by Trevor Moore, the affable frontman of The Whitest Kids U’ Know who went on to make multiple solo comedy specials, co-create two Disney comedy series, and host an online talk show for Comedy Central, has died after a freak accident. Moore was 41.
Moore’s death was confirmed Saturday by his manager, Kara Welker, who shared a statement on behalf of Moore’s wife, Aimee Carlson: “We are devastated by the loss of my husband, best friend and the father of our son. He was known as a writer and comedian to millions, and yet to us he was simply the center of our whole world. We don’t know how we’ll go on without him, but we’re thankful for the memories we do have that will stay with us forever. We appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone. This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you please respect our privacy during this time of grieving.”
Trevor and Aimee met as NBC pages.
I moved to New York City in 2007 just as WKUK was getting on the air for the first season with Fuse, and found Trevor to be as kind and generous as he was hilarious. The only reason my first videos for The Comic’s Comic went to Dailymotion instead of YouTube was because Aimee worked as Dailymotion’s Programming Manager then (she’s now senior vice president of Seth MacFarlane’s production company, Fuzzy Door).
Born April 4, 1980, in New Jersey to parents who were Christian rock duo known as Mickey and Becki, Trevor Moore moved around a bit in his childhood before settling in Virginia. He hosted hi sown public-access show in Charlottesville as a teenager, and studied broadcasting at VCU before winding up in New York City at the School of Visual Arts. That’s where he met fellow students in his dorm who’d form WKUK.
By 2004, Moore and the rest of the WKUK (Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Darren Trumeter and Timmy Williams) were holding court Sunday nights at Pianos, a bar in the Lower East Side. After they went to the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2006, their buzz earned them TV cred with their first deal at Fuse. Their first season premiered the following year, but Fuse wanted to censor them; fortunately, Jen Caserta also left Fuse’s programming for IFC and brought WKUK over with her. WKUK went on to complete five seasons on TV.
In between seasons two and three, Moore and Cregger wrote, directed and starred in their own feature film, Miss March, along with Craig Robinson and a cameo from Hugh Hefner. It didn’t exactly go over at the box office.
But WKUK also managed to make their own feature, The Civil War on Drugs, while wrapping their fifth and final season on IFC in 2011.
And Moore had more in store.
He scored a recurring role on the FOX sitcom, Breaking In, and served as a regular correspondent for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as Leno’s brief primetime variety hour.
Moore also began expanding his musical chops with an album and two additional specials for Comedy Central: 2013’s Drunk Texts to Myself, 2015’s High in Church, and 2018’s The Story of Our Times.
Moore branched into children’s programming, too, co-creating two Disney series, Walk The Plank in 2016, and Just Roll With It, an improvised sitcom that began airing in 2019.
When the pandemic hit, he started an online quarantine talk show on WKUK’s official YouTube channel — WKUK also began reuniting online via Twitch, too. And then Moore invited Brown to join Blair Socci as his other co-host/sidekick on his online talk show for Comedy Central’s YouTube channel, The Trevor Moore Show.
Freakishly enough, just two months ago the show’s subject was “Get Ready To Die.”
Cregger and Brown wrote on WKUK’s site: “Early this morning, we learned that we lost our brother, our collaborator and the driving force behind WKUK. He was our best friend, and we speak for all of us in saying that the loss of Trevor is unimaginable. We are heartbroken and our grief pales in comparison to the loss felt by his wife and son. On behalf of WKUK, we ask for privacy during our time of profound grief, and strength for his family who are dealing with the impossible thought of living life without him. Our hope is that friends, fellow artists, and fans that loved him will not focus on his death, but will remember the countless moments of laughter he gave them.”
They’ll have one last project together at least, an animated feature film, Mars.
Moore is survived by Carlson and his son, August. The family encourages donations to Next for Autism in Moore’s honor.
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