During the 2008 United States presidential election, Meyers wrote the sketches for former SNL cast member Tina Fey, who returned as a guest star to impersonate Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Meyers received critical praise for his part in several iconic SNL sketches during his tenure. In the season 29 episode hosted by Lindsay Lohan, he portrayed Ron Weasley in a parody of Harry Potter. His recurring characters included Zach Ricky, host of the kids' hidden camera show "Pranksters" Nerod, the receptionist in the recurring sketch "Appalachian Emergency Room" David Zinger, a scientist who often insults his fellow workers DJ Johnathan Feinstein, the DJ on the webcam show "Jarett's Room" Dan Needler, half of a married couple "that should be divorced," (opposite Amy Poehler) William Fitzpatrick, from the Irish talk show "Top o' the Morning," and Boston Powers (one of the comedians in the "Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy" series). On SNL, Meyers impersonated such figures as John Kerry, Michael Caine, Anderson Cooper, Carrot Top, Prince Charles, Ryan Seacrest, Sean Penn, Stone Phillips, Tobey Maguire, Peyton Manning, Ben Curtis (also known as the Dell Dude), Ty Pennington, Bill Cowher, Brian Williams, Nicollette Sheridan, Wade Robson, Donald Trump, Jr., Tom Cruise, and Kevin Federline. In the 2013–2014 season, Cecily Strong joined Meyers as co-anchor until his departure mid-season. After Poehler's departure, Meyers anchored solo between 20. In fall 2009, Meyers co-anchored two episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday with Poehler. With Fey's departure, Meyers became head writer for the 2006–2007 season and also assumed the role of Weekend Update co-anchor with Amy Poehler. In 2004, he auditioned to co-anchor Weekend Update with Fey, but lost to Amy Poehler. In 2005, he was promoted to writing supervisor, and in January 2006, he became co-head writer, sharing the role with Tina Fey and Andrew Steele. Meyers joined the Saturday Night Live cast in 2001. When a Boom Chicago show he developed was mounted in Chicago, he was noticed by Saturday Night Live talent scouts and invited to audition. He continued his career at ImprovOlympic with the group Preponderate as well as overseas as a cast member of Boom Chicago, an English language improv troupe based in Amsterdam, where his brother was also a cast member. While attending college at Northwestern University, Meyers began performing improv comedy as a member of the Northwestern University improv sketch group Mee-Ow Show. In 2016, he delivered the commencement address at Northwestern's graduation. In 2011, he was the Grand Marshal for the school's homecoming parade. He majored in film and television production. His college roommate was fellow actor Peter Grosz. He graduated in 1996 from Northwestern University in Evanston (the town of his birth), where he became a member of the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta. He graduated from Manchester High School West in New Hampshire. Meyers attended Edgewood Elementary in Okemos. Meyers discovered on the show Finding Your Roots that his family's original surname, Trakianski, was changed by his great-grandfather to Meyers, after his own father Mejer Trakianski. The rest of his ancestry is Czech, Austrian, Croatian (from his paternal grandmother), Swedish (from his maternal grandfather), English, and German. His paternal grandfather was an Ashkenazi Jewish emigrant from Kalvarija near Marijampolė in modern-day Lithuania. His younger brother, Josh Meyers, is an actor. Meyers's mother, Hilary Claire ( née Olson), was a French teacher, and his father, Laurence Meyers Jr., worked in finance. Meyers was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was raised in Okemos, Michigan, from four to ten years of age, and Bedford, New Hampshire, after that.
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