A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Paul Mecurio graduated with high honors from Georgetown Law School and began his career on Wall Street as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at the law firm of Willkie, Farr and Gallagher and later as an investment banker at CS First Boston. All the while, Paul was honing a secret, second career writing and performing comedy in New York City. After several years on Wall Street, Paul moved center stage, leaving Wall Street and starting his career as a stand-up comedian.

In 1996, Paul was invited to be on the original writing and performing team for a new Comedy Central show called The Daily Show. In 2001, as a writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Paul won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement In Writing In A Variety, Music or Comedy Program. For his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2000, Paul was honored with a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting (think The Pulitzer Prize for Broadcasting). In 2002, Paul received his second Emmy nomination for his work on The Daily Show. Paul has also been featured as a field correspondent on The Daily Show and in The Daily Show segment, “Second Opinion,” in which he skewered the medical profession playing an HMO representative with a less than sympathetic mindset.

Paul recently shot the television pilot Sports Central, in which he starred, co-created and executive produced. Using a news format, Sports Central is a funny, smart look at the controversial off-the-field issues and player behavior plaguing sports.

A national headliner in clubs and theaters across North America and in Europe, Paul has performed at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and has made numerous TV appearances including Comedy Central Presents, The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, NBC’s Late Friday, and numerous appearances on VH1’s popular clip shows. Paul has been a guest on Fox News Channel and makes regular appearances on CNN, CNNfn and MSNBC as a political satirist.

On May 21, 2004, Paul premiered his own Comedy Central Presents half-hour special. Paul was featured as a political satirist in the 2004 Presidential Election coverage by The Daily News, CNN, MSNBC, CNNfn, and ESPN2.

Paul was seen in a guest-starring role opposite John Cleese in the ABC sitcom Wednesday at 9:30 and shot, The Joke Show, a television pilot set in New York City for famed producer/directors Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana. He can also be seen in the upcoming film drama, High Art, Low Life, written and directed by Peter Nourjian and recently shot the lead role in the independent film Faux Pix.

Paul has written, produced and directed five short films, the latest of which, Gloves, an off-center dark comedy has been screened at several prestigious film festivals including The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, The Toronto Film Festival, The Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and The San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. Paul also worked on the film American Buffalo, starring Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz based on the award winning David Mamet play of the same name.

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