Everything You Need to Know About Pete Davidson

Image via Getty/Jason LaVeris

Pete Davidson is a comedian. He’s been doing comedy sets since he was 16, and joined Saturday Night Live on the 40th season premiere in 2014 when he was 20, making him one of the youngest cast members of all time (just barely edging out Anthony Michael Hall and Eddie Murphy, who were 17 and 19 when they joined SNL, respectively).

Pete Davidson is 24 years old. He was born on November 16, 1993.

He hails from Staten Island, New York, and often viciously makes fun of his hometown in his comedy.

Davidson is 6 feet, 2 inches tall.

Davidson had a small role in the 2015 comedy Trainwreck, alongside former SNL cast member BIll Hader. Hader was reportedly impressed by Davidson on the movie’s set and told SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels about him, which gave him a chance to audition.

Aside from his aforementioned role in 2015’s Trainwreck, Davidson made several appearances in MTV’s Guy Code, as well as Wild ‘N Out, prior to his debut on Saturday Night Live. Most recently, he had supporting roles in Netflix films Set It Up and The Dirt, and Taraji P. Henson comedy What Men Want. He’s also set to appear in the upcoming superhero movie The Suicide Squad, in 2020.

Davidson’s comedy often relies on surreal and sometimes dark observations on life. He cites Adam Sandler and Bill Burr as huge influences on his comedy. He often jokes about weed, sex, relationships, and Harry Potter, as well as the death of his father, a firefighter, on 9/11. He has stated that he finds it cathartic to pull humor from something so tragic.

Davidson’s first episode of Saturday Night Live was the 40th season premiere, hosted by Chris Pratt with musical guest Ariana Grande (more about her later) back in 2014. As of September 2019, he’s been in 105 episodes. A self-professed “utility player,” Davidson is aware that he isn’t in that many live sketches, and is often used only when absolutely necessary. 

He has made a niche for himself, however, in a recurring Weekend Update segment where he discusses topics from the point of view of the “Resident Young Person.” He’s used this segment to humorously talk about his own mental health issues, his hometown of Staten Island, and trans rights.

Davidson was famously criticized for mocking Republican politician Dan Crenshaw on SNL, calling him a “hit man in a porno movie” and saying he “lost an eye in war or whatever.” The jokes ginned up enough controversy that Crenshaw was invited on the show to receive an apology from Davidson.

Most recently, Davidson came under fire for a set he performed at the University of Central in late August. Noticing that some students were recording the performance on their phones, Davidson went on a short tirade, calling the students “little privileged assholes” and referring to them as “retarded.” The university condemned his language, as well as his use of a slur, remarking that his rant “spoiled an event that was meant to welcome students back for the fall semester."

Davidson is a huge fan of tattoos, and has quite a few. He has his late father’s badge number tattooed on his arm, and his other tattoos include references to Harry Potter (a snitch, a Sorting Hat, a Dumbledore quote, a lightning bolt, and the Deathly Hallows symbol), the titular Brave Little Toaster looking stoned, the Grinch, DoodleBob from that one episode of Spongebob Squarepants, a wolf, a wasp, some rubber duckies, several symbols of his prior relationship with Ariana Grande, and, perhaps most importantly, the phrase “Jokes come and go, but swag is forever.” Oddly enough, Davidson’s first tattoo ever, which he got at age 17, reads “swerve life,” a reference to rapper Big Sean, the ex-boyfriend of his ex-fiancée, Ariana Grande.

In December 2017, Davidson showed off a brand new Hillary Clinton tattoo on Instagram, calling her his “hero” and “one of the strongest people in the universe.” Clinton jokingly commented, “This makes it significantly less awkward that I’ve had a Pete Davidson tattoo for years.”

In the aftermath of a worrying Instagram post (Davidson no longer has a public Instagram account) in December of 2018 and a resulting wellness check by the NYPD, Davidson has become quick friends with John Mulaney, appearing on an SNL segment with him to announce that he is doing fine and appearing at basketball games with him subsequently. He is also good friends with his The Dirt co-star Machine Gun Kelly, and one of his favorite musicians, Kid Cudi.

If you haven’t heard, Pete Davidson was engaged to Ariana Grande in 2018. Their whirlwind romance propelled Davidson from moderate celebrity into the cultural zeitgeist last summer.

The engagement was called off in October of 2018, famously memorialized in Grande’s hit song “Thank U, Next” with the lyric, “Even almost got married, and for Pete I’m so grateful.”

Davidson then dated Kate Beckinsale from January 2019 to April. He is currently dating breakout Once Upon A Time in Hollywood star Margaret Qualley, who is Andie MacDowell’s daughter.