Pop Culture Jeopardy! host Colin Jost’s life off-screen – A-lister wife to Saturday Night Live fame
As former Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost takes on the role as host of Pop Culture Jeopardy!, we’re diving deeper into the comedian’s life behind the camera
As comedian and writer Colin Jost is set to host the brand new series Pop Culture Jeopardy!, we’re taking a closer look at the man behind the mic. The new iteration of Jeopardy! will drop on December 4 on Amazon Prime Video with three episodes.
This year, the Saturday Night Live alum will be leading the brand new game show, where he will be quizzing contestants on their pop culture knowledge – including everything from music, TV and movies.
As Colin is soon to become a very familiar face in the trivia show world, we’re going to dive into his life off-screen including his education, marriage to actress Scarlett Johansson, and his time on SNL.
Where did Colin Jost go to college?
Colin Jost graduated from Harvard University (Image: Getty Images for PEN America)
Jost is a highly qualified host to appear on Jeopardy!, as he has been a successful academic all his life and even graduated from Harvard University. After graduating from Regis High School in Manhattan, where he was the editor of the school newspaper The Owl, Jost was accepted into the Ivy League university where he studied both history and literature. with a special focus on Russian and British literature.
During his time at the prestigious college, Jost continued his interest in journalism and was president of the Harvard Lampoon – an undergraduate humor publication. Jost is also a game show player himself and during college, won $5,250 on a school edition of Weakest Link. The contest was an interesting blend of the series Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and Survivor.
What was Colin Jost’s SNL career like?
Jost has been a staff writer on the comedy sketch series since 2005 (Image: NBCUniversal)
After college, Jost became most well-known and loved for his run on the hit comedy show Saturday Night Live. On the series, Jost took on a number of positions as he worked as writing supervisor, co-head writer, and eventually co-anchored the Weekend Update feature where he replaced the legendary Seth Meyers.
Jost has been a staff writer for SNL since 2005, and has been a part of the Weekend Update team since 2014. His friend Michael Che is also his co-anchor and the two were co-head writers on the sketch show from 2017 until 2022. The pair even hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2018 together.
While Jost has largely remained unproblematic in the public eye, he did write one risky joke during his SNL career that left fans fuming. Every year, the series hosts a segment called Joke Swap, during which co-anchors will write a cringe-worthy joke for the other to read off on air. During the segment in 2023, Jost wrote a joke that some found “racist” for his Che to read that targeted Beyoncé.
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Che read off the joke, “Last month Beyoncé posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a chrome Versace dress and platinum blonde hair that many people online described as ‘too white.’” He laughed and continued, “In fact, Beyoncé looked so white that I was finally attracted to her.”
Who is Colin Jost married to?
Colin is married to actress Scarlett Johansson (Image:AFP via Getty Images)
Jost is currently married to one of the most gorgeous women in Hollywood and who is an icon of her generation. A-lister Scarlett Johansson and Jost have been romantically tied since 2017, but their first encounter was way back in 2006 on the set of Saturday Night Live when Johansson was hosting an episode of the show and Jost was in the writer’s room.
After dating for three years, Jost and the former Black Widow star exchanged vows during an intimate wedding at their home in Palisades, New York in October 2020. In 2021, Johansson and the Jost welcomed their son Cosmo. The actress is also a mother to her daughter Rose Dorothy, whom she shares with art dealer Romain Dauriac.
Jost even made a cameo in Scarlett’s 2024 film Fly Me to the Moon, playing a senator.
During a guest appearance on Gwyneth Paltrow’s podcast Goop, Johansson gushed over her romance with Jost and why she believes he’s the perfect partner to have by her side. She explained that their relationship has been successful because they “move around the world in the same way.”
She explained, “I never realized, ‘Oh, it’s really important for me, I need to be with a compassionate person. That’s a fundamental characteristic that has to be there.’ It worked with Colin and I because I was finally able to step back and respect myself enough to know what those [fundamental wants and needs] were.”
In a New York Times profile published in July 2024, the funnyman couldn’t help but gush over his wife. “I think part of the reason I fell in love with her is she’s a great mom,” he said. “I’ve known Rose, my stepdaughter, since she was two. It’s weird. You get to actually preview someone as a mom.”
