Biography
Wayne Federman joined the faculty of USC back in January 2017. He is a stand-up comedian, actor, Emmy-winning producer, writer, and cultural historian. He currently teaches the History of Stand-up Comedy as well as level-2 stand-up performance at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts.
Federman attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied with legendary acting coach Stella Adler.
He has appeared in numerous television programs and films, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Crashing, Silicon Valley, What We Do In The Shadows!, Community, The X-Files, Step Brothers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Legally Blonde, Funny People, and 50 First Dates.
His book, The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle, is an Amazon bestseller and is currently used as required reading at multiple universities, including Emerson and Yale.
He has produced numerous award-winning documentaries, including The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, George Carlin’s American Dream, Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man, Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story, Bob and Don: A Love Story, and Dinner With Don – the final project of comedian Don Rickles. In 2022, Federman won a Primetime Emmy Award for producing George Carlin’s American Dream.
As a forty-year veteran of stand-up, Federman has his own special on Comedy Central, appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show, tours nationally, and appears locally at The Hollywood Improv, UCB, LARGO, and Dynasty Typewriter. His critically acclaimed three-volume stand-up compilation, The Chronicles of Federman, was released on ASpecialThing Records.
Federman is also a comedy and cultural historian, with contributions appearing in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, AP, Vulture, LA Times, and The Atlantic. He’s provided on-air commentary for CNN’s The History of Comedy, Showtime’s We Need To Talk About Cosby, CNN’s The History of Late Night, and BBC’s The Last Hours of Johnny Carson. Federman also co-hosts, writes, and produces the popular podcast, The History of StandUp.
Federman has received three Writers Guild nominations. He was the head monologue writer on NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon over its first season. He has also written special comedy material for Seth Rogen, Key and Peele, Mel Brooks, Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman, Tig Notaro, Andy Samberg, The Muppets (Statler and Waldorf), Bob Newhart, Megan Mullally, and Fred Armisen.