57 Late night television talk show hosts

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, which was the first late-night television talk show.

Samantha Anne Bee is a Canadian-American comedienne, writer, producer, political commentator, actress, and television host. Bee rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where she became the longest-serving regular correspondent. In 2015, she departed the show after 12 years to start her own show, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

Walter Kamau Bell, known professionally as W. Kamau Bell, is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the CNN series United Shades of America since 2016, and hosted FXX television series Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell from 2012 to 2013. He is the host of the live radio show and podcast Kamau Right Now on KALW, and also co-hosts the podcasts Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor Of All Time Period with Kevin Avery and Politically Re-Active with Hari Kondabolu.

John William Carson was an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known as the host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). Carson received six Primetime Emmy Awards, the Television Academy's 1980 Governor's Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer and actor. Born into a prominent family, he had a variety of jobs before moving into comedy and started acting with National Lampoon. He became a key cast member in the first season of Saturday Night Live, where his recurring Weekend Update segment became a staple of the show. As both a performer and writer, he earned three Primetime Emmy Awards out of five nominations.

Andrew Joseph Cohen is an American radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer. He is the host and executive producer of Bravo's late night talk show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. Cohen also has a pop culture channel on Sirius XM named Radio Andy. He hosts a two-hour live show with co-host John Hill twice a week. Cohen served as Bravo's executive vice president of Development and Talent until 2013. He was responsible for creating original content, developing innovative formats, and identifying new talent. Cohen also served as executive producer on the Emmy- and James Beard award–winning reality cooking competition television show, Top Chef. He continues to serve as an executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise, host of Watch What Happens Live on Bravo, host of Andy Cohen Live on SiriusXM channel 102, and hosted the revival of the television dating show Love Connection.

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert beginning in September 2015.

Robert Quinlan Costas is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 1992 until 2016. He is employed by MLB Network, where he does play-by-play and once hosted an interview show called Studio 42 with Bob Costas.

Carson Daly is an American television host, radio personality, producer, and television personality. Prior to 2003, Daly was a VJ on MTV's Total Request Live, and a DJ for the Southern California-based radio station 106.7 KROQ-FM. In 2002, Daly joined NBC, where he began hosting and producing the late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly, and occasionally hosting special event programming for NBC, such as the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks show, and executive producing New Year's Eve with Carson Daly from Times Square beginning in 2003.

Daniel Baker, known professionally as Desus Nice, is a Jamaican-American television, YouTube, and Twitter personality. He rose to prominence with Complex TV's Desus vs. Mero, which was a 46-episode podcast that was first released on December 18, 2013. He was the co-host of Viceland's Desus & Mero talk show alongside The Kid Mero until June 2018, and currently co-hosts Desus & Mero which premiered on February 21, 2019 on Showtime.

James Thomas Fallon is an American comedian, television host, and actor. He is known for his work in television as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and as the host of late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and before that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Zachary Knight Galifianakis is an American actor, comedian, musician and writer. He appeared in Comedy Central Presents special and presented his show Late World with Zach on VH1. He has starred in films, such as The Hangover trilogy (2009–2013), Due Date (2010), The Campaign (2012), Birdman or (2014) and Masterminds (2016). He starred in animated films, including Puss in Boots (2011), The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and Missing Link (2019). Galifianakis currently hosts the Funny or Die website talk show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. He starred in the FX series Baskets and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017.

Nicole Rene Glaser is an American stand-up comedian, actress, podcast host, radio host and television host. She was the host of the television series Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, which premiered on Comedy Central and Much on February 9, 2016.

Caryn Elaine Johnson, known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg, is an American actor and comedian. A recipient of numerous accolades, she is one of 16 entertainers to win an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award and a Tony Award (EGOT).

Michael Thomas Green is a Canadian actor, comedian, rapper, and filmmaker. Known for shock comedy, he found mainstream prominence via his MTV show, The Tom Green Show (1994–2000). Green has also appeared in the Hollywood films Road Trip (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), Freddy Got Fingered, Stealing Harvard (2002), and Shred (2008). He was briefly married to actress Drew Barrymore (2001–2002), who co-starred with him in Charlie's Angels and Freddy Got Fingered.

