Biography
Born in 1980 in New Jersey, Chris D'Elia moved to Los Angeles at the age of 12 with his family. D'Elia started out as an actor, making his small-screen debut in a 1996 episode of the medical drama "Chicago Hope"(CBS 1994-2000). D'Elia followed this appearance up with guest roles on other prime-time drama series, but despite this, always felt it was his calling to be a comic actor. In 2006, after making a New Year's resolution to perform on stage, D'Elia began his stand-up career, performing for the first time at an open mic night at a Los Angeles club. As an antidote to the frustration of writing scripts that got optioned but never picked up, and auditioning for dozens of roles and booking very few, comedy allowed him to take more control over the direction of his career. D'Elia pursued standup doggedly, performing hundreds of shows a year and slowly making a name for himself in the comedy scene. In 2010 his work paid off when he was cast in the series "Glory Daze" (TBS 2010-11), a comedy-drama set in 1986 about a group of college freshmen pledging a fraternity. The series was cancelled after one season, but D'Elia's career was on an upswing; he followed up his work on the show with a memorable appearance as an online predator on "Workaholics" (Comedy Central 2011-17) before getting cast opposite comedian and actress Whitney Cummings on her sitcom "Whitney"(NBC 2011-13) as her live-in boyfriend Alex. Although the show suffered from poor ratings and generally bad reviews, D'Elia was often singled out as the show's most likeable actor. D'Elia's first one-hour standup comedy special, "White Male Black Comic," aired on Comedy Central on December 6, 2013. He then landed his first starring role, as the determinedly optimistic dating guru for a batch of difficult singletons on the sitcom "Undateable" (NBC 2014), executive-produced by Bill Lawrence.
