Louis C.K. | Biography, Movies, & TV Shows | Britannica

Nov 03, 2024

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Louis C.K. (born September 12, 1967, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is an American comedian, writer, director, and producer known for his ribald confessional stand-up comedy and for his television show Louie.

Szekely was raised in Mexico City until age seven, when his family moved to Massachusetts. In elementary school he began styling his name “Louis C.K.,” using a phonetic rendering of his surname. After graduating from high school, he worked as an auto mechanic while trying out stand-up comedy routines at Boston-area open-mike nights. In 1989 C.K. moved to New York City, where he continued to hone his stand-up and began making short films.

He joined the writing staff of Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1993, beginning a career writing for the television shows of respected comedians such as Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, and Chris Rock. C.K. won an Emmy Award in 1999 for his work on The Chris Rock Show, and in 2001 he wrote and directed the eccentric feature film Pootie Tang, a box-office disappointment that later earned a cult following. He also was a writer on the Rock-starring films Down to Earth (2001) and I Think I Love My Wife (2007).

While C.K. was making a name for himself as a writer, his candid stand-up routines grew in popularity and gradually earned him a reputation as a “comic’s comic.” He was known for exploring the darker side of human nature in his stage show—often mining the most intimate details of his personal life for material—and being someone who said the things an audience would not admit to thinking. Aided by his savvy use of the Internet via his blog and oft-proliferated YouTube clips of his performances, C.K. established himself as a prominent U.S.-touring stand-up comedian by the middle of the first decade of the 2000s.

In 2006 C.K. created, cowrote, and starred in Lucky Louie, a television series on the HBO cable channel that recalled working-class sitcoms of the past, such as The Honeymooners and All in the Family. Lucky Louie met with mixed reviews from critics and lasted just one season before being cancelled.

In 2010 C.K. created for the FX cable channel a second television series, Louie, an offbeat, loosely structured show that consisted of short, often-surreal narrative segments—which were not always comedic in nature—interspersed with clips of C.K.’s stand-up performances. He had even more creative control in this second attempt at running a television show: he wrote, directed, edited, and starred in the program. Louie was a hit with critics, and C.K. received Emmy Awards for his writing (2012 and 2014) as well as multiple nominations for best lead actor in a comedic series (2011–15). After the show’s fifth season ended in 2015, Louie went on an extended hiatus.

C.K.’s extremely hands-on approach to his projects extended to his 2011 stand-up special Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theater. He produced, directed, and edited the Emmy-winning special, which, before airing on television, was distributed on C.K.’s Web site for a low price ($5) to make it more accessible to his fans and to discourage illegal downloads. He was widely praised for this novel (for the comedy world, at least) business model. In 2014 C.K. released a feature-length film that he had directed in 1998, Tomorrow Night, via a $5 download from his Web site. C.K. also produced conventionally released audio and video recordings of his stand-up performances. Hilarious (2011) and Live at Madison Square Garden (2015) won Grammy Awards for best comedy album. In 2017 he released a stand-up special through the streaming service Netflix simply called 2017.

In addition, the comic acted in such films as The Invention of Lying (2009), Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013), and David O. Russell’s American Hustle (2013). C.K. provided the voice of a terrier in the computer-animated children’s comedy The Secret Life of Pets (2016). He had a recurring role on the sitcom Parks and Recreation. C.K. also cocreated and wrote the television show Baskets, which premiered in 2016 and featured Zach Galifianakis as a rodeo clown; created, wrote, directed, and costarred in the Web series Horace and Pete (2016), about the goings-on at a bar; and cocreated and produced the television show Better Things, which began airing in 2016 and follows the struggles of an actress and single mother.

In November 2017 The New York Times published an article in which a number of women accused C.K. of sexual misconduct. He subsequently stated that their stories were true, and he expressed remorse for his actions. FX ended its association with C.K., and he was removed as producer from such shows as Baskets and Better Things. The fate of Louie was uncertain, though it seemed unlikely to return. In addition, the distributor for I Love You, Daddy (2017)—which C.K. wrote, starred in, and directed—announced that it had canceled the film’s theatrical release.

In August 2018 C.K. made a surprise visit to a comedy club in New York City, performing a stand-up routine. Other appearances followed, and his return elicited mixed reactions. In 2020 he released the stand-up comedy film Sincerely Louis CK. It was accompanied by an audio-only version, which later won the Grammy for best comedy album.