NH People

February 22. 2013 8:59PM

Seth Meyers

Following in Sandler's Footsteps?

Seth Meyers is a comedian and actor. He was born in Bedford, New Hampshire on December 28, 1973 and he graduated from West High School before attending Northwestern University in Chicago. His parents still live in Bedford; his mother, Hilary Meyers is a French teacher at McKelvie Middle School. But Seth has moved on to the Big Apple, since taking a job as a cast member on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in September 2001.

Meyers, whose brother Josh is also a comedian and cast-member on MadTV, joined an improv group at Northwestern called Mee-Ow. From there, he joined Boom Chicago, an improv group based out of Chicago, and took the show on the road. He based the show out of Amsterdam, but has performed in places like London, Edinburgh and Singapore too. In 1999, while he was with Boom, he wrote and co-starred in a 2-person comedy show called "Pick-Ups and Hiccups" with Jill Benjamin.

In 2001, he performed at a Chicago Improv Festival, the Chicago Improv-Olympic, where he caught the attention of a Saturday Night Live scout. This is the same venue that launched the career of SNL cast member Tina Fey and many others. Meyers was invited to try-out and was hired. He became a regular in the 2003-2004 season and in 2005 became Writing Supervisor for the show. He is currently working as head writer and anchor of Weekend Update, a regular feature on the show.

During his time on air, Meyers transforms into various characters that evolved into recurring roles including "the Zinger," a workplace insult king, and Jonathan Feinstein, a disc jockey. He is also a master impersonator who has portrayed characters like Prince Charles, Ty Pennington, Stone Phillips, Russell Crowe, Ryan Seacrest, Donald Trump and even Osama Bin Laden and Nicolette Sheridan. His most famous portrayal has been that of John Kerry, which rivaled impersonations by prior SNL cast-members; namely Dana Carvey as George Bush and Phil Hartman as Ronald Reagan.

He has taken his writing to a new level with an SNL sketch called "Key Party," a movie which he wrote and will star in. He will appear in the film, which is currently in development. He has also started appearing on the big screen, first taking small parts in movies like Thunder Road, Perception, See this Movie and 2004's Maestro. In 2006, he appeared in the feature film American Dreamz with Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid and Mandy Moore. He was also in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and Spring Breakdown, with his SNL co-star Amy Poehler. The movie was released in 2009. Seth also hosted the Webby Awards twice, in 2008 and 2009 and ESPN's 2010 ESPY Awards on July 14, 2010.

In 2011, Meyers appeared in the films, I Don't Know How She Does It and New Year's Eve.