Mitch Hedberg

Although Mitch Hedberg grew up in Minnesota, he started his comedy career in Florida. Having successfully converted the Southeast to his deadpan brand of humor, Hedberg picked up stakes and moved to Seattle, where he refined his act by constantly touring throughout the Pacific Northwest. A trip to Los Angeles resulted in Hedberg successfully pitching himself to the folks at MTV and landing a spot on the network's Comikaze show. Appearances in comedy shows on A&E, NBC and Comedy Central followed and in 1996, Hedberg was asked to perform at the prestigious Montreal Comedy Festival, Just For Laughs. His performance at the festival was one of the standouts that year and earned him a developmental deal with a studio and a spot on The Late Show With David Letterman. In fact, Letterman enjoyed the young upstart's set so much he referred to one of Mitch's bits later on in the show. With his development deal in hand, Hedberg wrote, directed and stared in the independent feature film, Los Enchiladas!, which premiered at Sundance. By the end of the millennium Hedberg guest-starred on The Late Show With David Letterman five times and made another appearance at the Just For Laughs festival, where he was hotly-tipped as one of the best of the next generation of comedy stars. Hedberg worked developing a sitcom for the Fox Network and completed a reality show pilot for MTV. Sadly, Hedberg was found dead on March 30, 2005.