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Panelist

Mo Rocca

Humorist, actor and writer Mo Rocca is bestknown for his off-beat news reports and satirical commentary. Currently a Correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning News and host of The Tomorrow Show with Mo Rocca on CBSNews.com, he’s also a panelist on NPR’s hit weekly quiz show Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me! Rocca spent four seasons as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and four seasons as a correspondent on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The former president and author of Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Show, Rocca is no stranger to the stage, where his credits include the roles of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in Broadway’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Doody on the Southeast Asia Tour of Grease.

Rocca’s book All the Presidents’ Pets: The Story of One Reporter Who Refused to Roll Over is a tour-de-force of investigative journalism that blows the lid off of a long-held Washington secret: Presidential pets are more than just photo-ops. Equal parts All the President’s Men,Charlotte’s Web and The Da Vinci Code, Pets is the journalistic watershed event of the decade. Really.

"Too many Americans are lazy when it comes to studying low-brow culture. I’ve given all these shows—Punky Brewster, Webster—the thought they deserve."

Rocca began his career in TV as a writer and producer for the Emmy and Peabody Awardwinning PBS children’s series Wishbone. He went on to write and produce for other kids series, including ABC’s Pepper Ann and Nickelodeon’s The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss—a pre-school series combining the whimsy of Seuss characters with the magic of Jim Henson puppetry.

"I know a lot about a few things—mostly useless things."

Rocca also served as consulting editor at the adult men’s magazine Perfect 10. Doing “preschool by day and porn by night” helped prepare him for the broad range of topics he’d tackle on The Daily Show, where his eccentric profiles ranged from a man obsessed with first ladies to the point that he dresses as Florence Harding, to a husband/wife petmummification team.

Rocca is a frequent guest on cable news shows including Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Larry King Live, as well as a judge on Iron Chef America. He was a regular on the VH1 retrospective I Love the... series, served as host of Things I Hate About You on Bravo and Animal Planet’s Whoa! Sunday with Mo Rocca. Rocca also once played the role of Turista #2 on telenovela Amor Descarado on Telemundo.

"I’ve been on Telemundo ’cause I’m half- Colombian. I have not been on BET, but that’s just because I’m especially pale right now."

A native of Washington, D.C., Mo Rocca earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard and resides in New York City. He is famed for his wacky, tongue-in-cheek "fake news" reports.