Kathleen Mary Griffin is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. She has also appeared in supporting roles in films.

Arsenio Hall is an American actor, comedian, talk show host, writer and producer. He hosted the late-night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show, from 1989 until 1994, and again from 2013 to 2014.

Chelsea Joy Handler is an American comedian, actress, writer, television host, and producer. She hosted the late-night talk show Chelsea Lately on the E! network from 2007 to 2014 and released a documentary series, Chelsea Does, on Netflix in January 2016. Between 2016 and 2017, Handler hosted the talk show Chelsea on Netflix.

Christopher Ryan Hardwick is an American comedian, actor, television and podcast host, writer, and producer. He hosts Talking Dead, an hourly aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, as well as Talking with Chris Hardwick, a show in which Hardwick interviews prominent pop culture figures, and The Wall, a plinko-inspired gameshow on NBC. Hardwick created Nerdist Industries, operator of the Nerdist Podcast Network and home of his podcast The Nerdist Podcast, which later left the network and was renamed to ID10T with Chris Hardwick. His podcast has broadcast 1,000 episodes as of December 2019.

Peter Benedict Holmes is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. Holmes is known for his cheerful personality, self-aware humor, and musings on spirituality and religion, which are all frequent themes across his works.

Mary Laurence "Lauren" Hutton is an American model and actress. Born and raised in the southern United States, Hutton relocated to New York City in her early adulthood to begin a modeling career. Though she was initially dismissed by agents for a signature gap in her teeth, Hutton signed a modeling contract with Revlon in 1973, which at the time was the biggest contract in the history of the modeling industry.

Geoff James Nugent, known professionally as Jim Jefferies, is an Australian-American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He created and starred in the American FX sitcom Legit (2013–2014) and the Comedy Central late-night show The Jim Jefferies Show (2017–2019).

Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player and former president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Often regarded as the best point guard of all time, Johnson played 13 seasons for the Lakers and was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.

James Christian Kimmel is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California; and on April 1, 2019, at a secondary home, the Zappos Theater on the Las Vegas Strip. Kimmel hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and the Academy Awards in 2017 and 2018.

Gregory Buck Kinnear is an American actor, producer and television personality. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in As Good as It Gets (1997).

Jordan Klepper is an American comedian, journalist, writer, producer, political commentator, television host, and actor. He began his career as a member of The Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade. From 2014 to 2017, he was a correspondent on The Daily Show. He started his own satirical program, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, which was cancelled in 2018. He then starred in the 2019 docuseries, Klepper, before returning to The Daily Show later that year.

James Douglas Muir Leno is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00pm ET, also on NBC. Two months after its debut, The Jay Leno Show was moved to the 11:35 timeslot due to poor ratings, pushing The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05am ET, causing O'Brien to leave two months later. After The Jay Leno Show was canceled in January 2010 amid a timeslot and host controversy, Leno returned to host The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of The Tonight Show on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Since 2014, Leno has hosted Jay Leno's Garage. Leno also hosted the 2021 revival of You Bet Your Life.

Jerry Lester was an American comedian, singer and performer on radio, television and the stage, who hosted the first network late night television program as host of Broadway Open House on NBC, a vaudeville-esque combination of comedy and music, whose success demonstrated the potential for late-night television and led to the creation of the Tonight Show.

David Michael Letterman is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC, and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late night talk show host in American television history. In 1996, Letterman was ranked 45th on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. In 2002, The Late Show with David Letterman was ranked seventh on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

William Maher is an American comedian, actor, political commentator, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and the similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect (1993–2002), originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC.

