Biography
Joe Toplyn is an American television writer and producer. He studied applied physics and computer science at Harvard University, where he joined the Harvard Lampoon, and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Before entering television, he worked in business roles including financial analysis at Columbia Pictures.
Toplyn joined the writing staff of Late Night with David Letterman in the 1980s and won four Primetime Emmy Awards for his work there. He later served as co-head writer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and head writer and producer on Late Show with David Letterman. His other credits include In Living Color, one episode of The Larry Sanders Show (1992), and Monk (2002), on which he also worked as a co-executive producer.
Toplyn is the author of the instructional book Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV.
