Mo Rocca

Mo Rocca (born Maurice Alberto Rocca on January 28, 1969 in Washington, DC) is a American writer, comedian, and political satirist. Rocca is perhaps best known for his work as a correspondent from 1998 to 2003 on Comedy Central's popular satirical news program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Early life and work

Rocca, of Italian descent, attended Georgetown Preparatory School, the Jesuit boys school in North Bethesda, Maryland and later went on to graduate from Harvard University in 1991 with a B.A. in literature. He served as president of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Later, he worked as a writer and producer for the children's television series Wishbone (1995), The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (1996) and Pepper Ann (1997), and also as a consulting editor to the men's magazine Perfect 10.

Career

Rocca is a quirky regular panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and a regular contributor to CBS' Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. He is a regular correspondent for NBC's Tonight Show, most recently providing 2008 election coverage. He was a a celebrity commentator on VH1's Best week ever, as well as the I Love The... shows: I Love the 80s, I Love the 70s, I Love the 70s Volume 2, I Love the 80s Strikes Back, I Love the 80s 3-D, I Love the 90s, I Love the 90s: Part Deux, I Love Toys, and I Love the Holidays. The series officially stated his occupation as "media gadfly" for one of its incarnations, and noted his physical resemblance to the children's book character Waldo in another. He was the host of Things I Hate About You on Bravo. Rocca was an on-the-floor correspondent for Larry King on CNN at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which he called an "Obamarama." Though occasionally making straight insights and political comments, Rocca's irrelevant and irreverent statements were a humorous contrast to King's more staid politician and pundit guests. Rocca characterized Teresa Heinz Kerry as the "Siren of the Serengeti," and expressed affinity with the statement by keynote speaker, Barack Obama, about the pains of growing up as a skinny boy with a funny name. During his report to King from the convention floor alongside the Pennsylvania delegates, he exclaimed "Everybody's talking Teresa, Teresa, Teresa!" Rocca spent a good deal of his time with the Convention delegates from American Samoa. He returned as a correspondent for the 2004 Republican National Convention. Rocca is the author of the All the Presidents' Pets: The Inside Story of One Reporter Who Refused to Roll Over. He was the host of Whoa! Sunday which premiered in 2005 on Animal Planet. He is a regular judge on the Food Network's Iron Chef America. He has recently begun satirical commentary on CBS News Sunday Morning. In 2007, he appeared with fellow Daily Show alum Ed Helms in the indie family sci-fi comedy I'll Believe You. Rocca contributes to AOL Newsbloggers^[1]. His blog is entitled 'Mo Rocca 180°, Only Half as Tedious as the Regular News' On Broadway Rocca played the role of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in the Broadway production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

References

External links

• Mo Rocca at the Internet Movie Database
• Mo Rocca on TomGreen.com
• Mo Rocca at TV.com
• Mo Rocca Interview on LX.TV
• TheaterMania.com article on Spelling Bee
• Mo Rocca Fan Site
• Mo Rocca's Blog
• Classic Mo Rocca Daily Show Clips