Colin Jost

Colin Kelly Jost (; born June 29, 1982) is an American comedian, writer, and actor. He has been a staff writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live since 2005, and co-anchor of Weekend Update since 2014. He also served as one of the show's co-head writers from 2012 to 2015 and later came back as one of the show's head writers in 2017 until 2022 alongside Michael Che.

In 2025, Jost received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the College of Staten Island, CUNY, in recognition of his contributions to comedy, television, and community service. He is a two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner and nineteen-time Emmy Award nominee for his work on Saturday Night Live and as a host of the Amazon Prime Video gameshow Pop Culture Jeopardy!.

Early life and education

Jost was born on June 29, 1982, in New York City. He was raised in a Catholic household in the Grymes Hill neighborhood of Staten Island. His mother, Kerry J. Kelly, was the chief medical officer for the New York City Fire Department, and his father, Daniel A. Jost, was a teacher at Staten Island Technical High School. He has one younger brother, Casey Jost, a writer and a producer of Impractical Jokers; he also had a role in Staten Island Summer.

Jost attended Regis High School in Manhattan, where he was the editor of the school newspaper The Owl and graduated in 2000. He then studied history and literature at Harvard University. He focused on Russian literature and British literature, and wrote his senior thesis on Vladimir Nabokov. Jost was president of The Harvard Lampoon and won $5,250 on a college edition of Weakest Link, but said he did not think he deserved to win. He graduated from Harvard in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude.