Joe Pera

Joseph Pera (born July 24, 1988^[1][2]) is an American comedian, writer, and actor. He is best known as the creator and star of Adult Swim's Joe Pera Talks with You, which entered development following the success of the 2016 specials Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep, and ran for three seasons.^[3]

Joe Pera
Born	Joseph Pera (1988-07-24) July 24, 1988 (age 36) Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Ithaca College
Years active	2009–present
Comedy career
Medium	Stand-up television film
Genres	Observational comedy character comedy sketch comedy
Subject(s)	American culture everyday life pop culture social awkwardness

Early life

Joe Pera was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in the suburb of Amherst.^[4][5]

He studied film at Ithaca College, where he competed in and won the college's stand-up competition three times.^[6] Pera graduated from Ithaca College in 2010.^[7] He moved to New York City to pursue comedy and participated in open mic nights as often as possible.^[8]

Career

Known for his slow, "grandfatherly" delivery and his penchant for wearing sweaters, Pera created the Adult Swim Infomercials Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep.^[9] This was followed by an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and another stand-alone Adult Swim special titled Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree.^[10] Thanks to the success of those programs (all produced by Chestnut Walnut, founded by him and Conner O'Malley),^[11] Pera developed a television series for Adult Swim, which premiered on May 20, 2018, titled Joe Pera Talks with You.^[8] He appeared on the talk show Conan on March 28, 2017, and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on December 4, 2019.^[12][13] In 2021, Joe Pera released a book named A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing but Using the Bathroom as an Escape which was illustrated by Joe Bennett.^[14]

On January 31, 2023, Joe and Chestnut Walnut announced a podcast to help people fall asleep called, Drifting Off With Joe Pera. It is similar to his "Talks You To Sleep" series. Episodes are released on the first Sunday of every month, features a guest interview, a guest musician, and a philosophical monologue on a given topic. On March 3, 2023, Joe made a brief appearance on EHFM's Radio show "No Dancing",^[15] where he discussed his thoughts on moving slowly and reflectively and shared a piece of music he was working on. He appears at 31:40. On October 6, 2023, Pera released a 56-minute standup special titled Joe Pera: Slow and Steady on YouTube.^[16][17]

Personal life

In a video to his YouTube channel, Pera endorsed Democratic candidate India Walton for mayor of Buffalo, New York in the 2021 election.^[18]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	5 Doctors	Davis
2017	Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone	Jim
2023	Elemental	Fern Grouchwood (voice)
2024	Let’s Start a Cult	Bo

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013–14	The Chris Gethard Show	Zero Fucks Boyd	4 episodes
2014	New Timers	Myron	2 episodes
	Pancake Breakfast Critic with Joe Pera	Himself	3 episodes; Produced with MTV Other
2016	Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep		Short; part of Infomercials
	Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree
2017	Conan		March 28
2018–21	Joe Pera Talks with You		32 episodes; also creator, executive producer and writer
2019	The Late Show with Stephen Colbert		December 4
	Late Night with Seth Meyers		December 18
2020	Relaxing Old Footage with Joe Pera		Special
	F Is for Family	Alaquippa Ed (voice)	6 episodes
2022	Search Party	Dr. Inane	Episode: "Song of Songs"
	Bob's Burgers	Christopher (voice)	Episode: "Ferry on My Wayward Bob and Linda"

YouTube series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	The Perfect Week[19]	Himself	7 episode mini-series hosted by JASH with trailer
	Pancake Breakfast Critic[20]		3 episode mini-series hosted by MTV
2015	How To Make It in USA[21]		9 episode mini-series co-starring Conner O'Malley
2021	Townsends[22]		Appears in 7 episodes
2023	Stavvy's World[23]		Episode 21: "Dan Licata and Joe Pera"
2023	Drifting Off with Joe Pera[24]		mini-series with co-stars