Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia (born June 20, 1978) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, storyteller, director, producer and writer.

He is a frequent contributor to This American Life and The Moth, and has released several comedy albums and television specials.

Birbiglia attended the all-boys Catholic school St. John's High School for one year, and graduated from St. Mark's School in 1996.

He says seeing comedian Steven Wright perform inspired him to begin writing jokes at age 16.

Birbiglia began doing improv in 1997.

His sister was able to get him an interview on Conan O’Brien's show as an intern, where he worked for associate producer Jordan Schlansky.

He subsequently attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 2000.

During college he performed as a member of the Georgetown Players Improv Troupe, worked as a server in a comedy club, and began performing at DC Improv (The Improv) in Washington, D.C.

Birbiglia moved to New York in 2000, and appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2002.

He told his first story on stage at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, in 2003, and eventually became a semi-regular contributor to The Moth storytelling series.

He released his first album, Dog Years, in 2004, followed by My Secret Public Album, Volume 1a (2005) a compilation of his appearances on The Bob and Tom Show.

His next two albums, Two Drink Mike (2006), and My Secret Public Journal Live (2007) were released on Comedy Central Records.

My Secret Public Journal Live was named one of the best comedy albums of the decade by The A.V. Club.

In 2008 CBS picked up a sitcom pilot loosely based on Birbiglia's life and featuring him, Bob Odenkirk and Frances Conroy that ultimately never aired.

He later called the failure of his pilot "the luckiest thing that ever happened to me."

In 2008, Birbiglia opened Sleepwalk with Me, a one-man show that straddled standup comedy and theater, off-Broadway at the Bleecker Street Theater.

The show was presented by Nathan Lane, and The New York Times called it "simply perfect".

Time Out New York named it their "Show of the Year" in 2009.

His 2010 book Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Birbiglia adapted his material into the 2010 book Sleepwalk with Me, and Other Painfully True Stories and the 2011 album Sleepwalk With Me Live.

The book debuted at #29 on the hardcover nonfiction New York Times Bestseller List and number four on the hardcover nonfiction section of the Washington Post Political Bookworm Best Sellers.

Birbiglia has appeared in films such as Your Sister's Sister (2011), Cedar Rapids (2011), and Trainwreck (2015), played a recurring role in Orange Is the New Black, Billions and has guest starred in episodes of Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, and Broad City.

He also replaced Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show for a week, as Kimmel caught COVID-19.

Birbiglia was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Jean (née McKenzie), a nurse, and Vincent Paul Birbiglia, a doctor.

He is the youngest of four children.

He is partially of Italian descent and was raised Catholic.

The book was also a finalist for the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Sleepwalk With Me Live debuted at #1 on the Billboard Comedy Charts.

Birbiglia made his directorial debut with Sleepwalk with Me, based on his one-man show and which he wrote, directed, and starred in.

In 2011, Birbiglia mounted his second one-man show, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, which ran for four months off-Broadway and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show.

His feature-length directorial debut Sleepwalk with Me (2012), based on his one-man show of the same name and in which he also starred, won awards at the Sundance and Nantucket film festivals.

The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the NEXT Audience Award.

It was selected in the "Festival Favorites" category at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas and also appeared in the Nantucket Film Festival where it won the award for best writer/director.

The film was produced by Jacob Jaffke and This American Life's Ira Glass and stars Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, James Rebhorn, and Cristin Milioti and has cameos by Glass, Kristen Schaal, Wyatt Cenac, David Wain, Jessi Klein, John Lutz and Marc Maron.

While hosting the 2012 Gotham Awards, Birbiglia roasted I Heart Huckabees director David O. Russell by reading a transcript of Russell's on-set argument with actress Lily Tomlin.

The event, specifically the joke and what transpired after it, later formed a large part of Birbiglia's show, Thank God for Jokes.

In addition to starring in Sleepwalk with Me, Birbiglia has appeared in films such as Trainwreck, Going the Distance, Cedar Rapids, Your Sister's Sister and The Fault in Our Stars.

He has also guest-starred in episodes of Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, and Broad City.

He also wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy-drama Don't Think Twice (2016).

He played the role of Oscar Langstraat in the third and fifth seasons of Showtime's hit show Billions and Danny Pearson on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black in its third and fourth seasons, with which he shared the 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.