John Simmons

Who is John Simmons?

John Simmons actor, comedian, founder Gross National Product Comedy and Washington DC's Scandal Tours

John Simmons is the founder of Gross National Product Comedy, a comedy production company whose troupes have appeared on TV and radio, in their own PBS comedy specials and stage shows in New York, Los Angeles, and have been called Washington DC's "comic monument" and "the capital's resident satirical gang."

John Simmons, son of a National Security Agency employee, grew up amidst the spy community in Washington DC during the Cold War. Is it any wonder he always wanted to be a comic? It was life as normal, as far as he knew, to live at remote electronic listening posts, to "pop in and out of Washington every once in a while," to attend a different school and make new friends every two years. That didn't bother him at all. "It was fun, and it helped me prepare for this wacky life style."

He attended the University of North Carolina and then spent a year abroad at the University of Kent in Canterbury. He studied theatre and history, then ended up dropping the theatre and graduating in history and journalism. "I like history more than anything. I think that may be why I make fun of the news. The kind of stupidity that's going on now has just been repeated through the centuries; it's nothing new."