A salute to the late “Parks and Recreation” writer/producer Harris Wittels' greatest comedy hits

The prolific comedian passed away yesterday of a reported drug overdose

Published February 20, 2015 4:17PM (EST)

Harris Wittels on "Parks and Recreation"      (NBC)
Harris Wittels on "Parks and Recreation" (NBC)

Some very sad news in the comedy community: "Parks & Recreation" co-executive producer Harris Wittels passed away yesterday as the result of a reported drug overdose, days before the show’s finale. According to an LAPD spokesperson, Wittels’ assistant found him in his Los Feliz home around noon. He was 30.

Wittels had spoken about his struggles with addiction in the past, most notably on an episode of Nerdist's “You Made it Weird” podcast with Pete Holmes in November, during which he revealed that he had been in rehab for heroin addiction.

Born in Houston, Texas, Wittel moved to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up comedy, where he met Sarah Silverman and became a writer on "The Sarah Silverman Program" in 2007. After that show ended in 2010, Wittels joined the "Parks & Recreation" team, working his way up from staff writer and executive story editor to executive producer. "Parks" fans will also recognize him from his occasional cameos as Harris, the animal control employee who loves Phish (Wittels was a devoted Phish fan in real life, as evidenced by his brilliant "Analyze Phish" podcast, in which he tried to convince his friend Scott Aukerman to like the band).

Beyond "Parks", Wittels had a wide-ranging comedy career, writing for shows such as "Eastbound & Down" and "Secret Girlfriend", doing stand-up at UCB, touring with Aziz Ansari and Louis C.K., and appearing regularly on the "Comedy Bang Bang" podcast.

And here's a music video from his "piano-weird-pop" comedy group, "Don't Stop or We'll Die," in which Harris played drums and backing vocals.

Wittels also famously coined the term humblebrag, founding the popular @humblebrag twitter account in 2010 which curated examples of the phenomenon. In 2012, he released a followup book called “Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty." This is the promo he and the "Parks" cast shot to promote the book.

After the sad news broke, Harris' many friends and admirers in the entertainment and comedy communities took to Twitter to pay their respects.“Such heartbreaking news about Harris Wittels. A really funny guy,” wrote Seth Meyers.

“Don’t know what to say. Harris Wittels was a fantastic writer I had the pleasure to work with at Parks and Rec," tweeted "Parks" star Billy Eichner. "So so sad. RIP Harris."


By Anna Silman

MORE FROM Anna Silman


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Comedy Harris Wittels Obituaries Parks & Recreation R.i.p Video