Brooks Wheelan

Fresh-faced comedian Brooks Wheelan caught his big break as part of the "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975-) hiring blitz to round out its 39th season. With his Midwestern boy next-door appeal, the stand-up comedian joined the cast with barely any acting credits to his name. Brooks Wheelan was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Wheelan grew up an athletic and studious kid in Manchester, Iowa, earning honor roll and wrestling titles simultaneously. A comedy fan from an early age, Wheelan grew up on SNL and told his parents of his ambition to join the cast when he was in elementary school. Despite his early motivations, Wheelan ended up going into the sciences instead and earned a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Iowa in 2009. While he performed stand-up around the Midwest during his late teens and studied at Second City Chicago during his summer breaks from college, it was his engineering degree that eventually brought him out to Los Angeles. Wheelan worked with heart valves and eyeballs in a research lab by day while performing standup comedy at night. While he worked the club circuit of L.A., he also brushed up on his improv and sketch comedy skills by performing at the UCB Theatre, the Hollywood Improv Comedy Club and writing video shorts with his friends for YouTube and Funny or Die. While many of his peers sought out recognition online, Wheelan continuously worked on his standup and was invited to perform at the New York Comedy Festival as a part of Comedy Central's "Top 10 Comics to Watch in 2012." Wheelan made his television debut appearing on comedian Adam Devine's show "Adam Devine's House Party" (Comedy Central 2013-). Wheelan followed that up with a set at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. It was there that Wheelan caught the eye of SNL's Lorne Michaels, who invited Wheelan to audition for the show. In September of that 2013, he was announced as the last featured player to join the show that season. His most notable early appearance came during the Jimmy Fallon-hosted Christmas episode, when he played himself on a game of Celebrity Family Feud, insisting that he was a cast member on "Saturday Night Live" despite the fact that no one else on stage had ever heard of him.