Devin Delliquanti, alumnus of 2002, always knew that he wanted to be in the business of making people laugh. For over 15 years, Devin has been perfecting his craft in media production, stand up, and sketch comedy. His satirical, spot-on perspective has been honed through years of making television and video. 

In 2005, he graduated with honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with Bachelor of Fine Arts and Arts Degrees in Drama, Theatre Arts and Stagecraft, as well as English and American Literature. He received NYU’s prestigious J.S. Seidman Award for Excellence in Arts and Academics. Upon graduating, Devin’s day job was at the accounting firm KPMG, but at night he continued his comedy.  Doing the gritty but proven nighttime comedy clubs scene, which included recruiting some of his best D-E friends for “Bringer” shows, Devin clearly honed his open mic and stand-up skills. During those years, he also co-founded the group So Busted Comedy along with fellow Dwight-Englewood 2002 graduate Mark Stetson. 

In 2010 he secured his first official job in the “biz” as an Assistant Editor, then Associate Producer with The Onion News Network. Then, in 2012, he moved over to VH1 to be a Segment Producer, then Senior Producer at their show “VH1 Big Morning Buzz Live”.   

Then, in 2015 Devin landed at The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, where he’s been a staff writer at one of the most critically-acclaimed and popular nighttime news and entertainment shows in recent history. The show is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning program, hosted by Trevor Noah following Jon Stewart’s retirement, and brings insightful humor to the day’s top headlines.  

In 2017, the series received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series for Between the Scenes, and last year the show scored its first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Talk Series since Trevor Noah took over as host.

Devin is also proud and humbled that The Daily Show recently won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, a GLAAD award for Outstanding Talk Show Episode, and the prestigious Grand Prix award at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival for their pop-up museum The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library”.  

Last year, they turned the Twitter Library museum into a New York Times bestselling book, which includes analysis and “scholarly” commentary from Devin and the other writers of The Daily Show, an introduction by Trevor Noah, as well as a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham.

For the foundation of this illustrious career, however, one look no further than Devin’s formative years spent right here at Dwight-Englewood. Devin has shared that his morning AP English class tradition with Mrs. Sagan typically included a conversational rundown of timely news events, in addition to classic literature. He says that the banter that ensued, this wonderful routine, ultimately empowered him to think structurally about how to set up a script for an engaging set. Moreover, he says that his experiences in these theaters and classrooms, along with rigorous coursework, which included AP Euro with Mrs. Carole DeVito, taught him how to handle both the “long game” of successful TV producing and immediate, reactive, time-sensitive scriptwriting sessions. 

Among other things, while Devin was a student here, he also collaborated with masterful videography teacher, Mr. John McCabe, to ideate, then create hilarious “D-E News” clips in the genre of Saturday Night Live, for Upper School assembly programs. Devin’s own Focus project was the development of a script for an episode of SEINFELD, set in Ancient Rome.  In fact, Devin tells us that he keeps his Focus binder in his office as a constant reminder – both a literal and symbolic cornerstone – of his start as a great comedic writer. 

Editor’s Note: To enjoy Devin’s Commencement Keynote Remarks to the Dwight-Englewood School Class of 2019, click here! 

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