Last Things First: Rob Haze

Rob Haze is a comedian from Atlanta who currently makes his living in Los Angeles performing stand-up and writing for comedy shows on TV — among his credits are Sherman’s Showcase, the ESPY Awards, Kevin Hart’s year-in-review specials for Peacock, sketch comedy for Bleacher Report, stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and most recently, an appearance on the late-night CBS comedy show, After Midnight. Haze released his debut comedy album in 2019, and in March 2024, his second album, Frontin’, is also available with bonus features on video via YouTube. Haze sat down with me to talk about his path from Atlanta to New York City to LA, and what he has learned from watching his peers along the way. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

Here he was recently on Fallon promoting the new special.

We joked about how the producers of After Midnight made good on a promise to make Haze the focus of the thumbnail images promoting their clips and his episode on YouTube and Paramount+, where he realized in the moment: “but then when I did that, I was like, well, now I’m putting pressure on myself to be good because if I, if I end up bombing. bombing then you know the thumbnail that might not be good.” No worries, Rob!

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Co-writing the lyrics for “Time Loop” on Sherman’s Showcase, Haze won a Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song in a TV Show. Credits: Phonte Coleman (music/lyrics); Lorenzo Ferguson (music); Rob Haze, Diallo Riddle, Bashir Salahuddin, Evan Williams (lyrics); and Galaxia (performer) for the Ne-Yo tune.

“And now, my IMDb says I’m a composer, which is pretty wild. Because I’m really basic when it comes to songwriting, but we had some incredible talented people that helped us with the songwriting,” Haze told me. “But the ESPYs, it’s a challenge. I think my favorite was writing for Steph (Curry). I feel like if there’s an athlete that could tell a joke in the Rob Hayes voice.” Here’s Curry’s opening monologue from the 2022 ESPY Awards.