Biography of Jon Stewart

A New Jersey native, Jon Stewart is considered one of America's top social and comedic voices. From his anchor chair of COMEDY CENTRAL's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," he "has breathed new life into a show that hadn't even seemed to need it," said The New York Times. Since taking over as the anchorman of "The Daily Show" in January 1999, Stewart's presence has seen higher ratings and awareness for himself and COMEDY CENTRAL.

With an election year around upon us, Stewart and "The Daily Show" are poised to lead the way to the White House as the new torch bearers of COMEDY CENTRAL's "Indecision" election coverage. "Indecision 2000" will cover the elections, debates and candidates from the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary straight through to the National Conventions and will culminate on Election Night with a one-hour special.

Prior to taking over "The Daily Show," Stewart's most recent television work was on HBO's critically acclaimed series-within-a-series, "The Larry Sanders Show," playing a character he should know very well: himself. The final season saw, among other things, Stewart seemingly being groomed to take over the fictitious late-night throne from the perpetually paranoid Larry Sanders (Garry Shandling). Stewart also served as a creative consultant on the series.

On the feature film front, Stewart starred with Adam Sandler in one of 1999's biggest hits "Big Daddy." He also starred in the romantic drama "Playing by Heart" opposite Gillian Anderson which marked a departure for Stewart in that he was allowed to show more of a dramatic side of himself than people are accustomed to seeing. Stewart also starred in "The Faculty," a horror-comedy directed by Robert Rodriguez.

While it may be the conventional route for stand-up comedians to sign a book deal and expound on their early days inside dingy comedy clubs, Stewart took the path less traveled with his debut book, "Naked Pictures of Famous People" (Rob Weisbach Books). A collection of fictitious and humorous what-if essays, "Naked Pictures" has appeared on many best-sellers lists including The New York Times Best-Seller List.

Stewart has also written for several magazines including The New Yorker, Esquire and George.

Other notable television credits include the CableAce-nominated one-hour HBO comedy special, "Jon Stewart: Unleavened," which premiered in September 1996 as well as guest hosting CBS' "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder," NBC's "NewsRadio" and HBO's "Mr. Show with Bob & David."

Long considered one of America's top young comedians, Stewart began honing his skills in New York City, moving through the ranks of its top comedy clubs to appearance's on HBO's "Young Comedians Special" and "Late Show with David Letterman." Those, in turn, led him to host his own half-hour late night talk show, aptly titled "The Jon Stewart Show." After briefly hosting the show on MTV, Paramount enlarged the show to a one-hour format for national syndication. The critically acclaimed talk show featured a variety of celebrity guests from the worlds of music, entertainment, sports and fashion. The show aired from September 1994 through June 1995.