fundraising event and leading Q&As and conversations with directors, writers, journalists, and actors such as Jon Stewart, Rob Reiner, Steve Carell, J. J. Abrams, David Itzkoff, Ethan Hawke, Rachel Weisz, and Meryl Streep.

[232] Among comedians who say they were influenced by Colbert are Nathan Fielder,[233] James Corden,[234] Mindy Kaling,[235] Hasan Minhaj,[236] Jordan Klepper,[237] Ziwe Fumudoh,[238] Sara Benincasa,[239] John Mulaney,[240] Derrick Beckles,[241] Julie Klausner,[242][243] and Billy Eichner.

[18][245][246][247][248] He is an avid reader and his favorite authors include J. R. R. Tolkien, J. D. Salinger, Robertson Davies, George Saunders, Larry Niven, Henry Kuttner, and Isaac Asimov.

[248][56][255][256] In a 2018 interview, Colbert told Rolling Stone: I needed to be medicated when I was younger to deal with my anxiety that I had thrown my life away by attempting to do something that so few people actually get away with, or succeed at ... Xanax was just lovely.

[263][264] Colbert later said the pain he was attempting to conceal during the taping was greatly exacerbated when celebrity chef José Andrés grabbed him for an impromptu dance during a cooking segment.

[281] Colbert was honored for the Gutsiest Move on the Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards on June 13, 2007, for his performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

The complex machine is now used eight hours daily by astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station in order to maintain their muscle mass and bone density while spending long periods of time in a zero-gravity environment.