A Look Back: Hollywood’s Farm Team

For a broadcast dedicated to fake news, The Daily Show certainly inspires an outsize share of real-world excitement, especially in Hollywood casting offices.

Since its 1996 debut, Comedy Central’s satirical half hour has become a respected source of political insight, while its ersatz correspondents have become a veritable farm team for studios and networks seeking proven performers to fill out or even topline movies and series.

Take Jason Jones. The Canadian-born actor, who signed on as a TDS correspondent in 2005, has since appeared in a slew of feature films, including The Switch and Date Night, while notching guest spots on TV series as diverse as Law & Order, How I Met Your Mother and Sesame Street.

This year holds a pair of big-time opportunities for him. He’s scripted and been signed to star in an as-yet-untitled Fox comedy series about a high-flying single guy in Manhattan who suddenly finds himself a family man when his sister is called to active military duty and leaves her kids with him.

Executive producers include Chris and Paul Weitz and Steve Carell, whose own stint as a Daily Show correspondent ended just before Jones’s began. More recently, Jones has been cast as the male lead in ABC’s pilot for Divorce: A Love Story, where he plays one of two exes (the other being Andrea Anders) who continue to find themselves ensnarled in each other’s lives.

So is a Daily Show link on one’s IMDB page a golden ticket to success? It certainly can lead to opportunity. Here’s a rundown of alumni who’ve made career hay on the strength of their late-night “journalism.”

Lewis Black (1996 to present)

The longest-tenured Daily Show performer, Black’s been with the show since its 1996 debut — even before Stewart joined. As seen in his recurring segment, “Back in Black,” the veteran stand-up comic excels at wild-eyed, spittle-flecked topical rants, like a furious id deployed as a hilarious change of pace from Stewart’s cool snark.

Along the way, Black has guest-starred on The Big Bang Theory and a few dramas (Homicide: Life on the Street, The Shield and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) while recurring on Piers Morgan Live.

His voice work on children’s programming includes Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a regular voice role on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Busy as he is, he’s also put out a fistful of stand-up specials, including Stark Raving Black, Black on Broadway and Red, White and Screwed. Who says playing a raving lunatic doesn’t pay?

Stephen Colbert (1997 to 2012)

Colbert, who also pre-dated Stewart on The Daily Show, was one of TDS’s writers, as well as its senior political correspondent, pioneering segments like “The Week in God” and the surreal, Crossfire-esque “Even Stephven” with fellow correspondent Carell.

In fact, he has arguably unseated Stewart as the face of fake news. His background in improv (with the esteemed Chicago-based Second City troupe) armed him with the ability to go from cerebral to kooky in a flash, alternately complementing and subverting his bespectacled, bespoke, Brylcreem-ed look.

Along the way, he also co-created and co-wrote Comedy Central’s Amy Sedaris vehicle, Strangers with Candy, and guest-starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office and (in a mind-blowingly serious turn) Law & Order: Criminal Intent. His greatest triumph, of course, is as “Stephen Colbert,” the avatar of right-wing “truthiness” on The Colbert Report, which debuted in 2005 and is still going strong.

Mo Rocca (1998 to 2003)

Although Rocca has garnered his share of acting gigs on episodic series, including two of the Law & Order franchises (Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent), plus Ed, Ugly Betty and Royal Pains, he’s made his name mostly as a raconteur and polymath on talk, food and news shows.

He’s opined on Real Time with Bill Maher and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, appeared a dozen times as a “guest expert” on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and become a fixture on the cooking-show circuit (he calls himself “the Charles Nelson Reilly of food”).

He’s currently a judge on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America and hosts My Grandmother’s Ravioli on the Cooking Channel, where he previously hosted Food(ography) for two seasons. And Rocca recently moved up from contributor to staff correspondent on CBS News Sunday Morning.

Steve Carell (1999 to 2005)

The biggest star yet to emerge from TDS is, like Colbert, an ace improviser who’s spun career gold by communicating the insanity that lurks just under the surface of the uptight, buttoned-down Everyman.

He’s done that in such movies as Bruce Almighty, Little Miss Sunshine, Get Smart and Date Night, but the greatest testament to Carell’s talent may be that he’s already embodied three legendary characters: Andy in The 40 Year Old Virgin, Anchorman’s Brick Tamland (which he’ll reprise in a sequel this year) and, of course, Michael Scott, the clueless but charming boss in NBC’s The Office, a role he played for six seasons (snagging three Primetime Emmy nominations along the way).

