A Classroom Before the Camera
Daniel A. Jost is usually introduced through his sons, Colin and Casey. I prefer to begin with his own work: teaching at Staten Island Technical High School. That setting gives his biography a different center of gravity. Before late-night television and comedy production made the family name familiar, Daniel’s professional life was rooted in a school community.
His public story contains fewer personal milestones than those of his sons. His birth date, university education, and complete employment chronology are not publicly established. What is clear is his long association with teaching, his marriage to physician Kerry J. Kelly, and the Staten Island upbringing of their two children.
Teaching in a Community of First Responders
Daniel was teaching on Staten Island on September 11, 2001. Many of his students had parents who worked as first responders. The attacks therefore entered his classroom not simply as distant breaking news, but as an immediate source of uncertainty for young people whose families might be directly affected.
I find this one of the most significant facts in his biography. A teacher’s role on such a day extends beyond the planned lesson. The classroom becomes a place where students wait, ask questions, and try to understand events that adults themselves are struggling to absorb.
Daniel later participated in educational programming about that experience with his wife. Their perspectives connected two parts of the same citywide emergency: the school and the medical response. The value of his contribution lies in that particular viewpoint, grounded in the children and community he knew through work.
Kerry Kelly and a Different Form of Public Service
Daniel’s wife, Dr. Kerry J. Kelly, served as the New York City Fire Department’s chief medical officer and was the first woman to hold that position. Her career placed her within the health and welfare of firefighters, a responsibility with particular significance during and after September 11.
Education and medicine gave the Jost household two forms of public service. One centered on students; the other on the people working in a demanding emergency profession. I see that pairing as more informative than a generalized claim that the family was simply accomplished.
Their later joint appearances in commemorative and educational settings brought those experiences together. Daniel’s account concerned the school community, while Kerry’s medical work belonged to the FDNY. They shared a family life, but their professional contributions remained distinct.
Colin Jost and the Public Family Name
Colin Kelly Jost, born in 1982, is Daniel and Kerry’s older son. He became a writer and comedian associated with Saturday Night Live, including his role as a co-anchor of Weekend Update. That work made him the most immediately recognizable member of the family to a broad television audience.
Colin’s comedy has occasionally drawn on stories involving his father, including a memorable trip to a Giants football game. Such anecdotes offer a different view of Daniel from the formal description of a retired teacher. They place him within ordinary family experiences that become material when retold by a professional comedian.
I enjoy the contrast while keeping its scale in mind. A comic anecdote is a selected moment, shaped for an audience. It can convey warmth or surprise without serving as a complete personality portrait of the person at its center.
In June 2025, Daniel attended the College of Staten Island ceremony at which Colin received an honorary doctorate. Kerry was also present. The event brought the family back into a local educational setting, connecting Colin’s public success with the community in which his parents had worked and raised him.
Casey Jost and Work Behind the Scenes
Daniel and Kerry’s younger son, Casey Jost, built his own career in writing and production. He is particularly associated with Impractical Jokers, a program whose comedy depends on challenges, collaboration, and the construction of situations as well as what happens on screen.
Casey’s work gives the family a second professional connection to comedy, but it is not merely an extension of Colin’s television role. The brothers occupy different positions within entertainment. One is especially visible behind a news desk on a long-running sketch show; the other has substantial work in the making of a different comic format.
For me, that distinction makes the family story richer. The two sons did not simply duplicate one another’s careers, even though both work with humor. Their father’s teaching background and their mother’s medical profession also remain separate from the industries the brothers entered.
The Next Generation
Colin married actress Scarlett Johansson in 2020. Their son Cosmo was born in 2021, making Daniel a grandfather. Scarlett is therefore Daniel’s daughter-in-law, bringing another prominent entertainment career into the extended family.
Casey is married to Lisa Kleinman, and they have a daughter, Mari. Daniel’s family thus includes grandchildren through both sons. The children’s names and relationships are public, while the routines of their family lives remain private.
These relationships broaden the family map without changing Daniel’s own professional identity. He is not an actor because his daughter-in-law is one, and his sons’ entertainment earnings do not disclose his finances. His personal net worth is not established, and there is no need for a guessed figure to explain a career spent teaching.
FAQ
What did Daniel A. Jost do professionally?
He taught at Staten Island Technical High School. He is frequently described as a retired teacher, and his public educational contributions include discussing his classroom experience on September 11, 2001.
Who is his wife?
His wife is Dr. Kerry J. Kelly, a physician who served as the FDNY’s chief medical officer. She was the first woman to hold that role.
Who are his sons?
His sons are Colin Jost, the comedian and Saturday Night Live writer and performer, and Casey Jost, a writer and producer associated with Impractical Jokers.
How is Daniel related to Scarlett Johansson?
Scarlett Johansson married his son Colin in 2020, making her Daniel’s daughter-in-law. Colin and Scarlett’s son, Cosmo, is his grandson.
