10 Things You Didn't Know About Stephen Colbert

Long before he played a fake correspondent, Stephen Colbert had a brief stint as an actual correspondent for Good Morning America. According to an interview with Mediabistro, he did exactly two reports—only one of which made it on air.

Colbert’s time on The Daily Show predates current host Jon Stewart, having joined as a correspondent in 1997 during the Craig Kilborn years. Stewart came on board as host in 1999.

One of Colbert’s earliest gigs before he was famous was as the spokesperson for a commercial for FirsTier bank.

In 2005, Colbert teamed up with Nicole Sullivan and Elmo to teach kids their ABCs in the Sesame Street: All-Star Alphabet.

Colbert is an entertainment triple threat, which means he’s able to act, sing and dance—skills that he will indubitably put a spotlight on on the Late Show. Until then check out a duet of the Star Spangled Banner he once sang with Steve Carell.

In 2010, Colbert won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album for A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!.

Colbert graduated from Northwestern’s School of Communication in 1986 and returned to his alma mater in 2011 to give the commencement speech.

Colbert stretched his improv muscles as a guest star in two episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

A treadmill on the International Space Station known as the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or C.O.L.B.E.R.T. for short, was named for the comedian after winning a NASA naming contest.

The contest was originally intended to name a new module of the space station, however NASA decided to name the module Tranquility instead of Colbert, with the latter’s name used for the treadmill instead.

The Colbert Report broke The Daily Show‘s 10–year Emmy winning streak for best Variety series in 2013 with its win at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards.