John Mulaney is an award-winning stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for his stand-up specials "The Top Part" (2009), "New in Town" (2012), "The Comeback Kid" (2015), and "Kid Gorgeous" (2018), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. After completing his university education, Mulaney moved to New York in order to pursue a career as a comedian. He later auditioned for Saturday Night Live, where he was able to secure a spot on the writing team. He worked at SNL for six seasons, and his writing eventually got him nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. Along with a few other members of the show, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. He was then seen in the Comedy Central show "Important Things with Demetri Martin," which ran for two seasons. After a couple of years doing voice roles in Hollywood, Mulaney created and played the lead role in the TV comedy series "Mulaney," where he portrayed a fictionalized version of himself.
In August 2000, Mulaney, a Catholic kid from Chicago, enrolled at his parents' alma mater, Georgetown University. It didn't take long for him to make friends, since within a week he was accepted into the school’s fledgling improv group, The Georgetown Players. As it turns out, the guy who cast him in the group was fellow comedian Nick Kroll, a college senior and the group's director at the time. Mulaney, for his part, hadn’t planned on focusing on improv in his time at Georgetown. Originally, he had planned on writing and maybe starting a humor magazine. But according to Kroll, Mulaney's performing chops were hard to ignore. “I saw John audition his freshman year and was like, this is the funniest guy I’ve ever met,” said Kroll.
Mulaney majored in English with a theology minor. In the lecture hall, one experience in particular that shaped his career occurred in a screenwriting class. The professor challenged the class to rewrite the lyrics of Cole Porter songs with modern references. While the assignment initially seemed useless, as the semester continued, Mulaney began to see the value of the exercise. "It was about teaching you that the more economical you can make anything, song lyrics, dialogue, jokes, the better it’s going to be,” Mulaney said. “I think that’s influenced me the most . . . It’s rules from [that] class that I think about all the time.” In 2004, Mulaney graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
In the past few years, Mulaney has returned to his college roots for events, including for 2019's fundraiser for the Georgetown Scholar's Program, or GSP, held in New York City. Mulaney was joined by fellow Georgetown alumni and comedians Jim Gaffigan and Mike Birbiglia, who raised a whopping $1 million to support the GSP, which benefits low-income and first-generation students at Georgetown. “For a program that relies on philanthropy, the money raised from this event is so helpful,” said GSP director Missy Foy. “The comedians prioritized the inclusion of students and removed cost as a barrier."