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 late night talk show, "The Jon Stewart Show."
Stewart completed work earlier this year 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.
Stewart's latest foray into late-night television reunites him with the former executive producer and producer of "The Jon Stewart Show," respectively Eileen Katz, now executive vice president, programming COMEDY CENTRAL and Madeleine Smithberg, now executive producer of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." "The Jon Stewart Show" began as a half-hour nighttime talk show on MTV, and was quickly enlarged by Paramount to a one-hour format for national syndication. The critically acclaimed talk show featured a variety of celebrity guests from the world of music, entertainment, sports and fashion. The show aired from September, 1994 through June, 1995.
On the feature film front, Stewart recently completed production on "Big Daddy," a comedy starring Adam Sandler. Stewart will also be seen on the big screen starring in the Miramax film "Playing by Heart" with Gillian Anderson which will be released at Christmas and marks a departure for Stewart in that it will show more of a dramatic side than people are accustomed to seeing. Additionally, moviegoers can catch Stewart in "The Faculty," a horror-comedy directed by Robert Rodriguez in which Stewart portrays a teacher in a high school where strange things start happening to the faculty.
Through Stewart's Busboy Productions, Miramax Films has signed the company to an overall production deal. Jon has committed to star in two movies per year, and will also get the chance to write and produce as well as star in some of the films. Projects on its slate include the comedy "Almost Romantic" in which Stewart and Janeane Garofalo are attached to star for Touchstone Pictures as well a the comedy "Bird Meets Girl" which will also serve as a starring vehicle for Stewart.
The fall release of "Naked Pictures of Famous People" (Rob Weisbach Books) marked Stewart's foray into the literary world. While it may be the conventional route for a stand-up comedian 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, a collection of fictitious and humorous what-if essays.