Louis Virtel (born August 4, 1986) is an American television writer, comedian, pop culture commentator, and podcast host. He first rose to prominence after appearing on a 2015 episode of Jeopardy!, where a clip of him answering a clue while emphatically snapping went viral. He has since written for publications such as Time, Billboard, and Vulture. Additionally, he is currently a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and has contributed to telecasts hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, such as the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards and the 95th and 96th Academy Awards ceremonies. Virtel has also co-hosted the Crooked Media podcast Keep It! since 2018.
Early and personal life
Virtel was born August 4, 1986.[1] He grew up with a large family in Lemont, Illinois and graduated from Lemont High School in 2004.[2][3] He received a bachelor's degree in journalism and theater from the University of Iowa in 2008.[2] Virtel, who has been openly gay throughout his adulthood, has stated that growing up in Lemont proved alienating, and that he did not realize that living as an openly gay person was possible until he met a gay neighbor in his teenage years.[3]
Career
While in college, Virtel obtained an internship at The Advocate.[3] After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, California in 2009, where he wrote for publications such as Hollywood Life and Movieline.[2] In March 2011, Virtel began writing television recaps for TVLine, including coverage of the 13th season of Big Brother and the 11th season of The Apprentice.[4] During this time, he also hosted the Logo webseries Weeklings!,[5] as well as a show called Verbal Vogueing that appeared on his personal YouTube channel.[6] He also performed comedy.[3] In 2012, he became the West Coast entertainment editor for the pop culture website AfterElton, which would later rebrand to The Backlot.[7] His success with Verbal Vogueing also led to him being hired by the entertainment website HitFix[a] to host the webseries The Snap.[3][8] In 2014, Virtel began writing for the television show Billy on the Street.[3]
Game show appearances
Virtel is an avid trivia enthusiast and began appearing on game shows in 2014, when he competed on a January 28 episode of the Game Show Network program The Chase and won $38,000.[2][9] In 2015, he appeared on a Jeopardy! episode that aired on May 8; his brother, Jim Virtel, had previously appeared on the show in 2012.[10] Though he lost the actual game to contestant Andrew Haringer, a video of Virtel aggressively snapping after correctly answering a Daily Double clue pertaining to Arthur Miller's play The Crucible quickly went viral, often being shared in the form of GIFs.[11][12] Despite the notoriety Virtel achieved for this moment, he has expressed regret that he never explicitly disclosed his sexual orientation during the episode, since he felt his visibility as a gay man would have been a comfort to adolescents growing up in areas with small gay populations.[3][13] For his 2015 appearance on the show, Virtel was named one of the 7 most famous LGBTQJeopardy! contestants by LGBTQ Nation in 2022.[14]
In January 2016, a GIF of Virtel's Jeopardy! snap was used by the House Republican Conference to promote their Snapchat-based coverage of an upcoming State of the Union address, with the image captioned "#SnapOfTheUnion". Virtel vocally disapproved of this decision, denouncing his likeness being used by the party on Twitter, in a HitFix essay, and in a Slate interview.[15][16] In his essay for HitFix, Virtel explained his dismay by writing:
Nothing about representing myself on Jeopardy! with excitement, self-possession, and pride has anything to do with the GOP’s ideals, and it is borderline traumatizing to see my image associated with their horrifying, regressive shambles of a party. Every fearful, closeted kid I knew growing up in suburban Illinois had one thing in common: ignorant, blindly adherent Republican parents.[17]
Further career
After his Jeopardy! appearance, Virtel continued writing for television and digital media. In 2017, he wrote for the short-lived TV Land show Throwing Shade.[3][18] In March 2018, he began publishing recaps of the 16th season of American Idol for Vulture.[19] In addition to his HitFix contributions, which continued until 2016,[20] he has also published pieces in Billboard and Time.[21][22] Since 2018, Virtel has hosted the Crooked Media podcast Keep It! with fellow television writer Ira Madison III.[23][24] Virtel appeared on an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that aired on March 13, 2019.[10] On June 26, 2023, Virtel appeared as a guest host on the television channel Turner Classic Movies, where he helped present the 1995 film The Celluloid Closet and five additional films shown in the documentary.[25]
As of 2024, Virtel is currently working as a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live!.[26] He occasionally appears in-person on the show in a segment called "Virtel It Like It Is".[27] As a result of his affiliation with Jimmy Kimmel, he has also contributed to various awards broadcasts Kimmel has hosted, including 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards,[28] as well as the 95th and 96th Academy Awards.[29][30] Virtel confirmed on an episode of Keep It! that his contributions to the 96th Academy Awards included a joke about French actor Gérard Depardieu eating his own vomit.[31]
Notes
^HitFix pieces now redirect to Uproxx; Virtel's contributions are listed under this site.
