10 Actors You Forgot Were Once Daily Show Correspondents

Launched in 1996 with Craig Kilborn as its first host, The Daily Show became the most popular comedy and satire news program once Jon Stewart took over in 1999. He continued as host through to 2015 when he decided to step down and Trevor Noah took over, with a current contract that will see him in the hot seat until at least 2022. The series, which has won 24 Primetime Emmy Awards and remains the longest-running show on Comedy Central, continues to be popular to this day. But beyond the hilarious, opinionated, and also informative and politically-charged segments, it is also known for something else.

Throughout its run, the show has had a number of people serve as correspondents, and apparently having The Daily Show on your resume is just as good as Saturday Night Live since the future success rate is pretty high for those who have held the gig. So who were they? Here are 10 you probably forgot about.

10 Ed Helms

Yes, before he appeared on The Office and became a film comedy star after The Hangover movies, Helms spent a few years lending his comedic talents as a correspondent on this show.

He worked on the show from 2002 through to 2006, saying he got the job through an open audition with a casting company he had been working with at the time. While there, he did field reports and hosted different segments of the show, like “Ad Nauseam.” But the two that were known as his signatures were “Battle of the Bulge” and “Mass. Hysteria.”

9 Olivia Munn

The show received criticism from some for hiring Munn as a correspondent back in 2010 given that she was known more at the time for being a “sex symbol” then a comedian, appearing in movies like Date Night and Iron Man 2. But she appeared in 16 episodes from 2010-2011. Her signature segment was called “Tiger Mothering,” where she made fun of the high expectations of Chinese mothers, sometimes interviewing her own mother.

It was after her short-lived time on this show that she went on to appear in HBO series The Newsroom and in movies like Magic Mike and X-Men: Apocalypse.

8 Steve Carell

Yes, Carell rose to fame as Michael Scott on the American version of the comedy The Office. And he has now appeared in countless movies, shifting from humorous to more dramatic roles as well. But he actually got his start as a correspondent on this show.

He worked on the show from 1999 to 2005, so it wasn’t a short stint. Some of his regular segments included “Evan Stevphen,” which he did alongside Stephen Colbert, and “Produce Pete.”

7 Samantha Bee

Another former correspondent who went on to have her on show, Bee now serves as host of the late-night talk show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

But she got noticed thanks to her role as a correspondent on this show, and she was the longest-serving regular correspondent, having done the job for 12 years, starting from 2003 and through to 2015. She was the only female correspondence until 2008 when Kristen Schaal joined.

6 Stephen Colbert

Colbert has become so popular as host of The Colbert Robert and then the replacement for David Letterman on Late Show in 2015 that it’s easy to forget that he was a correspondent on The Daily Show before that.

In fact, he was the longest-running correspondent of the show (prior to Bee’s run), having joined way back in 1997 in the second season as one of the original correspondents and leaving in 2005. He decided to take on a persona for his role, acting as “a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool,” able to cover it up just enough to get by.

5 Hasan Minhaj

You probably know Minhaj for his Netflix show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj as well as his stand-up comedy specials. But yes, Minhaj is yet another political commentator and funnyman who worked as a correspondent on this show.

He joined in 2014 and left the show in 2018, working with both Stewart and Noah. It has been an upward rise since then, with Minhaj even being named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine in 2019.

4 John Oliver

OK, technically Oliver wasn’t a correspondent. But he did fill in for Stewart as host of the show for two months when Stewart took time off in 2013.

He did such a great job that he ended up getting his own show on HBO after that, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which continues to air to this day. His influence on culture, legislation, and policymaking has been given a name: The John Oliver effect.”

3 Rob Corddry

You know him from movies like Hot Tub Time Machine, HBO’s Ballers, and the CBS series The Unicorn. But before he became a bona fide comedy star, Corddry was a correspondent on The Daily Show from 2002-2006.

He focused on references to his hometown of Boston during his segments, and also once filled in as a host when Stewart had to take the day off for the birth of his second child. When he left, Corddry made sure to end things with a cheesy poop joke.

2 Rob Riggle

Another comedic genius, Riggle arrived in 2006 to replace Corddry, a few years after his short stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. He stayed on through to 2008. He also appeared in many films, from The Hangover to Dumb & Dumber To, and Step Brothers.

His signature segment was called “Marines in Berkeley” where he dressed as a hippie to spoof peace activists protesting a local Marines recruiting station. Interestingly, Riggle actually did join the Marines in the ’90s so he was able to draw from his own personal experiences.

1 Kristen Schaal

The second woman to join as a correspondent after Bee, she was technically a “special commentator,’ but she appeared in several episodes as the news team’s “Senior Women’s Issues Correspondent.” She appeared in 31 episodes in all, from 2008 through to 2016.

But today, Schaal is best known as the voice of Louise Belcher on Bob’s Burgers, as Mel in Flight of the Conchords, Carol on The Last Man on Earth, and for providing several voices for Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman.

About The Author