Shane Gillis

1987-present

Latest News: Shane Gillis Hosts the 2025 ESPYS

Five months after his Bud Light Super Bowl commercial with Peyton Manning and Post Malone, comedian Shane Gillis is back for another high-profile sports event. The 37-year-old stand-up performer and star of the Netflix series Tires is hosting the 2025 ESPYS on July 16. The annual showcase honoring the biggest accomplishments in sports will air at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and stream the following day.

“I like sports so this should be a good time,” Gillis said in a statement. He offered few hints about his material for the show.

Gillis will be the first comedian to host the event since Tracy Morgan in 2019. The ESPYS typically rely on current or former athletes, with previous emcees including tennis legend Serena Williams, NBA star Stephen Curry, veteran NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, and barrier-breaking race car driver Danica Patrick.

Comedian and actor Shane Gillis is a co-creator and star of the Netflix series Tires, which premiered its second season in June 2025. Originally from Pennsylvania, Gillis played college football and worked as a car salesman and English teacher before pursuing comedy full-time. After gaining popularity through his stand-up act and his dark observational humor, he was named to the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2019. However, the show fired Gillis days later when clips of him using a racial slur and other derogatory language surfaced on social media—he never appeared as a cast member. He has since headlined two live comedy specials and booked a 2025 arena tour.

FULL NAME: Shane Michael Gillis
BORN: December 11, 1987
BIRTHPLACE: Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
HEIGHT: 6 ft. 4 in.

Shane Michael Gillis was born on December 11, 1987, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, near the state capital of Harrisburg. His parents are Phil Gillis, who worked as a food-packaging equipment salesperson, and Joan Gillis. He also has two older sisters, Kait and Sarah.

Gillis became interested in comedy during childhood. Although his father had George Carlin CDs, he was drawn to rising performers with high-energy personas, such as Carlos Mencia and Dane Cook, according to The New Yorker. Gillis also found inspiration from Will Ferrell’s role in the 2003 comedy movie Old School.

Comedy wasn’t his only interest. Gillis initially started down a different path, leaning on his physical stature rather than his sense of humor. He attended and played football at Trinity High School in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Gillis stood 6 feet, 4 inches and 275 pounds, according to his recruiting profile, and played offensive tackle. He was recruited to play collegiately at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and enrolled there following his high school graduation in 2006.

But within about three weeks of his arrival at the academy, Gillis dropped out and quickly relocated to Elon University in North Carolina. He played one season of football there, but by his own account, couldn’t keep up. He returned to his home state and eventually graduated with a degree in history from West Chester University.

Gillis then worked as a salesman at a Honda dealership in Mechanicsburg. Around age 24, he moved to Madrid where he taught English for six months before returning to the States and pursuing a career in comedy.

Shane Gillis is known for his dark observational humor and his impersonation of President Donald Trump.

Around 2012, Gillis began regularly performing stand-up comedy, appearing at the Harrisburg Comedy Zone and other clubs in central Pennsylvania. “I don’t think I had a goal. I just liked doing it. Of course, in your head you’re going to do a theater, but if anything was the goal, it’s to be able to host at the club,” Gillis told RVA Magazine. “You want to be good enough, because you see the guys who are hosting and you want to be like, ‘I can do that. I’m just as funny as them. I can do that.’”

Gillis demonstrated his skills to a wider audience by moving to Philadelphia and winning the “Philly’s Phunniest” tournament in 2016 held at the Helium Comedy Club. That same year, he started his own podcast, Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast with friend and fellow comedian Matt McCusker.

Gillis began to cement his style based on dark observational, or “cringe” humor, and showed he wasn’t afraid to tackle any subject. “He’s very, very smart, and his humor is smart, and he doesn’t take sides, which doesn’t happen anymore,” his sister Kait said of his comedy. “Everyone feels the need to be like, ‘I’m a Republican, I’m a Democrat; never the two shall mix,’ and he does a really good job of not letting you know what he really believes. He makes fun of everyone.”

After relocating to New York, Gillis had a breakout year in 2019 when Comedy Central named him an “Up Next” performer to watch. Similarly, the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal designated him a “New Face” comedian on the rise—an honor previously given to Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, and Amy Schumer. Everything was aligning for Gillis to become a star. However, his risqué humor would soon become an issue.

Saturday Night Live Firing

Shane Gillis was fired from SNL four days after his casting was announced. He has since hosted the sketch comedy show twice.