Rachael Harris (2002 to 2003)

After training at Los Angeles’s famed Groundlings school, Harris and her glasses knocked around in a ton of small movie and TV roles prior to heading east for The Daily Show.

Since a short stint with Stewart & Co., her dance card has been crazy full. She costarred in Christopher Guest’s 2003 film A Mighty Wind, has guest-starred on such series as Curb Your Enthusiasm, The West Wing, Modern Family and Suits, and has had recurring parts on Reno 911!, New Girl and My Boys.

Look for her later this year costarring with Matt LeBlanc, Chevy Chase and Ali Larter in the feature comedy Lovesick, and as a co-lead in the Fox sitcom Dirty Blondes (opposite The Office’s Angela Kinsey).

Ed Helms (2002 to 2006)

Helms’s ascent is the most powerful testament to The Daily Show Effect. The Atlanta native, who came to TDS via what he’s termed “a sort of open audition,” has seen his career skyrocket since 2002 with myriad TV and film parts, including a well-regarded lead in the 2011 feature comedy Cedar Rapids.

And if one measure of Hollywood success is the ability to latch onto a successful franchise, Helms has scored two major coups: his six-season gig on The Office (where, aptly enough, his Andy Bernard took over the Dunder Mifflin job vacated by Carell’s Michael Scott) and his role as hard-luck mensch Stu in Todd Phillips’s three Hangover films.

And — oh, yeah — he’s been in talks to star in New Line’s reboot of the Vacation franchise.

Rob Corddry (2002 to 2007)

Yet another recruit from the improv world, Corddry had a recurring gig on the sketch-comedy series Upright Citizens Brigade (alongside Amy Poehler, SNL regular Horatio Sanz, Archer’s H. Jon Benjamin, and Veep costar Matt Walsh) from 1998 to 2000 — before he became one of the most-used (and obnoxious) TDS correspondents.

He followed his fake-news career with a starring role as the eponymous man-child of the 2007 Fox sitcom The Winner. Along the way, he’s guested on Arrested Development, Law & Order, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Community.

His movies include Oliver Stone’s W., Hot Tub Time Machine, Cedar Rapids and, most recently, the zombie comedy Warm Bodies. Corddry’s current project may prove to be his biggest yet: he’s set to star in ABC’s single-camera sitcom Spy.

Nathan (a.k.a. Nate) Corddry (2005 to 2006)

He wasn’t on The Daily Show long, but Nate (Rob’s younger brother by six years) has gone on to have perhaps the most eclectic, if not the most prolific, career of the bunch.

He’s ping-ponged between drama and comedy, film and TV, cable and broadcast. In 2007 he was a regular on NBC’s backstage drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; two years later he had a recurring role on Showtime’s United States of Tara; and two years after that, he was a cast member on the legal drama Harry’s Law.

Bracketing those jobs were guest-starring appearances on New Girl and 30 Rock and recurring roles on Children’s Hospital and, via his voice, TRON: Uprising. Now, Cordrry plays the male lead in Chuck Lorre’s new CBS pilot, Mom, opposite Anna Faris. Not bad for Mrs. Cordrry’s baby boy.

Rob Riggle (2006 to 2009)

Now retired after a 23-year stint in the Marine Corps Reserve, The Daily Show’s resident “military analyst” has enjoyed a long career as a jarhead with comedic stripes.

He honed his comic chops during a two-year tour of duty on Upright Citizens Brigade and one season on Saturday Night Live (2004–05) before signing on at TDS.

Since then, he’s guest-starred on such series as Chuck, 30 Rock, Happy Endings and New Girl while notching feature work in The Hangover, Stepbrothers, The Other Guys and 21 Jump Street. He also hosted the 2012 ESPY Awards and this spring worked on The Gabriels, a sitcom pilot for Fox. Nice work, soldier.

John Oliver (2006 to present)

“I’ve always striven to be both an entertainer and an irritant,” Oliver once told an interviewer. If his ingeniously barbed work on TDS is any barometer, mission accomplished.

The U.K. native, a Cambridge graduate, was once vice-president of that school’s storied drama troupe, Footlights. Though he’s a permanent U.S. resident now, he’s retained the loose-limbed, sharp-tongued style of his comic ancestors in Monty Python. And the literary pedigree: Oliver is not only a Daily Show correspondent, he’s been a staff writer for the past six years.

