The writer and comedian, whose new “The Nightly Show” debuts on Comedy Central on Monday after Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” has generally stayed behind the scenes.
Sure, he’s popped up occasionally on “The Daily Show” as “Senior Black Correspondent,” but he’s devoted much of his career to writing and producing.
It didn’t start out that way. In the 1980s, he dropped out of college to become an actor and stand-up comedian. (You may remember him as a police officer on “The Facts of Life.”) It was a few years later when he decided to become a TV writer.
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“Larry’s like a Jedi” of TV and comedy, he said.
Wilmore himself is taking a casual attitude to the inevitable attention. You didn’t know him before? You may soon see him everywhere, but he’ll be the same Larry Wilmore regardless.
“It’s too late for success to do anything to me. I’m too old. Success had its chance,” he told The New York Times. “It’s too late for you, success. You had your shot. You’re not going to change me at this point.”
