Just For Laughs Announces the Honourees of the 2017 Just For Laughs Awards presented by SiriusXM
This years honourees include:
Trevor Noah: Comedy Person of the Year
Jim Carrey: Generation Award
Mike Birbiglia: Stand-Up Comedian of the Year
Ali Wong: Breakout Comedy Star of the Year
Craig Ferguson: Alumni Tribute
Kenya Barris: Comedy Writer of the Year
Montreal (July 10, 2017) — Just For Laughs celebrates the leading talent in the comedy industry at the 2017 Just For Laughs Awards Show presented by SiriusXM. This year’s honourees include:Trevor Noah (Comedy Person of the Year), Jim Carrey (Generation Award), Mike Birbiglia(Stand-Up Comedian of the Year), Ali Wong (Breakout Comedy Star of the Year), Craig Ferguson (Alumni Tribute), and Kenya Barris (Comedy Writer of the Year). All six will be present to receive their awards at the awards show on Friday, July 28 at 3:00 pm, Grand Salon Opera, Hyatt Regency Montreal.
Trevor Noah is a South African-born comedian best known for his role as host of The Daily Showon Comedy Central. He is the subject of an award-winning documentary, You Laugh But It’s True, which tells the story of his remarkable career in post-apartheid South Africa. He also authored the book, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, an instant New York Times bestseller and top-selling Audible title. Earlier this year, Noah debuted his ninth comedy special, Afraid of the Dark (Netflix). This follows on Trevor Noah: Lost in Translation (Comedy Central) and Trevor Noah: African American (Showtime). Noah was the winner of the “Personality of the Year” at the 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards, and “Best Host” at the 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards. He is currently on tour across North America, stopping at Just For Laughs for two sold-out concert performances on July 28 and a sold-out “In Conversation” on July 29th.
Jim Carrey is an award-winning actor who has been honored for both his dramatic and comedic work. He won a Golden Globe Award, for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, for the title role in Peter Weir's The Truman Show. Jim won his second Golden Globe, for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, for his portrayal of comedian Andy Kaufman in Milos Forman's Man on the Moon. Over the course of his career, Carrey has also been recognized numerous times by the MTV Movie Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. Carrey is executive producing the Showtime comedy series I'm Dying Up Here set in the 1970's stand-up comedy scene. Carrey can also be seen alongside Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa and Keanu Reeves as “The Hermit" in the film The Bad Batch, a cannibal love story that takes place in a post-apocalyptic Texas wasteland. Carrey also stars in the upcoming crime-drama True Crimes, based on the New Yorker article about a homicide investigation of a slain businessman and the novelist eventually convicted of the murder. Some of Carrey's previous films include Dumb and Dumber To,I Love You Phillip Morris, Yes Man, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Bruce Almighty, Liar, Liar, The Cable Guy, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, & Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Mike Birbiglia is a comedian and storyteller who has performed in front of audiences worldwide, from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall. His most recent shows, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriendand Thank God for Jokes, were both filmed for Netflix. Mike has released four albums for Comedy Central Records, including My Secret Public Journal Live, which was named one of the “Best Comedy Albums of the Decade” by The Onion AV Club. In addition to performing live, Birbiglia is an author and filmmaker who wrote, directed and starred in the acclaimed films Sleepwalk with Meand Don’t Think Twice. His book, Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Thurber Prize For American Humor. As an actor, Birbiglia has appeared on Orange is the New Black, Inside Amy Schumer, and Girls as well as in the films Trainwreck, The Fault in Our Stars, and Popstar. Birbiglia is currently on a nationwide tour with his latest show, The New One, approaching an entirely new subject in a new way with the same heart and humor we’ve come to expect. He brings this show to Just For Laughs for 5 shows at the Le Gesù Theatre between July 25-29.
Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco, now living in Los Angeles. Her Netflix stand-up special, Baby Cobra, filmed when she was seven months pregnant, skyrocketed her to stardom and drew praise from across the comedy industry. Wong is a writer for the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, and has made television appearances in American Housewife, Are You There, Chelsea?, Inside Amy Schumer, and Black Box. Ali Wong headlines her own Just For Laughs show, July 27 at Maison Symphonique, Place des Arts.
Craig Ferguson entered the world of late night comedy following a diverse and eclectic career encompassing film, television and the stage. In December 2014, Ferguson concluded his 10 year run as the host of CBS’s The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, setting an all-time viewer record and earning him a Primetime Emmy nomination and the 2009 Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. As the host of Celebrity Name Game, Ferguson was awarded the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host two years in a row. This year he was nominated for a third Daytime Emmy Award. In February 2017, Craig launched his new SiriusXM program,The Craig Ferguson Show, which is broadcast live on Comedy Greats every evening. Ferguson launched his North American career at Just For Laughs in 1987. Thirty years later, he returns for two shows at Monument National on July 29 that will be taped for his first Netflix special.
As a writer, Kenya Barris is known for his quick wit and unabashed sense of humour. He has worked on several TV shows, including CBS’s Listen Up, The CW’s The Game and Girlfriends, and Fox’s I Hate My Teenage Daughter. Barris has sold a number of pilots, including America’s Next Top Model (which he co-created), BET’s The Start Up, and We Got Next, Hulu’s first half-hour comedy series. He is the Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner on black-ish (ABC) as well as the Co-Creator and Executive Producer of an upcoming hour-long series, Unit Zero, starring Toni Collette, and a half-hour series, Libby & Malcolm, starring Felicity Huffman and Courtney B Vance. Kenya Barris is currently developing several projects for 20th Century Fox, including White Men Can’t Jump, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Stir Crazy.
The Just For Laughs Festival runs from July 12 to July 31, 2017 in Montreal, Canada. Just For Laughs ComedyPRO, the leading industry event of the comedy business, runs from July 26-29, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Montreal.
About the Just For Laughs Group:
Founded in 1983, the Just For Laughs Group’s growth is concentrated on four major focal points: Festivals (in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney); television production (most notably Gags, seen in 135 countries and on 95 airlines); stand-up specials and live shows (Canadian tour dates for Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, North American dates for Family Guy Live!); Its inaugural Montreal Festival is over 30 years old and is now the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy event, welcoming on average 1.7 million visitors to Montreal each summer and generating approximately $80 million for the city’s economy. The Group has offices in Montreal, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto, and London.
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