Jon Stewart Biography and Profile

Biography

Nama : Jon Stewart
Birth Name : Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz
Birth Date : 11/28/1962
Birth Place : New York, USA
Height : 5' 7"
Sex : M
Nationality : American
Occupation : Actor, comedian
Father : Donald Leibowitz
Mother : Marion Leibowitz
Spouse : Tracey McShane (veterinary tech, since Nov 2000)
Claim Fame : Host of "The Daily Show" (1996)

Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz on November 28, 1962 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American comedian, actor, and producer, best known as host of The Daily Show. Due to the popularity of The Daily Show, Stewart has gained notoriety as "the most trusted name in fake news," a reflection of his semi-serious stature as the Walter Cronkite for a younger generation. Stewart has also gained attention as an outspoken critic of established news media sources.

Stewart was raised in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. A member of his school's band, he was the only Jewish child in his town, and he says now that he was subject to much anti-Semitic harassment from some of his classmates.

Stewart attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia, from which he graduated in 1984 with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and where he played on the men's soccer team. An award titled the "Leibo" is given out annually in honor of Stewart to the member of the men's soccer team who experiences the most personal growth and provides the most laughs for his teammates.

After graduating, Stewart held numerous jobs, including contingency planner for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, contract administrator for City University of New York, puppeteer for children with disabilities, and bartender.

Stewart married long-time girlfriend Tracey McShane in 2000, at which time they both legally changed their last names to "Stewart." The couple had their first child, Nathan Thomas, on July 3, 2004.

In 2000, Stewart was presented with an honorary doctorate of arts degree from The College of William and Mary. In 2004, Stewart spoke at William and Mary's commencement ceremonies, a speech which later was replayed numerous times on C-SPAN.[1]
With a reputation for being a funnyman even in school, Stewart moved to New York City in 1986 to try his hand at the comedy club circuit. Although he often jokes that he dropped his last name because the local announcers had difficulty with its pronunciation, Stewart has implied that it was actually due to a strained relationship with his father, a physicist who left the family in 1971 and with whom Stewart no longer has any contact.[2] (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6539433)

In 1993, due in large part to the support of his friend David Letterman, Stewart started hosting The Jon Stewart Show on MTV, the first talk show on that network. Stewart had earlier hosted the unsuccessful You Wrote It, You Watch It on MTV, which invited viewers to send in their stories to be acted out.

In 1999, Stewart began hosting The Daily Show on Comedy Central when Craig Kilborn left the show. Since that time, he has hosted all airings of the program save for a scant handful that have had correspondents such as Stephen Colbert filling in at the anchor desk.

Although best known for his work on The Daily Show, Stewart has also had roles in several television series and movies. He makes fun of his film appearances, as they have largely been in movies considered to be flops, most notably Half Baked. He has guest-starred on such television shows as The Nanny, Spin City, and NewsRadio, and hosted Saturday Night Live in March 2002.

Stewart drew much attention thanks to an unusual, awkward, and heated television exchange with CNN's Tucker Carlson in October 2004. Stewart decried the state of television journalism and referred to both Carlson and co-host Paul Begala as "partisan hacks", in addition to asserting that their show, Crossfire, has failed in its responsibility to inform and educate viewers about politics as a serious topic (transcript) (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html). This exchange became one of the most widely viewed Internet videos to date (both publicly on iFilm and bootleg via Bittorrent), and a topic of much media discussion. In January 2005, CNN announced that it was cancelling Crossfire. When asked about the cancellations, CNN incoming CEO Jonathan Klein stated he "wholeheartedly agrees" with Stewart's "overall premise".