Denis Leary

• Genre: Stand-Up Comedy
• Hometown: Worchester

About

Denis Leary was born to Irish immigrants in Worchester, Massachusetts, and grew up seeped in that magical, yet intangible "thing" known as the "Irish sense of humor." Leary went to Emerson College in Boston, where he became a member of Emerson's Comedy Workshop. Upon graduation, Leary got a job at the college, where he taught for five years while concurrently doing stand-up. Leary's big break came when MTV began featuring his signature rants as promos for their programming. The comedian's second, albeit accidental, break came in 1990. That year, he and his wife flew to London where he had a series of shows booked. While in London, his wife gave birth, extending their short trip into one that lasted a few months. While there, Leary began writing a series of one-man comedy acts. Over time, he brought friends from the States in to flesh out his work, which ended up becoming the genesis of No Cure For Cancer. Leary performed No Cure for Cancer at the Edinburgh International Arts Festival, and ended up walking away with the Critic's Award and the BBC's official Festival Recommendation. The show was moved to the States the next year, and found its way to Showtime. Essentially this is what put Leary's movie career into first gear. He went on to star in vehicles such as Who's The Man, The Ref and Snitch and even co-produced Blow, which starred Johnny Depp. Leary's fraternity with the Boston and New York Fire departments is well documented via Leary's Fire Fighters Foundations that he set up in the wake of Boston's horrific 1999 warehouse fire and 9/11, respectively. Fittingly, Leary made his return to television in 2004 as writer and star of the firefighter drama, Save Me.

- Linda Ryan