Hannibal Buress

Hannibal Amir Buress was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 4, 1983, the son of Margaret Buress, a teacher, and John Buress, a Union Pacific Railroad employee. He was raised in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. He was named after Carthaginian general Hannibal, and has told stories in his stand-up act about his name causing women to turn him down because of its association with fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter. After attending Steinmetz College Prep, he attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale for four years but did not graduate. While there, he became friends with hip hop artist Open Mike Eagle.Buress began his stand-up career at an open mic in 2002. He has been featured in The Awkward Comedy Show special on Comedy Central, and alongside comics Baron Vaughn, Eric André, Marina Franklin, and Victor Varnado, and on the FX sitcom Louie. From 2012 to 2020, he co-starred as Eric André's sidekick on The Eric Andre Show. In July 2010, Buress made Variety magazine's "Ten Comics to Watch in 2010" list.

His first stand-up comedy album, My Name is Hannibal, was released on July 27, 2010.

Buress was a writer on Saturday Night Live from 2009 to 2010. He left with only one of his sketches having aired. In September 2010, he began writing for the fifth season of the NBC comedy series 30 Rock. He left after six months, although he continued to portray various characters on the show for 9 episodes from 2010 to 2012 such as "Gus", "Homeless Guy" and "Bum".

He released his second album, Animal Furnace, in 2012, which also aired as a special on Comedy Central. The album received positive reviews.

His stand-up comedy has been featured on Comedy Central programs such as Live at Gotham and John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show. He has also performed on several late night talkshows such as The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Lopez Tonight, Russell Howard's Good News, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, and Conan. Additionally, he performed a set at the 2012 Secret Policeman's Ball at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

An hourlong Comedy Central show, Hannibal Buress Live from Chicago, aired on March 29, 2014.

He used to host a weekly stand-up comedy show at The Knitting Factory on Sunday evenings in Brooklyn, New York. In October 2016, Buress began a podcast called Handsome Rambler.

Buress played Coach Wilson in the 2017 Marvel film Spider-Man: Homecoming. Buress paid a lookalike who did not look like him to attend the film's premiere in his place, because he was busy with the film Tag. He got in contact with the lookalike when he did a video for the MTV Movie Awards.

On February 8, 2020, he appeared on The Bob Ross Challenge, painting for the first time, coming up with the art nickname 7.

He had a comedy special for Cornell University via Zoom on April 17 at 9 pm exclusive to the students.

Buress was one of many collaborators on Foam and Flotsam, a comedy album by Chelsea Peretti about coffee. The EP was released on April 21, 2020.

On April 30, 2020, he released a single called Judge Judy, paying homage to the series of the same name after it was announced that the show would end in 2021.