Louis C.K.

Louis Szekely, born September 12, 1967, known professionally as Louis C.K., is a Mexican-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.

Early life

Szekely was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mary Louise (née Davis), a software engineer, and Luis Szekely, an economist. His mother is of Irish Catholic ancestry and his father, a native of Mexico, is of Mexican Catholic and Hungarian-Jewish descent. The two met at Harvard University while Luis was trying to finish his degree during a summer school program. Louis moved to Mexico City and lived there until the age of seven. His first language is Spanish, and he still retains his Mexican citizenship. Upon moving from Mexico to Boston, Massachusetts, Szekely discovered he wanted to become a writer and comedian, citing Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin as some of his influences. When he was around the age of 10, his parents divorced. Consequently, Szekely was raised as one of four children by a single mother in Newton, Massachusetts. His primary influence for aspiring to produce movies and television turned out to be his mother: "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, where he was given five minutes of time, but only had two minutes of material. The experience kept him away from comedy for two years. Szekely gradually moved up into paid gigs, opened for Jerry Seinfeld and hosted comedy clubs until he moved to Manhattan in 1989.

Career

Writing

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.

Filmmaking

C.K. wrote and directed the feature-length movie Pootie Tang (2000). He has written and directed the independent black-and-white film Tomorrow Night (1998) (which premiered at Sundance) and several shorter films, including six short films for the sketch comedy show "Sunny Skies" (1995) on the Showtime cable network.

Stand-up

C.K. has performed his stand-up frequently on shows such as 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 titled 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.

Acting

In June 2006, C.K. 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, C.K. 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 was picked up for thirteen episodes and has been renewed for a second season. It addresses life as a divorced, aging 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.

Other work

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 features his Lucky Louie co-star Jim Norton, and was also a part of Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour with other comedians in 2007. He makes frequent appearances on Raw Dog Comedy on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, and in 2007 hosted a three-hour phone-in show on the service at the request of Opie & Anthony, during which he advised callers on their relationship troubles.

During an interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the Opie and Anthony radio show, Louis C.K. famously asked Rumsfeld whether he is in fact a Mexican baby eating space lizard "who eats the poor. Rumsfeld declined to comment.

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, short films he made independently in the earlier years of his career, and rejected HBO segments. In 2007, he wrote a controversial sketch presenting the Catholic Church as existing "solely for the purpose of boy rape" that attracted the ire of several Christian media organizations (the same groups would later attack Lucky Louie for being "barbaric").

Personal life

He was married to New York artist and painter Alix Bailey; they divorced in 2008. He has two daughters from the marriage and shares joint custody of them with Bailey.