During a recent visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Pete Davidson talks about being on tour with John Mulaney and Jon Stewart, why he purchased 5,000 sealed VHS tapes, and finding out he was hosting Saturday Night Live in a text from Lorne Michaels.
His father was a firefighter with Ladder 118 in Brooklyn who died while responding to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Scott’s death deeply traumatized Pete, who had problems in school and at one point ripped out all his hair until he was bald. A group of psychologists monitored Davidson for several years to study the psychological effects in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks; Davidson described himself as a “lab rat” in these experiments. He had suicidal thoughts as a child and attempted suicide at age 9. Davidson credits the rapper Kid Cudi—who’s used his music to share his own battle with suicide—for having saved his life. “I would’ve killed myself if I didn’t have Kid Cudi,” he told the morning radio show The Breakfast Club. “I truly believe if Man on the Moon didn’t come out, I wouldn’t be here.” Davidson performed his first stand-up performance at a Staten Island bowling alley at age 16, after a group of friends who knew about his comedy aspirations dared him to do it. After graduating from Xaverian High School in 2011, he briefly attended Brooklyn Heights’ St. Francis College before deciding to drop out.
Beginning in 2013, Davidson began appearing on a variety of MTV series, such as Failosophy, Guy Code, and a guest role in Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ’N Out. In 2014, after making his televised stand-up debut on Comedy Central’s Gotham Comedy Live, he continued doing more stand-up gigs, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Comedy Underground with Dave Attell.
Also that year, he was cast in the pilot episode for a Fox comedy called Sober Companion, but it was not picked up by the network.
After nabbing a guest-starring role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Davidson earned a small part on the Amy Schumer–Bill Hader film comedy Trainwreck (2015). Hader was impressed with Davidson and recommended him to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels.
That earned Davidson an audition and, ultimately, a role as a cast member on the long-running sketch comedy series, which was starting its 40th season in 2014. At age 20, Davidson became one of the show’s youngest cast members. Davidson earned wide acclaim during his time on Saturday Night Live. He portrayed memorable characters during his tenure on SNL, like the easily distracted youth Chad, and performed in several popular pretaped segments, like a rap video with Gunna, Chris Redd, and Simon Rex. He also became particularly known for his appearances on the show’s regular Weekend Update segment, in which he appears as himself, delivering commentary about his personal life or current events.
In 2016, he was included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, which described him as “having polished his chops in both sketch and stand-up.” Davidson also collaborated and performed regularly with his close friend and fellow comedian John Mulaney, a writer on SNL. Davidson occasionally went overboard with his humor. After seven seasons, Davidson departed from Saturday Night Live in 2022.
