Mo Rocca

Humorist, actor and writer Mo Rocca is best known for his off-beat news reports and satirical commentary. Currently a Correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning News with Charles Osgood, he’s also a panelist on NPR’s hit weekly quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and the host of the show Foodography on The Cooking Channel. Rocca spent four seasons as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and four seasons as a correspondent on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno..

The former president and author of Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Show, Rocca is no stranger to the stage, where his credits include the roles of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in Broadway’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Doody on the Southeast Asia Tour of Grease.

“I’d rather call myself a mischief-maker—an ‘imp’—rather than a satirist. ‘Satirist’ sounds so self-important. Plus, no one else is calling himself an imp right now. It makes me feel special.”

Rocca’s book All the Presidents’ Pets: The Story of One Reporter Who Refused to Roll Over is a tour-de-force of investigative journalism that blows the lid off of a long-held Washington secret: Presidential pets are more than just photo-ops. Equal parts All the President’s Men, Charlotte’s Web and The Da Vinci Code, Pets is the journalistic watershed event of the decade. Really.

“Too many Americans are lazy when it comes to studying low-brow culture. I’ve given all these shows—Punky Brewster, Webster—the thought they deserve.”