Early life
Higgins was born in Des Moines, Iowa, to Marian (née Coppola) and Harold Higgins, who managed custodial operations in the West Des Moines school district.1 He was one of five children, including his brothers David Anthony Higgins and Alan J. Higgins.1 No formal acting or film-school training is on record; Higgins developed his craft in grassroots comedy venues throughout the Midwest before relocating to pursue a professional career.
Career
The Higgins Boys and Gruber (1985-1995)
Around 1985, Steve joined a sketch comedy troupe called Don't Quit Your Day Job, founded by his brother David Anthony Higgins, which also included Dave Allen, known professionally as "Gruber."1 The group performed at Iowa venues before Steve, David, and Dave relocated to Los Angeles circa 1988 and rebranded as The Higgins Boys and Gruber.1 The act landed a Comedy Central sketch series under that name, which ran from 1989 to 1991.1 In 1989, Higgins also performed at The Vic Theatre in Chicago as part of HBO's One Night Stand stand-up series.1
Television writing (1993-1995)
After the Comedy Central series ended, Higgins shifted toward writing. He worked on MTV's Trashed and then joined the staff of The Jon Stewart Show on MTV (1993-1995), where he rose to head writer.1 That experience prepared him for the move to network late night.
Saturday Night Live (1995-present)
Higgins joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live in 1995 and served as co-head writer from 1995 to 1997.1 After the co-head-writer period, he transitioned into a broader producing role and became one of executive producer Lorne Michaels' closest collaborators. He has received Emmy nominations in the categories of Outstanding Variety Series and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Program, and won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2017.1 His influence on the show extended beyond writing: in 2012, Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur revealed that Higgins had inspired the character of Andy Dwyer on that series.2
Higgins also appeared in front of the SNL camera in scattered acting roles. He appeared in three episodes of 30 Rock (2012-2013), a show produced within the same NBC/Lorne Michaels production orbit.3
Late Night and The Tonight Show (2009-present)
When Late Night with Jimmy Fallon launched in 2009, Higgins became the show's announcer and recurring on-screen presence, functioning as a deadpan comedic counterpart to Fallon's more excitable hosting style.1 When NBC moved Fallon to The Tonight Show in 2014 to succeed Jay Leno, Higgins came with him.1 As announcer of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he has become a recognizable television personality in his own right, with regular sketch appearances woven throughout episodes.
In July 2015, while Fallon was recovering from finger surgery, Higgins was hospitalized with Lyme disease; both returned to the show together upon their respective recoveries.1
Other acting work
Beyond live-action roles, Higgins has done voice work. He voiced Mr. Awesome in the Hulu animated series The Awesomes (2013-2015, 21 episodes), and provided the voice of Chadwick the Edible Blargmonger in Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014).1 His earliest screen credit is a role in the 1988 comedy film Tapeheads.3 He also appeared in a 2000 episode of Freaks and Geeks.3
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
Paul Feig, the director of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, moved in overlapping circles with Higgins through the NBC and SNL production world, which made Higgins a natural fit for the film's cast.
Higgins played Dean Thomas Shanks, the dean of the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute, the university where Erin Gilbert, Abby Yates, and Jillian Holtzmann had been running a fringe Paranormal Studies Department. Shanks had inherited the job after his predecessor went to jail, a fact Abby Yates deploys against him during their confrontation. In their meeting, Shanks refuses to let the institute's already-questionable reputation be damaged further by the team's ghost research, fires Abby and Holtzmann, and dismisses the group with an extended comic routine that culminates in flipping them the middle finger, spinning his finger like a volume dial, and various other pieces of physical absurdity. The scene runs through Chapters 4 and 12 of the finished film.
According to the Ghostbusters Wiki's production notes, the middle-finger bit was directly borrowed from a Steve Higgins stand-up routine, making it an instance of Higgins playing a version of himself filtered through a deliberately ridiculous character. Shanks also appears in several deleted scenes: "The Dean," "The Bird," "The Dean Goes Down," and "Tired Shanks."
A notable piece of trivia: despite the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute sharing his surname, it is a coincidence. The institution was not named after him. Dean Shanks also appears in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call Issue #2 from IDW Publishing, where the villain Doctor Kruger uses the character's likeness when trapping Abby Yates in a nightmare scenario.
Higgins' son Johnny also appeared in the film, in the small role of the Baba Booey Shouter seen at the end of the movie.4
Personal life
Higgins married Ellen Niedert Higgins in 1990.1 They have four children together.1 Their son John Higgins became a professional comedy writer and performer as part of the trio Please Don't Destroy, and joined Saturday Night Live's writing staff in 2021 alongside his Please Don't Destroy collaborators Ben Marshall and Martin Herlihy.5 Ellen Higgins is the sister of Paula Niedert, who is married to comedian Chris Elliott; this makes Abby Elliott and Bridey Elliott, both of whom have their own ties to SNL, Higgins' nieces by marriage.1
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Steve Higgins," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Higgins.
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Schur, Michael. "Showrunner Michael Schur on building Parks and Recreation's fourth season (Part 2 of 5)," AV Club (June 19, 2012), https://www.avclub.com/showrunner-michael-schur-on-building-parks-and-recreati-1798232239.
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"Steve Higgins," IMDb, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0383492/.
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"Ghostbusters (2016) - Johnny Higgins as Baba Booey Shouter," IMDb, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289401/characters/nm8274282.
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"Please Don't Destroy," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Don%27t_Destroy.
