Sal Iacono (born July 5, 1971),Sal Iacono profile at IMDb
/ref> also known as Cousin Sal, is an American comedian, writer, and game show host. He is known for his roles on ''

The Man Show ''The Man Show'' is an American comedy television show on Comedy Central that aired from 1999 to 2004. It was created in 1999 by its two original co-hosts, Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison. The pilot ...

'' and the late night television show ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

''. He is

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...

's cousin, hence his nickname Cousin Sal.

Early life

Iacono was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

to Fran Iacono and Vincent Iacono. He graduated from

Elwood-John Glenn High School Elwood-John H. Glenn High School (often shortened to simply John Glenn High School) is a four-year secondary school of about 800 students and 70 faculty members, located in the hamlet of Elwood, Town of Huntington, Long Island, New York. The s ...

in 1989 and attended

SUNY Oswego State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego or Oswego State) is a public college in the City of Oswego and Town of Oswego, New York. It has two campuses: historic lakeside campus in Oswego and Metro Center in Syracuse, New York. SUN ...

, earning a degree in Public Justice in 1993. He went on to study law at

Touro Law Center Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, commonly known as Touro Law Center, is an ABA accredited law school. It is located on Long Island, New York, in the hamlet of Central Islip. The Law Center is part of Touro University, a private, ...

Huntington, New York The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, receiving his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1996. In 1997, Iacono moved from

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

to pursue a career in television.

Career

Television writing and hosting

Iacono's first foray into television writing was on the

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

program ''

Sports Geniuses ''Sports Geniuses'' is an American sports-themed game show that aired for 65 episodes from March 27, 2000, until June 23, 2000, on cable channel Fox Sports Net. It was the network's second game show ('' Ultimate Fan League'' was the first, airing ...

'', a sports-themed game show starring

Matt Vasgersian Matt Vasgersian ( '; born 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and FOX Sports. In the past, he has served as an an ...

on which Sal also appeared nightly in a trivia challenge. From there, he joined the writing staff of

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

's ''

'' starring

Adam Carolla Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio personality, comedian, actor and podcaster. He hosts '' The Adam Carolla Show'', a talk show distributed as a podcast which set the record as the "most downloaded podcast" as judged by ''Guin ...

and Iacono's cousin

. In 2002, Iacono joined Kimmel during his weekly prognostication sketches on ''

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ...

''. Iacono wrote for the puppet show ''

Crank Yankers ''Crank Yankers'' is an American adult puppet television show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison. It features actual crank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, while re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visu ...

''. When ''

Win Ben Stein's Money ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' is an American television game show created by Al Burton and Donnie Brainard that aired first-run episodes from July 28, 1997, to January 31, 2003, on Comedy Central. The show featured three contestants who competed to an ...

'' co-host

Nancy Pimental Nancy Marie Pimental (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and film and television writer. Early life and education Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and of Portuguese descent, Pimental graduated from Somerset High School in 1983 and Worcest ...

left the show in 2002, Iacono replaced her, becoming

Ben Stein Benjamin Jeremy Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before ente ...

's co-host and comic tormentor. Iacono was the co-host through the rest of the run of the series and was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in the Outstanding Game Show Host category.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''

Iacono has been a permanent member of the ''

'' writing staff since 2003. He also appears frequently on the show in comedy sketches. These comedy bits are often shot using a hidden camera, and "Cousin Sal" either helps Jimmy prank their aunt Chippy or he pretends to be a store employee or delivery person who is incredibly inept or annoying. Cousin Sal's victims are invariably dumbfounded or become extremely infuriated, much to the delight of the viewing audience.

WWE

On ''

'' on May 16, 2008, Iacono had a birthday cake delivered to Kimmel on air by his favorite wrestler

Rowdy Roddy Piper Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 31, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor. In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for his ...

. He and Piper were confronted by

Santino Marella Anthony Carelli (born March 14, 1974) is a Canadian judoka and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is known for his 11-year tenure with WWE where he wrestled under the ring name Santino Marella. He is the founder of and instructor at Battle Art ...

, who had the cake thrown on him and was attacked by Iacono. The following Monday, Marella (dressed as Piper) brought Iacono to the ring on ''

Monday Night Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show fe ...

'' to "apologize" to "Cousin Sal". The real Piper entered the ring and Marella got his own apology cake thrown on him and on his way back to the locker room, he challenged Iacono to a wrestling match, which Piper accepted on Iacono's behalf. The match took place at the '' Friday Night SmackDown!'' tapings in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on June 3, 2008. Sal was accompanied to the ring by Kimmel and Piper, and won the match.

Podcasts

Iacono is a regular guest on The Bill Simmons Podcast. "Cousin Sal" picks the lines for the next weeks NFL games, defends the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

, and talks about sports and sports betting with Bill. Sal also joined the Adam Carolla Podcast on Mondays during the 2010 NFL season to discuss the previous Sunday's NFL action. In May 2017, Iacono became host of the 'Against All Odds' gambling podcast, part of Simmons's Ringer Podcast Network. In July 2020 Iacono debuted a new podcast called ''Extra Points'' with his friend

Dave Dameshek William David Dameshek (born June 11, 1970) is an American television writer and radio personality. Dameshek is a football analyst, writer and podcaster. Professional career Early career Dameshek began writing for cable television hits includ ...

as part of a newly formed sports gambling media company of the same name founded by Iacono.

Writing

Along with his appearances on Bill Simmons's podcast, Sal was also a regular columnist on Grantland.com, which was a sports and pop culture website formerly run by Simmons. His book, ''You Can't Lose Them All'' was released in early 2021.

Fox Sports

Sal is an analyst on Fox sports gambling show Fox Bet Live. Its series premier was on September 10, 2018. In 2002, Sal was a guest prognosticator with his cousin Jimmy Kimmel on FOX NFL Sunday. In addition, starting in 2019 for FOX NFL Thursday, Sal will be the prognosticator. Kimmel has also made a guest appearance on it.

Personal life

Iacono currently resides near

with his wife, Melissa, and three sons, Archie, Jack, and Harrison (aka Harriso).''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' biopage

References

External links

Jimmy Kimmel Live! website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iacono, Sal 1971 births American game show hosts American male comedians American lawyers and judges of Italian descent American podcasters Living people People from Brooklyn New York (state) lawyers State University of New York at Oswego alumni Touro Law Center alumni Comedians from New York (state) 21st-century American comedians Fox Sports 1 people