Biography of Craig Kilborn

In his work on ESPN's SportsCenter and Comedy Central's The Daily Show, Craig Kilborn is known for his jocular wit and wry style. After developing a cult following for his spirited commentary on SportsCenter, Kilborn broke into a mainstream cable audience with Comedy Central's sarcastic soft news show, The Daily Show. In 1999, Kilborn moved to CBS to take over as host of The Late, Late Show.

As a child, he often entertained at his parents' parties, pulling out his ventriloquist dummy to do an act. Kilborn attended Montana State University in Bozeman, where he majored in film and television. After graduation, Kilborn spent a year working in radio and television in Savannah, Georgia, doing play by play for the Savannah Sprints. Kilborn decided to pursue his career in acting, so he moved to the Los Angeles area. While taking improvisational acting classes, Kilborn taught traffic school and continued to work in sportscasting.

For a year, Kilborn covered play by play action of the Long Beach State men's basketball team for an Anaheim radio station. Simultaneously, he worked as a sports anchor for a television station in Santa Rosa. In 1990, Kilborn was hired by KCBA-TV in Salinas, California, where he was the station's sportscaster. This position got him noticed. He developed a fan following, which included actor Robin Williams, for his ironic, seemingly nonsensical commentaries on sports highlights, especially his personal favorite NBA action. He also staged outrageous escapes. In 1990, for example, Kilborn convinced two men in a bar to reenact a pay-per-view bout between Evander Holyfield and Buster Douglas for viewers who had missed the fight. Kilborn's acting career was represented by only one credit: a bit part as a policeman in a 1991 Showtime movie, Open Window. Kilborn's work as a sportscaster in California got the attention of ESPN. He was hired as an anchor by that sports-only network in 1993, where his cult-following took on national proportions and his commentary grew more outrageous.

In the summer of 1996, Kilborn was hired by Comedy Central to host their new show entitled The Daily Show. Kilborn and The Daily Show slowly built an audience. Many critics praised the program and Kilborn's persona. One highlight of the show was at the end of the daily celebrity interview. Kilborn asked his guests five, seemingly random, trivia questions, which often caught them off guard. Taking over The Late, Late Show, Kilborn revamped it to suit his own irreverent comedic style. Whatever the network, Kilborn has many comedic weapons in his arsenal.