Comedy Central has rewarded him with a 2008 stand-up special, Terrifying Times, and host duties for the network’s New York Standup Show since its 2010 debut. He’s also had a recurring role on NBC’s Community as an unhinged college professor and performed voice work on the series Gravity Falls and both Smurfs films.

This summer brings perhaps his biggest break: Oliver is spending twelve weeks as fill-in host while Stewart takes a filmmaking sabbatical.

Aasif Mandvi (2006 to present)

Mandvi made his television debut way back in 1988 as a doorman on an episode of Miami Vice. He continued to land small parts in series and feature films, including a recurring role on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

As a veteran of the New York stage scene, his many credits include a 2002 revival of Oklahoma!, Tony Kushner’s post–9/11 drama Homebody/Kabul and Ayad Akhtar’s sociopolitical drama Disgraced, for which he received critical raves last year.

While Mandvi wasn’t exactly “made” by his ongoing, and stellar, Daily Show work, the roles he’s been offered have definitely gotten bigger since he started there.

In addition to guest-star appearances on ER, Curb Your Enthusiasm and King of the Hill, he’s been on the big screen in — to name a few — The Last Airbender, Margin Call, The Dictator and Premium Rush. Look for him next in Mark Turteltaub’s Gods Behaving Badly alongside Edie Falco, Oliver Platt and Christopher Walken.

John Hodgman (2006 to present)

Like Colbert before him, Hodgman plies his comic trade as a caricature of himself — in his case, a supercilious know-it-all named “John Hodgman” whose “You’re Welcome” segments take the form of a bloviating take on a hot topic, usually revolving around money and class, followed by an absurd, self-serving “solution.”

That shtick has served him well in many of the gigs he’s gotten since his Daily Show debut, including the editorship of the New York Times Magazine’s humor section, recurring roles on Bored to Death and Community as well as guest spots on Flight of the Conchords and 30 Rock.

He also hosted the 2009 Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association fête — perhaps the greatest coup for a political humorist — and was an announcer at the 2009 and 2010 Primetime Emmy telecasts.

Of course, many people know him best as the clueless PC owner in Apple’s series of “Get a Mac” ads with Justin Long.

Kristen Schaal (2008 to present)

Many viewers first noticed the saucer-eyed, squeaky-voiced Schaal on HBO’s Flight of the Conchords, where she had a recurring role as crazed groupie Mel.

But things really took off for the Colorado native after her Daily Show residency as “Senior Women’s Correspondent.” Since 2008, the comedy natural — who evokes a 21st-century Gracie Allen — has landed a recurring role on 30 Rock and a guest appearance on Modern Family.

Not surprisingly, Schaal (who’s also an award-winning stand-up comic) does a lot voice work — you’ll hear her in such animated series as Bob’s Burgers, American Dad and The Simpsons as well as feature films Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Toy Story 3.

This spring she appeared as one of the three women co-leads in ABC’s pilot-remake of the Britcom Pulling.

Josh Gad (2009 to 2011)

Gad’s history with The Daily Show was short but fruitful. He delivered a couple of the broadcast’s most memorable “reports” in recent years: a meditation on the impact the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” bailout scheme would have on the demolition derby business and a chaotic man-on-the-street segment from New York’s Gay Pride Parade.

The precocious Gad came to TDS after costarring with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton in their 2007 Fox sitcom Back to You, but his truly star-making role would come in 2011, when he played Elder Cunningham in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s smash Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon.

He starred this past season in NBC’s Beltway comedy 1600 Penn (which he also co-created) and, in the new feature biopic Jobs, he portrayed Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak opposite Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs.

Olivia Munn (2010 to 2011)

It must be stipulated that, among a certain subset of the American population (i.e., nerdy young men), Munn had already achieved a fame that was more worship than mere fandom by the time she reached TDS. Credit her saucy and sharp performance as cohost of the technophilic comedy and news magazine Attack of the Show! on the little-seen G4 cable network (since rebranded as the Esquire Network).

But since her correspondent days at the Daily Show, she’s clearly graduated from cult idol to mainstream star, with a costarring role on NBC’s short-lived sitcom Perfect Couples, a recurring gig on New Girl and feature-film work in Iron Man 2 and Magic Mike.

Currently, she’s enjoying critical love for her work as financial journalist Sloan Sabbith on HBO’s The Newsroom. Talk about a perfect fit — Aaron Sorkin’s brainy snark and rat-a-tat dialogue is a natural for this modern-day screwball.