Jason Raia from Valley Forge, PA, USA · CC BY 2.0

A Philadelphia stand-up who started performing in high school in 1982 and built decades of steady television work — Comedy Central specials, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan, Tough Crowd, Mr. Show — culminating in a run on NBC's Last Comic Standing and a 2018 Netflix special, Act Happy. In 2010 he survived a heart attack backstage at the Largo nightclub in Los Angeles, and in 2012 he came out as gay live on WTF with Marc Maron, a moment credited with shifting how frankly stand-up comedians discussed sexuality.