Joel Armogasto Martinez, professionally known as The Kid Mero, is a Dominican-American writer, comedian, TV personality, voice actor, YouTube personality, music blogger and Twitter personality. He rose to prominence alongside fellow Bronx native Desus Nice with their Complex TV 46-episode podcast Desus vs. Mero, which first premiered on December 18, 2013. As of season 5, he was a cast member of Guy Code with Desus Nice. He was the co-host of Viceland's Desus & Mero talk show alongside Desus until June 2018, and currently co-hosts Desus & Mero which premiered on February 21, 2019 on Showtime.

Seth Adam Meyers is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. He hosts Late Night with Seth Meyers, a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to that, he was a cast member and head writer for NBC's Saturday Night Live (2001–2014) and hosted the show's news parody segment, Weekend Update.

Monique Angela Hicks, known professionally as Mo'Nique, is an American comedian and actress. She first gained recognition for her work in stand-up comedy, debuting as a member of The Queens of Comedy. In 2002, she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album.

Martin Ramon Razon Nievera is a Filipino-American singer and television host. In his career spanning more than three decades, Nievera has garnered eighteen platinum, five double platinum, three triple platinum, and one quadruple platinum albums. He is often referred to in the Philippines as the "Concert King".

Trevor Noah is a South African comedian, television host, and political commentator. He is the host of The Daily Show, an American satirical news program on Comedy Central.

Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, podcaster, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on the NBC television network, and Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS. Before his hosting career, he was a writer for Saturday Night Live (1987–1991) and The Simpsons (1991–1993).

John William Oliver is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention for his work in the United States on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its senior British correspondent from 2006 to 2013. Oliver won three Primetime Emmy Awards for writing for The Daily Show and was the show's guest host for an eight-week period in 2013. In addition, Oliver co-hosted the satirical comedy podcast The Bugle (2007–2015) with Andy Zaltzman, with whom Oliver had previously co-hosted the radio series Political Animal, and hosted John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central from 2010 to 2013. He has also acted on television, most notably in a recurring role as Dr Ian Duncan on the NBC sitcom Community, and in films, notably voice-over work in The Smurfs (2011), The Smurfs 2 (2013), and the 2019 remake of The Lion King. He became a US citizen in 2019.

Jack Harold Paar was an American talk show host, author, movie actor, radio and television comedian. He was the second host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962. Time magazine's obituary of Paar reported wryly, "His fans would remember him as the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar."

Elizabeth Jean "Busy" Philipps is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), Dawson's Creek (2001–2003), Love, Inc. (2005–2006) and ER (2006–2007), for her abortion access advocacy, and for her portrayal of Laurie Keller on the ABC series Cougar Town (2009–2015), for which she received the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has also appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, such as The Smokers (2000), Home Room (2002), White Chicks (2004), Made of Honor (2008), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), The Gift (2015), and I Feel Pretty (2018). From 2018 to 2019, Philipps hosted her own television talk show Busy Tonight, on E!. She currently stars in the Peacock original series Girls5eva.

Joan Alexandra Molinsky, known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and television host. She was noted for her often controversial comedic persona—heavily self-deprecating and acerbic, especially towards celebrities and politicians. She is considered a pioneer of women in comedy by many critics.

Charles Peete Rose Jr. is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show Charlie Rose on PBS and Bloomberg LP.

Amber Mildred Ruffin is an American comedian, television host, writer, actress, author and playwright. She hosts her own late-night talk show titled The Amber Ruffin Show on NBC and Peacock. She has been a writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers since 2014. When she joined the show, she became the first black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States. In January 2021, she co-authored a book with her sister, titled You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, which was placed on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Pat Sajak is an American television personality and game show host. He is best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune, a position he has held since 1981. For his work on Wheel, Sajak has received 19 nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, winning three times.

Sara Schaefer is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and author.

Ross Alan Shafer, is an American comedian, network television host, and motivational and leadership speaker/consultant. He has authored nine business books, won international stand-up comedy competitions, and earned six Emmys as a network talk and game show host.

