Comedian Trevor Moore, co-creator, writer and performer on IFC’s The Whitest Kids U’Know, passed away suddenly after an accident near his Los Angeles home on Friday, August 6. According to The New York Times, no further details on the accident have been disclosed and Moore’s wife, producer Aimee Carlson (Cloak & Dagger), has requested privacy in the wake of this sudden tragedy.
“We are devastated by the loss of my husband, best friend and the father of our son,” CNN provided Carlson’s statement. “He was known as writer and comedian to millions, and yet to us he was simply the center of our whole world.” In addition to Carlson, Moore is survived by his sister and three-year old son, via The New York Times.
In 1999, Moore co-founded The Whitest Kids U’ Know at New York’s School of Visual Arts with friends Sam Brown (The Civil War on Drugs, D.I.R.T. Comedy) and Zach Cregger (Wrecked, Guys with Kids), via CNN. “They gained strong following at clubs, and after a win at the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2006 landed a television gig,” Vanity Fair said of the group, whose sketch show ran for five seasons on IFC.
In another staggering loss for the comedy community, the grief of Moore’s passing was made palpable by his friends, colleagues and those he inspired over social media this past weekend. Lifelong friends and collaborators Brown and Cregger both shared their astonishment about the sudden passing of their Whitest Kids U’Know colleague.
“There isn’t really anything I can say that will cover the place he had in my life,” Kregger wrote, at a loss for further words, on Twitter. On Instagram, Brown has been more actively processing Friday’s news by sharing time capsule moments he cherished with Moore over the years including touring with The Whitest Kids U’Know, wrapping production on the series and being bolstered by his friend during the New York marathon.
Though born in Montclair, New Jersey and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, New York City was an fundamental setting in Moore’s comedic journey. Not only did Moore attend university and co-found The Whitest Kids U’Know during his time in New York, but he also met his wife while participating in NBC’s page program, via Entertainment Weekly. According to Entertainment Weekly, Moore “moved to New York to pursue a personal internship with Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels.”
In one of Brown’s many sentimental reflections of his life with Moore, he cited the comedian’s love and admiration for late night, particularly David Letterman (Late Show with David Letterman). As a young Virginian comedy prodigy, Moore starred in his own variety show on local stations, threads of which could still be glimpsed in his latest Comedy Central project, The Trevor Moore Show.
“This is definitely one project that I feel like didn’t reach its full potential before he left us,” Brown said of The Trevor Moore Show on Instagram. The project had just gotten underway in 2021, with the most recent episode airing in June. Eerily enough, The New York Times quoted Moore, from his Comedy Central web series, “the worst part about dying, is that you don’t get to hear all the nice things said about you after you’re gone.”
The nice remarks about Moore were in no short supply over the weekend, with those who knew Moore grasping for the words to capture the magic he brought into their lives. “He was a towering comedic figure in my life, like getting to know some character from Alice in Wonderland but you get to hang out and have each other’s phone numbers,” comedian James Adomian (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Duncanville) wrote on Instagram. In later post, Adomian boiled it down more simply by saying, “your life was a river of laughter” (Instagram).
Johnny Pemberton (In the Loop, Superstore), described Moore as “someone I would quite literally follow into a burning building if he said there’s something inside we have to check out” (Instagram). Of the many superlative character traits that Pemberton highlighted in his Instagram post about Moore, he remained in awe of the comedian’s humble nature. Pemberton shared that he had not known that Moore was the world’s youngest published cartoonist, at age 12, until reading his friend’s obituary in Deadline.
Comedian Brooks Wheelan (Big Hero 6: The Series, Saturday Night Live), who hosted Moore as a guest on his podcast just last week, described Moore as “comedy’s Forrest Gump” on Twitter, due to his knack for translating his unique brand of comedy into many formats. Recent additions to Moore’s television filmography included the co-creation of Disney series Walk the Prank and Just Roll with It.
Tobie Windham (What If He Wins), who worked with Moore on both Walk the Prank and Just Roll with It, wrote “you are one of the greats in our industry and history will remember you forever” (Instagram).
Early internet comedy creators were one group to which Moore and The Whitest Kids U’Know garnered much admiration in the earlier 00s. Former CollegeHumor creators Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within, Scare Me) and Sam Reich (Adam Ruins Everything, The Britishes) both spoke to Moore’s influence on them in the earlier days of their careers on Twitter.
Even performers who only worked with Moore a handful of times, such as Adam Sandler (Little Nicky, Uncut Gems) and Will Sasso (Drop Dead Gorgeous, MADtv), were moved to share their heartbreak over this weekend’s tragic news.
Dave Foley (The Kids in the Hall, A Bug’s Life), Jordan Danger (Eureka, Kevin from Work), Colton Dunn (Superstore, Blockers), Heather Anne Campbell (The Eric Andre Show, The Twilight Zone) and Jonah Ray (Mystery Science Theater 3000, Hidden America with Jonah Ray), who all appeared in projects with Moore, including his comedy special Trevor Moore: High in Church, likewise shared their disbelief on social media over the weekend. Steve Agee (New Girl, Superstore) highlighted song of Moore’s from Trevor Moore: High in Church as one of his personal favorite moments of the comedian’s prolific career, via Twitter.
“It feels like we keep losing our comedy friends suddenly,” Ray said, citing the recent tragic losses of figures such as Harris Wittels (Parks and Recreation, Master of None), Brody Stevens (Chelsea Lately, Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!), Neil Mahoney (Key & Peele, Drunk History), and Siobhan Price (Dad), via Instagram. Ray likewise cited Carlson’s desire for people to donate to Next for Autism in memory of her husband.
Both Adomiann and Reich referenced the morbid tilt of Moore’s humor, a fact evidenced by a tweet of the comedian’s that has now been shared often in association with his recent passing. Last month, Moore tweeted “when I die I want the obituary to refer to me as ‘local sexpot.’” It is with a heavy heart that the comedy community mourns and processes the loss of their friend, colleague, collaborator and local sexpot.