Capitalizing on his stand-up success, Gillis auditioned for the popular NBC sketch comedy Saturday Night Live. In September 2019, the show announced his casting as a featured player for season 45, along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman.

However, Gillis never appeared as a cast member. Within hours of his hiring, a video clip surfaced of the comedian using an anti-Asian slur on an episode of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast. In the episode, Gillis joked their conversation was “nice racism, good racism.” Other samples quickly emerged of Gillis making comments deemed insensitive about Muslims, women, and the LGBTQ community.

Gillis released a statement offering to apologize to “anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said” and adding that his comedy career sometimes “requires risks.” However, a spokesperson for SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels announced four days later that the show had fired Gillis, describing the language in the unearthed video clips as “offensive, hurtful and unacceptable.”

Michaels later told the Wall Street Journal he didn’t want to fire Gillis, but network executives insisted. The pair kept in touch, and Gillis debuted on SNL as a guest host in February 2024. He briefly referred to the firing controversy during his opening monologue: “If you don’t know who I am, please don’t Google that. It’s fine, don’t even worry about it.” In March 2025, Gillis hosted the show a second time.

Movies and TV: Tires and Netflix Specials

Following the SNL controversy, Gillis started his own online sketch project with fellow comedian John McKeever, Gilly and Keeves, which debuted in December 2020. In one popular skit, titled “Trump Speed Dating,” Gillis portrayed U.S. President Donald Trump in full costume. He later reprised the near spot-on impersonation in 2024 for the Kill Tony podcast and variety show hosted by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.

In September 2021, Gillis released his first stand-up special, Shane Gillis: Live in Austin, on YouTube. Two years later, Gillis picked up a recurring role on the Peacock comedy series Bupkis, starring Pete Davidson.

Much of Gillis’ recent ascent stems from his work with Netflix. In September 2023, the streaming service partnered with the comedian for the live special Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs. The show marked the first project of Dad Sick Productions, Gillis and McKeever’s production company.

In the meantime, McKeever and Gillis worked to edit and sell Tires, their co-created scripted comedy about workers at a struggling automotive repair shop. “We knew if we sold it online, we’d at least get our money back,” Gillis said in 2024. “But then once we made it, we were like, ‘This is actually pretty good. We should try to sell it to somebody.’ And Netflix was cool enough to buy it and not f–– with it.”

Shane Gillis plays a fictional character named Shane in the popular Netflix series Tires, which he co-created with John McKeever.

Tires debuted on Netflix in May 2024 and became the most-watched show on the platform the day it released, even passing Season 3 of the hit romantic-drama series Bridgerton. That likely pleased Netflix executives who had already renewed Tires for a second season. The sophomore season premiered on June 5, 2025.

Beyond his show, Gillis is currently performing on a stand-up arena tour with U.S. dates through September 2025. On July 16, he hosts the annual ESPYS sports award ceremony.

Gillis has been connected to an upcoming movie titled Easy’s Waltz, directed by True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto and starring Al Pacino and Vince Vaughn. The movie reportedly began production in April 2024, but a release date hasn’t been announced.

Gillis has been romantically linked to social media influencer Grace Brassel since 2024. Although the couple have said little publicly about their relationship, they have appeared together at various events including a College Football Playoff game in December 2024 and UFC Fight Night in London in March 2025.

Brassel, 26, has more than 535,000 followers on TikTok and more than 92,000 on Instagram. She made headlines in 2022 when she nearly died from a collapsed lung, which she attributed partially to a vaping habit. In January 2023, Brassel appeared on the Dr. Phil show to discuss the experience and discourage teenagers from vaping.

Gillis is an outspoken supporter of Philadelphia’s sports teams, including the Phillies and the Eagles. He’s also a longtime superfan of the University of Notre Dame college football team and is scheduled to appear with Grammy-winning singer Zach Bryan at the school in September 2025.

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Gillis’ total fortune at around $8 million as of January 2025. One of his revenue streams is his corporate partnership with beer brand Bud Light, which was announced in August 2024. Gillis appeared in a 2025 Super Bowl commercial for Bud Light along with musician Post Malone and former NFL player Peyton Manning.

• I didn’t want to become, like, a free speech guy. I just wanted to keep doing comedy, you know, I didn’t want to let it define me. I just wanted to do comedy.
• I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t be taken away.
• Getting canceled or however you want [to say it], consequence, whatever, that’s how I think it really gets you is if you let it become who you are.

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Tyler Piccotti

News and Culture Editor, Biography.com

Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.