Cole Escola (born November 25, 1986)[1] is an American comedian, actor, singer, and playwright. They are best known for their cabaret work and appearances on the television series Difficult People (2015–2017), At Home with Amy Sedaris (2017–2020), Search Party (2020–2021), and Big Mouth (2022), as well as for writing and starring in the play Oh, Mary! which opened on Broadway in 2024.
Early life
Escola was born and raised in Clatskanie, Oregon. They are of Finnish and Norwegian descent.[2] When they were six, their father chased the entire family out of their mobile home with a gun,[3][4][5] after which Escola, their mother, and their brother subsequently lived in government housing. Their sister was not living with them at this time. Escola participated in community theater and starred in high school productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Les Misérables, and Little Shop of Horrors.[6] After graduating from R. A. Long High School in 2005, Escola moved to New York City to study humanities at Marymount Manhattan College, dropping out after one year.[7] They subsequently performed at children's birthday parties and worked at the Scholastic bookstore.[5]
Career
Stage
From 2008 to 2012, Escola was a regular guest performer in the Our Hit Parade cabaret series,[8] and later began performing monthly solo shows at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre. They appeared in Scott Wittman's 2012 cabaret show Jukebox Jackie at La MaMa and played an unborn fetus in Bridget Everett's 2014 cabaret show Rock Bottom at Joe's Pub. In a sketch called Queers in History, Escola strutted "jauntily across the stage wearing a newsboy cap and underwear."[5] On June 14, 2017, Escola's hour-long solo show Help! I'm Stuck premiered at Joe's Pub, where it has since played numerous sold-out engagements.
In October 2024, Escola was included in the TIME 100 Next list of the world's most influential rising leaders.[13]
Television
In 2008, Escola met fellow comedian Jeffery Self in New York; bonding over a shared love of theater and 1990s sitcoms, they began creating surreal, semi-scripted YouTube videos under the moniker "Very Good Looking (VGL) Gay Boys." The sketches, in which Escola often played the demented comic foil to Self's straight man,[14] received over 100,000 views, prompting coverage in New York magazine and a development deal from Logo TV.[7]Jeffery & Cole Casserole premiered on Logo on June 19, 2009; it ran for two seasons and has been deemed as a "cult classic" by Vice magazine.[5] Escola and Self also wrote the screenplay for an as-yet-unproduced comedy in which two friends "have to go through a lot to redeem their free sandwich."[15]
In 2022, Escola came out as non-binary.[17] Escola owns dozens of wigs, which they store under their bed in 7-Eleven doughnut boxes.[4] Their wigs often shape and inform their recurring stage characters, which include Broadway performer Bernadette Peters, suicidal homemaker Joyce Conner, scheming furniture heiress Jennifer Convertibles, and The Goblin Commuter of Hoboken.[5][18]
