Mo Rocca
Encyclopedia
Maurice Alberto "Mo" Rocca (born January 28, 1969 in Washington, DC) is an American
writer, comedian and political satirist.
, 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
, performing in four of the company's notorious burlesques and even co-authoring one (Suede Expectations). He is openly gay.
(1993) and Paper Mill Playhouse
's South Pacific
(1994). His first television work was as a writer and producer for the Emmy and Peabody Award
winning children's television series Wishbone
. He also wrote for The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss
on Nickelodeon
and ABC's Pepper Ann
.
He served as a consulting editor to the men's magazine Perfect 10.
In 2004 he served as a convention floor correspondent for Larry King at both major party political conventions.
He was a regular correspondent for NBC
's The Tonight Show
from 2004 to 2008, recently providing 2008 election coverage, as well as for MSNBC
's Countdown with Keith Olbermann
.
Rocca is a regular correspondent to CBS News Sunday Morning
with Charles Osgood
. His work includes commentaries on politics and pop culture, cover stories, features and profiles (Loretta Lynn
, Natalie Portman
). He states, “I loved doing television field pieces and I’ve done a lot of them. If you combine ‘The Daily Show’ with ‘The Tonight Show’ with my gig on ‘Sunday Morning,’ I see them all as part of one continuum in a way. Three- to six-minute stories with my point of view... and participating in one degree or another in the story … I love doing that.”
Rocca is a regular panelist on the National Public Radio game show
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
In 2011, Rocca has done some straight reporting features for various CBS programs, including The Early Show
and the CBS Evening News
.
, The DaVinci Code and Charlotte's Web
, was published by Crown Books in 2004.
.
He was a regular judge on the Food Network
's Iron Chef America
.
Rocca was a commentator on VH1
's I Love the '70s
and I Love the '80s specials. He was the host of Things I Hate About You on Bravo and was the host of Whoa! Sunday which premiered in 2005 on Animal Planet
. He also made a guest appearance on Law and Order: SVU, Authority.
, Rocca played the role of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
.
in the indie family sci-fi comedy I'll Believe You
.
Rocca contributed to AOL Newsbloggers. His blog was titled Mo Rocca 180°: Only Half as Tedious as the Regular News.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer, comedian and political satirist.
Early life and work
Rocca, of Colombian (mother) and Italian (father) descent, attended Georgetown Preparatory SchoolGeorgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School is an American Jesuit college preparatory school for grades 9 through 12. It is the oldest all boys school in the United States, and the only Jesuit boarding school in the country...
, the Jesuit boys school in North Bethesda, Maryland
North Bethesda, Maryland
North Bethesda is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It borders the city of Rockville, and is closely associated with the city.-Geography:...
, and later went on to graduate from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1991 with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. He served as president of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals
Hasty Pudding Theatricals
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque musicals and for its status as the oldest collegiate theatrical organization in the United States...
, performing in four of the company's notorious burlesques and even co-authoring one (Suede Expectations). He is openly gay.
Writing and Producing
Rocca began his career acting on stage in the Southeast Asia tour of the musical GreaseGrease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
(1993) and Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...
's South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
(1994). His first television work was as a writer and producer for the Emmy and Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
winning children's television series Wishbone
Wishbone (TV series)
Wishbone is a television show which aired from 1995 to 1998 and reruns from 1998 to 2001 in the United States featuring a Jack Russell Terrier of the same name. The main character, the talking dog Wishbone, lives with his owner Joe Talbot in the fictional modern town of Oakdale, Texas...
. He also wrote for The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss is an American live-action/puppet television series based on characters created by Dr. Seuss, produced by Jim Henson Productions. It aired for two seasons on the Nick Jr. Block on Nickelodeon...
on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
and ABC's Pepper Ann
Pepper Ann
Pepper Ann is an American animated series created by Sue Rose and aired on ABC. It debuted on September 13, 1997.Pepper Ann starred cartoon adolescents and charted their ups and downs at Hazelnut Middle School. It aired as part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning block...
