Discover the Best Books Written by Pete Holmes

Peter Benedict Holmes (born March 30, 1979) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. Musings on spirituality and religion are frequent themes in his works.

Holmes gained recognition in the early 2010s as a stand-up comic, during which he launched his long-running podcast. You Made It Weird (2011–present) released his first comedy special and worked as an actor and television writer. Subsequently, he began his own late-night talk show, The Pete Holmes Show (2013–2014), which ran on TBS for two seasons in the time slot after Conan, a frequent champion of his work. During the decade, he released four comedy specials: Impregnated with Wonder (2011), Nice Try, The Devil (2013), Faces and Sounds (2016), and Dirty Clean (2018).

Holmes is most widely known for starring and creating the semi-autobiographical scripted comedy series Crashing, which aired on HBO for three seasons (2017–2019). He has also worked as a voice actor and most recently starred in the 2022 CBS sitcom How We Roll.

Peter Benedict Holmes was born in Boston on March 30, 1979, the son of a Lithuanian refugee mother and an American father of Irish descent. He has a brother who composes music under the name Dr. Holmes. He grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he graduated from Lexington High School. Holmes attended Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where he graduated with a degree in English and Communications in 2001. During this time, he played in a punk rock band and participated in an improvisational comedy troupe called The Sweaty-Toothed Madmen.

Partly at the behest of his mother, he had plans to become a youth pastor. This gave way to public speaking, and his love for comedy and his devolving faith in God eventually won over his need to preach; he now refers to himself as "Christ-leaning" or jokingly a "hooraytheist". Finding little success as a comedian in his home state, he lived in Sleepy Hollow, New York, before moving to Chicago and then Los Angeles.

Holmes has listed Weird Al, Brian Regan, Sinbad, Steve Martin, Gallagher, Jackie Martling, Conan O'Brien, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Farley, Dane Cook, and Ray Romano as his biggest comedic influences. Holmes first married when he was 22 years old; he divorced when he was 28. In late 2017, he married Valerie Chaney. Their daughter was born in September 2018.