Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. (Louis Alfred Székely, born September 12, 1967, in Washington, D.C.) is an American stand-up comedian, writer and filmmaker. He spent his early childhood in Mexico, grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and first tried stand-up at a Boston open mic in 1985, where he had two minutes of material for a five-minute slot and didn’t go up again for two years. He came up in the Boston scene alongside Denis Leary and Lenny Clarke, opened for Jerry Seinfeld and moved to Manhattan in 1989. Through the 1990s he wrote for Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Dana Carvey Show (as head writer) and The Chris Rock Show, which won him a writing Emmy in 1999.

In 2001 he sold his debut album, Live in Houston, directly through his website, and he became one of the first comics to sell tickets and DRM-free specials straight to fans. His hours include Shameless (HBO, 2007), Chewed Up (Showtime, 2008), Hilarious (the first stand-up film accepted at Sundance), Live at the Beacon Theater (2011, $5 on his site), Oh My God (2013) and 2017 (Netflix). In 2015 he became the first comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden three times on a single tour.

In November 2017, after The New York Times published accounts of sexual misconduct from five women, he released a statement saying “These stories are true”; FX and Netflix cut ties with him and his film I Love You, Daddy was pulled. He returned to stand-up at the Comedy Cellar on August 26, 2018, and has since self-released Sincerely Louis CK (2020; Grammy for Best Comedy Album), Sorry (2021) and Back to the Garden (2023). His debut novel, Ingram, came out November 11, 2025, and his special Ridiculous premiered on Netflix on June 30, 2026.

Beyond stand-up, he wrote and directed the film Pootie Tang (2001), adapted from a Chris Rock Show sketch, and created and starred in the HBO sitcom Lucky Louie (2006). His FX series Louie (2010–2015), which he created, directed and starred in, made his name with critics, and in 2016 he self-funded the web series Horace and Pete and co-created Baskets and Better Things for FX. He hosted Saturday Night Live four times, in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017. His career awards include six Emmys and three Grammys.

His father, who is of Mexican and Hungarian-Jewish descent, earned a degree in Mexico before graduating from Harvard, and the family lived in Mexico when Louis was small; his parents divorced when he was 10. Louis was married to Alix Bailey, and they have two daughters. They divorced in 2008, and the life of a divorced father became central to his act and to Louie.