Biography
With a sleepy, wry, deadpan, philosophical, and funny delivery, comedian, actor, and writer Steven Wright captured the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1985 with his first release, I Have a Pony. Raised just outside Boston, he studied at Emerson College and, upon finishing his degree in 1978, fused the city’s taste for lofty ideas with its blue-collar outlook into a singular standup style. He first broke through at the city’s storied Ding Ho Comedy Club, a Chinese restaurant by day that transformed into a comedy venue after dark; there, in 1982, executive producer Peter Lassally caught his set and booked him on The Tonight Show. Both host Johnny Carson and viewers responded enthusiastically, prompting a return appearance just seven days later. His 1985 HBO special I Have a Pony quickly became a favorite, and the Warner Bros. album drawn from it earned the Grammy for Best Comedy Album.
A supporting turn as a dentist in the 1985 feature Desperately Seeking Susan launched his screen career, while in 1988 Wright co-wrote and starred in the short The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, which took the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards. His follow-up HBO hour, Wicker Chairs and Gravity, premiered in 1991, and the next year he began recurring on the sitcom Mad About You. He wrote, directed, and starred in the 1999 short One Soldier, then delivered the 2006 Comedy Central special When the Leaves Blow Away, whose album version, I Still Have a Pony, appeared the following year. Beginning in 2009, he served as a frequent guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, assisting the host with viewer correspondence. In 2011 Wright joined the cast of Louis C.K.’s series Louie as himself, a role he had previously played on The Larry Sanders Show in 1994 as well as in the films Half Baked (1998) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003).
A supporting turn as a dentist in the 1985 feature Desperately Seeking Susan launched his screen career, while in 1988 Wright co-wrote and starred in the short The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, which took the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards. His follow-up HBO hour, Wicker Chairs and Gravity, premiered in 1991, and the next year he began recurring on the sitcom Mad About You. He wrote, directed, and starred in the 1999 short One Soldier, then delivered the 2006 Comedy Central special When the Leaves Blow Away, whose album version, I Still Have a Pony, appeared the following year. Beginning in 2009, he served as a frequent guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, assisting the host with viewer correspondence. In 2011 Wright joined the cast of Louis C.K.’s series Louie as himself, a role he had previously played on The Larry Sanders Show in 1994 as well as in the films Half Baked (1998) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003).
Albums
Singles
