Jon Stewart is considered one of America’s top social and comedic voices. From his anchor chair on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, “Stewart 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 host of The Daily Show in January, 1999, Stewart’s presence has seen higher ratings and awareness for himself, as well as the network.

As host of The Daily Show Stewart has interviewed such luminaries as former President Bill Clinton, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, John McCain, John Edwards and Bob Dole and such celebrity icons as Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis. Since arriving in 1999, Stewart and The Daily Show have received twenty-four Emmy Award nominations and won ten times. These include winning for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program five times (2001, 2003–2006) as well as Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for the past five consecutive years (2003–2007).

Jon himself has been nominated for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program four times (2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007). In 2004, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was also honored by the Television Critics Association by winning for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information, beating out traditional news shows in the category. Jon has been honored three times by the Association for Individual Achievement in Comedy (2003, 2005 and 2006) and the show won in 2003 for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. In 2001, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart also received the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in its “Indecision 2000” campaign coverage and again in 2005 for “Indecision 2004.”

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 has gone the other way. His debut book, Naked Pictures of Famous People, (Rob Weisbach Books) is a collection of humorous what-if essays. Stewart’s latest book (written with the writers at The Daily Show), America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, was released in 2004 through Warner Books Publishing, and immediately topped the New York Times Best Seller List and stayed at number one for eighteen consecutive weeks. It was also ranked number-one on the best-seller lists in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and San Francisco Chronicle.

Additionally, America was given the prestigious book of the year in 2004 by Publishers Weekly. In addition to this, at the 2005 Grammy Awards, both Jon and the Cast of The Daily Show were honored with Best Comedy Album, for America: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction. Prior to taking over The Daily Show, Stewart was a series regular 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. Hosting a late-night talk show was nothing new to Stewart. After briefly hosting a half-hour nighttime talk show on MTV, aptly titled The Jon Stewart Show, 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. Stewart’s been seen in numerous feature films including the Danny De Vito-directed Warner Brothers Comedy Death To Smoochy starring Edward Norton, Robin Williams, De Vito and Catherine Keener, Big Daddy opposite Adam Sandler, which grossed over $160 million dollars domestically, the romantic drama Playing By Heart opposite Gillian Anderson; and The Faculty, a horror-comedy directed by Robert Rodriguez.

The New Jersey native began honing his skills in New York City, moving through the ranks of its top comedy clubs to appearances on HBO’s Young Comedians Special and Late Show with David Letterman. Stewart has graced the cover of numerous magazines including Newsweek, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, etc. He was also named “Entertainer of the Year” for 2004 by Entertainment Weekly and as “New York Entertainer of the Year” by Variety. Most recently, Stewart has been featured on such shows as Oprah and 60 Minutes