Click here to download a high-resolution photo of Mo Rocca.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Mo Rocca, who first gained attention as a political
correspondent for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,
will appear at Vanderbilt on Monday, March 1.
Rocca’s lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Vanderbilt’s Langford
Auditorium. Tickets are free for Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff
and $10 for the general public. Tickets must be purchased prior to the
event and are available through Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Center box office
or any TicketMaster outlet.
Known for his wacky, tongue-in-cheek commentary, Rocca is a regular
guest on NBC’s Today Show, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and
the popular VH1 programs I Love the 80s, I Love the 70s and Best Week
Ever.
Rocca is also host and co-executive producer of Smoking Gun TV, a
series of Court TV specials based on the award-winning website
thesmokinggun.com. The website is known for unearthing and posting
entertaining and sometimes scandalous documents, and the television
program brings to life the celebrity-related material found on the site.
"Everything I know about law and order I learned on The Smoking Gun
website," Rocca has said. "Hosting the show is my way of giving
something back."
While on staff at The Daily Show, Rocca earned both an Emmy and
Peabody Award for "Indecision 2000," The Daily Show’s coverage of the
2000 presidential race.
Rocca and The Daily Show team were also named Rolling Stone’s "People of the Year" in 2000.
A former president and writer of Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding
Theatricals, Rocca began his career in television as a writer and
producer for PBS’ Emmy Award-winning children’s series Wishbone. He
went on to write for ABC’s animated series Pepper Ann and Nickelodeon’s
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Suess.
From the podium, Rocca delivers his uniquely informed commentary on
current news events and takes his audience behind the scenes of The
Daily Show and his other television appearances. Rocca has profiled
eccentric personalities ranging from a man so obsessed with first
ladies that he dresses up as Florence Harding (wife of Warren G.) to a
husband-and-wife pet mummification team.
Rocca’s appearance at Vanderbilt is sponsored by the student-run
Vanderbilt Speakers Committee. For more news about Vanderbilt, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/News.
Media contact: Kara Furlong, (615) 322-NEWS
Kara.c.furlong@vanderbilt.edu