Louis C.K.

Louis Szekely, known professionally as Louis C.K., is an American stand-up comedian, Emmy-winning screenwriter, actor, producer and director.

Louis Szekely was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mary and Luis Szekely, an economist. His mother was of Irish Catholic descent and his father, a native of Mexico, was of Mexican Catholic and Hungarian Jewish ancestry. After four years in Mexico City, Szekely grew up in Massachusetts—first Framingham and then Newton. His family pronounces their surname, Hungarian-origin Szekely, roughly as [se'-ke], and in his grade-school years he resorted to "C.K." as an easy way to get his name pronounced almost correctly as [si' ke].

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, received largely negative reviews. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for writing on his 2008 special, Chewed Up.

He has performed his stand-up frequently on shows like Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 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."