Louis Alfred Székely, known professionally as Louis C.K. is an American stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker. C.K. has won three Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as numerous awards for The Chris Rock Show, Louie, and his stand-up specials Live at the Beacon Theater (2011) and Oh My God (2013). In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked C.K.'s stand-up special Shameless number three on their "Divine Comedy: 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies of All Time" list and ranked him fourth on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.

Louis Alfred Székely was born in Washington, D.C., on September 12, 1967, the son of software engineer Mary Louise (née Davis) and economist Luis Székely. He has three sisters. His father is of Mexican and Hungarian-Jewish descent. C.K.'s Jewish paternal grandfather, Géza Székely Schweiger, had immigrated from Hungary to Mexico; he and his Mexican wife raised their children in the Catholic faith. C.K.'s mother, an American, was a Catholic with Irish ancestry.