Nominated six times for an
American Comedy Award,
Dom Irrera's stand up material was honed in a multi-generational Italian household in South Philadelphia with his mother, sister, grandmother, uncles, and cousins, all under one very big roof. A great-grandmother even lived across the street. Together, there were three floors and four generations of family.
His first big break was his performance on Rodney Dangerfield's
Nothin' Goes Right comedy special for HBO. In 1989, Irrera's own
One Night Stand on HBO earned him his first
CableACE Award for
Best Stand Up Comedy Special. In 1995, he won a second
CableACE Award for the Showtime stand up series he hosted,
Full Frontal Comedy. That same year, he received a second
CableACE Award nomination in the writing category for his work on Comedy Central's animated series,
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He also starred in a solo stand up special for HBO in 1992 titled
Command Performance.
He has performed on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
Late Show with David Letterman,
Late Night with Conan O'Brien,
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,
The View, and has made several appearances on
The Oprah Winfrey Show. Recent credits include an all new stand up special titled
Comedy Central Presents, which aired on the cable network this past summer.
As an avid sports fan, he hosted four seasons of Comedy Central's irreverent football show,
Offsides, where he conducted hilarious on the field interviews with football greats. He also hosted Comedy Central's
Behind the Scenes at the American Comedy Awards specials in 1998 and 1999.
Irrera was a series regular on the 1998 Fox comedy
Damon, starring Damon Wayans. His guest star credits include
Becker,
Everybody Loves Raymond,
The King of Queens, and
Seinfeld, in which he played an annoying prop comic needling Jerry in the memorable episode. In addition, Irrera voices the character
Ernie, the demolitions expert, on Nickelodeon's
Hey Arnold!
His film work includes a featured role in Robert Townsend's
Hollywood Shuffle, a cameo in the Coen Bros. film,
The Big Lebowski,
The 4th Tenor, starring old pal Rodney Dangerfield, and he played himself in the Rodney Dangerfield and Dom De Luise film,
The Godson.
Irrera has performed at the prestigious
Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival and the
Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland. He's made more appearances at both festivals than any other American comic. He has also performed at the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival in Australia and at
Edinburgh Festival's Assembly Hall. It was there that he received the
Herald Award for
Artistic Excellence.