David Adkins, better known by his stage name Sinbad, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became known in the 1990s from being featured on his own HBO specials, appearing on several television series such as Coach Walter Oakes in A Different World (1987–1991) and as David Bryan on The Sinbad Show (1993–1994), and starring in the films Necessary Roughness, Houseguest, First Kid, Jingle All the Way, Good Burger, and Planes (2013).

Lilly Singh is a Canadian comedian, former talk show host, and YouTuber who formerly appeared under the pseudonym Superwoman, her long-time YouTube username. Born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Singh began making YouTube videos in 2010. In 2016, she was included in Forbes list of world's highest paid YouTubers ranking third and earning a reported $7.5 million. By 2017, she was ranked tenth on the Forbes list of the world's highest paid YouTube stars, earning a reported $10.5 million; as of September 2019 she has 14.9 million subscribers and over three billion video views. Singh has been featured in the annual YouTube Rewind every year since 2014. Forbes named her one of the 40 most powerful people in comedy in 2019. She has received an MTV Fandom Award, four Streamy Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, and a People's Choice Award.

Tavis Smiley is an American talk show host and author. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Bunker Hill, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles.

David Wayne Spade is an American actor, stand-up comedian, writer, and television host. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s, and he later began an acting career in both film and television. He also starred or co-starred in the films Tommy Boy (1995), Black Sheep (1996), Joe Dirt (2001), Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), The Benchwarmers (2006), The Ridiculous 6 (2015), The Do-Over (2016), and The Wrong Missy (2020).

Chris Spencer is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was the first host of the syndicated late night talk show Vibe, based on the magazine of the same name. He has gone on to star in several film projects such as Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood, The Sixth Man, Significant Others, and Postal. Chris is also one of the most sought after writers having done projects with Wayans family, Jamie Foxx, and was significant in helping Nick Cannon create MTV's Wild 'N Out. Chris Spencer also travels the country as a standup comedian and has performed on The Chris Rock Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and HBO's Def Comedy Jam. Chris and fellow friends, Al Madrigal and Maz Jobrani are on a weekly podcast, Minivan Men. He is a writer for the scripted comedy, Real Husbands of Hollywood. In 2017, he co-created a TV series White Famous.

Jon Stewart is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host. He hosted The Daily Show, a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015.

Wanda Yvette Sykes is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is also known for her roles on CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–10), HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001–present), and ABC's Black-ish (2015–present). She currently stars in the Netflix original series The Upshaws which premiered on May 12, 2021, with Kim Fields and Mike Epps, and has appeared in the HBO Max comedy series The Other Two, as well as playing Allegra Durado, a new, powerful, and "messy"-brained partner in a legal firm on Paramount+'s acclaimed The Good Fight.

Ivan Andreevich Urgant is a Russian television host, presenter, actor, musician and producer. His best known roles in film are Boris in the Yolki series and as Danila in Lucky Trouble. Since 2012 he has hosted Evening Urgant, a late-night talk show. According to the 2008 and 2011 surveys, Urgant is Russia's most popular TV presenter. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Friends Charitable Foundation.

Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. He first came to prominence as the host and the creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color. He has produced, directed and/or written several films, starting with Hollywood Shuffle, which he cowrote, in 1987.

Gary Leslie Whitta is an English screenwriter, author, game designer, and video game journalist. He was editor-in-chief of both the UK and US editions of PC Gamer magazine and contributor to gaming magazine ACE.

Elister Larry Wilmore is an American comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He served as the "Senior Black Correspondent" on The Daily Show from 2006 to 2014, and hosted The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in 2015 and 2016. He is also the creator of the sitcom The Bernie Mac Show. He served as an executive producer for the ABC television series Black-ish, and is the co-creator, with Issa Rae, of the HBO television series Insecure. Since May 2017, he has hosted a podcast, Black on the Air, where he discusses current events and interviews guests. He is the host of the talk show Wilmore.

Josh Point Wolf is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He has written for a number of sitcoms, including All of Us and Cuts. He is best known for his regular appearances on the round table of E!'s late night talk show Chelsea Lately.