.
He served as a consulting editor to the men's magazine Perfect 10.
Satire and Journalism
Rocca was a regular contributor to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1998 to 2003. His work included campaign coverage for Indecision 2000 and a regular feature entitled "That's Quite Interesting."In 2004 he served as a convention floor correspondent for Larry King at both major party political conventions.
He was a regular correspondent for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
from 2004 to 2008, recently providing 2008 election coverage, as well as for MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program that airs on Current TV, where it began airing on June 20, 2011. The program was broadcast on MSNBC from March 31, 2003, to January 21, 2011. On MSNBC, the show presented five selected news stories of...
.
Rocca is a regular correspondent to CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning is an American television news magazine program created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt. The program has aired continuously since January 28, 1979 on the CBS Television Network, airing in the Eastern US on Sunday from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m...
with Charles Osgood
Charles Osgood
Charles Osgood is a radio and television commentator in the United States. His daily program, The Osgood File, has been broadcast on the CBS Radio Network since 1971. He is also known for being the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book...
. His work includes commentaries on politics and pop culture, cover stories, features and profiles (Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
, Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
). He states, “I loved doing television field pieces and I’ve done a lot of them. If you combine ‘The Daily Show’ with ‘The Tonight Show’ with my gig on ‘Sunday Morning,’ I see them all as part of one continuum in a way. Three- to six-minute stories with my point of view... and participating in one degree or another in the story … I love doing that.”
Rocca is a regular panelist on the National Public Radio game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member...
In 2011, Rocca has done some straight reporting features for various CBS programs, including The Early Show
The Early Show
The Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program airs live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones air the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. ...
and the CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
.
Author
Rocca's satirical novel All the Presidents' Pets: The Story of One Reporter who Refused to Roll Over, described as a blend of All the President's MenAll the President's Men
All the President's Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists investigating the first Watergate break-in and ensuing scandal for The Washington Post. The book chronicles the investigative reporting of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward's initial...
, The DaVinci Code and Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web is an award-winning children's novel by acclaimed American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams.The novel tells the story...
, was published by Crown Books in 2004.
Food and Other Television
Rocca hosts Food(ography) on the new cable network Cooking ChannelCooking Channel
Cooking Channel is a television specialty channel that airs recurring programs about food and cooking, owned by Scripps Networks Interactive. It is a spinoff of Food Network, also owned by SNI, but focuses more on instructional shows rather than "reality style" and contest programming that Food...
.
He was a regular judge on the Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
's Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the...
.
Rocca was a commentator on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's I Love the '70s
I Love the '70s (U.S. TV series)
I Love the '70s is a decade nostalgia television mini-series produced by VH-1. The series is based on a BBC series of the same name. It examines the pop culture of the 1970s, using footage from the era, along with "Where Are They Now?" interviews with celebrities from the decade. Additionally, the...
and I Love the '80s specials. He was the host of Things I Hate About You on Bravo and was the host of Whoa! Sunday which premiered in 2005 on Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
. He also made a guest appearance on Law and Order: SVU, Authority.
Broadway
On BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, Rocca played the role of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a one act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley...
.
Film and Other Media
Rocca appeared in the 2005 film Bewitched. In 2007, he appeared with fellow Daily Show alum Ed HelmsEd Helms
Edward Paul "Ed" Helms is an American actor and comedian known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as Andy Bernard on the US version of the sitcom/mockumentary The Office and for his role as Dr. Stu Price in The Hangover films.- Early life :Helms was born and raised...
in the indie family sci-fi comedy I'll Believe You
I'll Believe You
I'll Believe You is a 2007 American comedy film, starring David Alan Basche, Patrick Warburton and Siobhan Fallon.Late-night radio host Dale Sweeney 's usual line up of odd-ball, conspiracy-obsessed callers is interrupted by a panicked phone call in an indecipherable language...
.
Rocca contributed to AOL Newsbloggers. His blog was titled Mo Rocca 180°: Only Half as Tedious as the Regular News.