Early life

Quinn was born and raised in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, the son of teachers. He attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook, in Stony Brook, Long Island, but did not graduate. He stopped drinking in the early 1980s after several bad experiences with alcohol, including blackouts and arrests.

Early career

Quinn began performing stand-up comedy in 1984, and first achieved fame in 1987 as the sidekick announcer of the MTV game show Remote Control, which lasted five seasons. In 1989, he hosted the A&E stand-up showcase Caroline's Comedy Hour, and wrote and acted in the comedic short/music video "Going Back to Brooklyn" (a parody of LL Cool J's "Going Back to Cali") with Ben Stiller. He wrote for In Living Color, and co-wrote and produced the movie Celtic Pride, which starred Damon Wayans and Dan Aykroyd.

Saturday Night Live

In 1995, Quinn was hired by Saturday Night Live as a writer and featured player. He became a full cast member during the 1997-1998 season. He established himself on the show with characters such as "Lenny the Lion" and "Joe Blow", and did the recurring segment "Colin Quinn Explains the New York Times".

He began hosting Weekend Update in January 1998 after Norm Macdonald's firing, and anchored the segment until his departure in 2000. Quinn commented on a number of highly publicized media circuses, including the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal and the Microsoft Anti-Trust Trial.

During his SNL tenure, Quinn was offered the role of Scott Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery by Mike Myers, which he turned down. The role was accepted by Seth Green. Quinn has called it the only project he has regretted turning down.

Television and film work and stand-up

After leaving SNL, Quinn hosted the short-lived The Colin Quinn Show on NBC in the Spring of 2002. The show combined sketch comedy and stand-up in a live-to-tape format. Despite mostly positive reviews from critics, it was cancelled after three episodes.

Quinn had greater success with his subsequent show, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, which ran on weekdays on Comedy Central from 2002 to 2004. The show featured a panel of four comedians, with Quinn as host, discussing the social and political issues of the day. The show ran for over 200 episodes.

His stand-up was also used in the animated series Shorties Watchin' Shorties.

He was the "unofficial co-host" on the Nick DiPaolo show on the now-defunct 92.3 Free FM in New York City, airing Monday-Friday from noon to three. Quinn and DiPaolo were originally slated to host the show together on WJFK-FM, but the station decided not to pick up the show. Quinn was also a regular guest on The Opie & Anthony Show until its run ended in 2014.

Quinn played Dickie Bailey, the childhood rival to Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler's character) in both Grown Ups films. He also currently recurs as Hermie on the HBO series Girls.

Quinn wrote and starred in the L/Studio web series Cop Show, which premiered in February 2015. The series stars Quinn as a satirical, pompous version of himself, starring in a New York City-based crime drama. The show's guest stars have included Jerry Seinfield, Jim Gaffigan, Michael Che, Jim Norton, Pat Cooper, and Amy Schumer.

Quinn had a supporting role in Amy Schumer's film debut, Trainwreck, as her character's father. He was critically praised for his performance.

One-man shows

Quinn made his Broadway debut in 1998 in a one-man show, Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake, co-written with Lou DiMaggio. The show reflected Quinn's upbringing within the Irish-American community of Brooklyn; it was set at a wake in 1976, with Quinn portraying family members and acquaintances who show up for the event.

In 2009, Quinn premiered his second one-man show My Two Cents, which covers the economic crumbling of the American empire.

In 2010, Quinn premiered his third one-man show Colin Quinn Long Story Short on Broadway, directed by Jerry Seinfeld. The show covered world history from prehistoric times to the present, offering satirical takes on the rise and fall of various world empires. Quinn recorded a special performance of the show that aired on HBO on April 9, 2011.

In 2013, Quinn premiered another one-man show on historical themes, Unconstitutional, which covers the United States Constitution, its creation, and its impact on the American psyche.

Quinn starred in his fifth one-man show, The New York Story, in July and August 2015 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The show was based upon the experiences chronicled in his book, The Coloring Book: A Comedian Solves Race Relations in America. It delves into his growing up in the ethnically diverse Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn and how it has changed over the years into its current state. Jerry Seinfeld, who directed Long Story Short, returned as director.

Social media

Quinn has gained attention for his account on the social network Twitter, where he usually posts deliberately vacuous statements, often in the form of either inspirational statements or boasts about his celebrity status, that are intended to provoke his readers.

Awards and honors

In 2004, Quinn was named No. 56 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all-time.

He was named one the Top 100 Irish Americans of the year in 2004 and 2011 by the magazine Irish America.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Rock 'n' Roll Hotel	DJ	Aired on HBO
1987	Three Men and a Baby	Gift Shop Clerk
1988	Crocodile Dundee II	Onlooker at Mansion
1988	Married to the Mob	Homicide Detective
1993	Who's the Man?	Frankie Flynn
1998	A Night at the Roxbury	Dooey
2003	Crooked Lines	Annoying Customer
2006	Home	Himself	Documentary Film
2008	Harold	Reedy
2009	Paper Boys	TV Voiceover
2010	Grown Ups	Dickie Bailey
2012	That's My Boy	Strip Club DJ
2013	Grown Ups 2	Dickie Bailey
2015	Trainwreck	Gordon
2016	Booted	Debt Collector	Completed

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987-1990	Remote Control	Sidekick/Announcer and writer	9 episodes
1988	The Cosby Show	Davey Herbeck	1 episode
1988	2 Hip 4 TV	Co-host with Ahmet Zappa	unknown episodes
1989	Men	Baltimore	1 episode
1989	Caroline's Comedy Hour	Host	2 episodes
1989-1990	True Blue		2 episodes
1990	Manly World		Also writer
1992	The Ben Stiller Show		1 episode
1992	Gaudy, Bawdy & Blue	Mulligan	TV Movie
1995	The Larry Sanders Show	Cully	1 episode
1995-2000	Saturday Night Live	Cast Member	97 episodes
1996	The Christmas Tree	Tom	TV Movie
1997	Pulp Comics: Jim Breuer	Cop	1 episode
1997	Space Ghost Coast to Coast	Himself	1 episode
2002-2004	Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn	Host and writer
2003	Windy City Heat	Talk Show Guest	TV Movie
2008	What About Sal?	O'Brien	TV Short
2011	Cheat	Delivery Boy	TV Short
2013-2016	Girls	Hermie	6 episodes
2014	The Awesomes	Jeff Apelstein	7 episodes
2014-2015	Inside Amy Schumer	Judge / Elevator Passenger From Hell	2 episodes
2015	The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore	Pinocchio	1 episode
2015	The Jim Gaffigan Show	Himself	1 episode

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
1993	In Living Color	TV Series (8 episodes)
1996	Celtic Pride	Film written with Judd Apatow
2014	Cop Show	8 episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]