Title:GEMA Alumni Spotlight – Johnno Wilson (C’07)

“The Darts are Starting to Stick”: How Johnno Wilson (C ’07) Left His Cubicle for Comedy, by Hailey Wharram (C’25)

Johnno Wilson (C’07) loves playing pretend, but he could only embrace it once he stopped performing himself.

Raised on SNL in the heyday of Farley, Spade, and Sandler, Johnno grew up writing sketches and practicing impressions in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Whether he was impersonating his middle school teachers or Rocky’s own Sylvester Stallone, he soon discovered that he possessed an intoxicating “little power”—the ability to make any room erupt with laughter. Funnily enough, this talent for imitation mimicked his mother’s, a former actress who once shared the screen with Stallone in a small role in F.I.S.T. (1978).

This mimicry continued come college application season when Johnno became interested in attending her alma mater: Georgetown University. However, in realizing he wanted to pursue higher education at an academically rigorous institution, Johnno’s entertainment ambitions suddenly became a source of self-consciousness.

“When I got to interview at Georgetown, I was like, listen, this is Georgetown,” Johnno said. “ I can’t say I want to be on SNL.”

Thus, when asked that dreaded, age-old question—“What do you want to do with your life?”—in his interview, he decided to split the difference between his TV dreams and what he viewed as an “impressive” answer, declaring that he’d love to be the next big news anchor one day. It wasn’t really true, but it worked; he started at Georgetown that fall.

On the Hilltop, Johnno majored in English, minored in French, and nurtured his passion for comedy on the periphery. Rather than joining an improv or sketch troupe, Wilson stuck to the script he’d written for himself, anchoring for GUTV from freshman to senior year. Still, behind the anchor desk, it was undeniable: Johnno was much more Kimmel than Cronkite. On his show, Late Night with Johnno, classic news segments aired alongside humorous commercials that gave him the chance to flex his sketch comedy muscles.

The Peacock TV Series “Twisted Metal” (2024)

As evidenced by this indirect pursuit of his true passion, two of Johnno’s classically Georgetown traits—his curiosity and his cautiousness—were often in direct conflict with one another during his college years. While Johnno’s Jesuit inquisitiveness naturally lent itself to comedic acumen (look no further than the likes of Mulaney (C’04), Birbiglia (C’00), and Gaffigan (B’88) for additional proof), he, like many other outcome-oriented Hoyas, feared what following this path might mean for his future. As much as he loved making others laugh, at the time, diving headfirst into a career in the arts felt too risky to chance.

Senior Ball, 2007

That’s how, upon his graduation, Wilson found himself working in Washington, D.C. as a health and benefits consultant for Mercer. For a while, Wilson’s office job seemed great (“At first I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I have my own cubicle! This is so cool. I’m, like, such a professional.’”). But, nearly three years in, the allure wore off, and, when it did, Wilson was left with a glaring epiphany: this is not what I want to do with my life.

Yet, even after this realization, Wilson wondered if leaving his cushy consulting job and plunging straight into such a tough industry was a smart decision. Feeling torn, he decided to reach out to his old acting mentor, Professor Sarah Marshall, for advice. She encouraged him to start perhaps not with a plunge, but by testing the waters of the local theater scene while he continued working for Mercer.

“She set me up with Actors Access, and I got some head shots,” Wilson said. “I started auditioning in D.C., and I literally booked every single thing that I auditioned for.”

Emceeing the 2018 GEMA ROCKS concert at Georgetown

A commercial for The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille. An independent movie. A training video for the Army. A play about the Old Hollywood actress Mae West. Each opportunity built his confidence bit by bit until, after hearing that his childhood sketch-writing buddy was leaving his pharmaceuticals job to move to Los Angeles, Johnno finally felt ready to do the same.

Thus, in 2011, Wilson said sayonara to his cubicle (which now felt more cramped than cool) and packed his bags for the City of Angels. Ever the Georgetown student, he wrote down a few goals, took the GMAT (just in case), and gave himself three years to give acting a real shot.

Fifteen years later, he still calls the city home.

Out in California, Johnno began training with The Groundlings—a legendary LA comedy troupe whose alums include the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, and Kristin Wiig—and booking gigs between odd-end jobs. While honing his character skills with The Groundlings, Wilson’s first “I made it” moment came when he had the chance to showcase his decades-drilled Stallone impersonation on an episode of Dana Carvey’s comedy competition show, First Impressions.

“I remember Dana Carvey came up to me after, and he was like, ‘I just loved your take on Sylvester,’” Johnno said. “It was a moment where I was like, this is not so far out of reach. I belong here. I have the audience on my side, and I’m just doing the things that make me laugh, and it’s translating.”

The ABC TV series “High Potential” (2025)

A similar moment of buoying encouragement came a few years later on a golf course of all places. While working as a caddy at the Los Angeles Country Club, Johnno was shocked when one day he was presented with a large orange golf bag that bore a familiar name: Will Ferrell.

Determined not to be that guy, Johnno refrained from bombarding Ferrell with any questions… until, a few holes in, Ferrell asked about Johnno’s L.A. ambitions himself. Upon hearing that Johnno was currently training with The Groundlings, his old troupe, and had just submitted an audition tape for SNL, his old stomping ground, Ferrell encouraged Johnno to ask him whatever he wanted about the industry. The two chatted throughout the rest of the round, and on his way out, Ferrell left a generous tip and shared the following wisdom: “You’re throwing darts at a dart board. Just keep throwing them, and they’re going to start to stick.”

Johnno with his mom Mary Wilson (SFS’74) in 2008.

Despite a few promising network tests in NYC, that SNL dart never quite landed—but others did. One such dart was an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where Johnno had the chance to clown around with Seinfeld legend Larry David while playing a devout Mormon. Another was the role of actress Anneliese van der Pol’s ex-husband on the That’s So Raven reboot Raven’s Home for Disney+. When those two darts first hit the board, Johnno had no clue what doors they would open. Now, he and David are collaborating once again on David’s new HBO series, Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, which premieres on June 26th. Even more meaningfully, Johnno and Anneliese tied the knot in 2024 and are new parents to a precious baby girl.

For Johnno, these comedy-forged connections are a testament to laughter’s formidable ability to conjure up memories and build community.

“Laughter never goes away,” Wilson said. “You’re always saying, ‘Oh, did you see that, that funny sketch on SNL, or something from 15 years ago? Let me throw it up on YouTube right now.’ And then everybody’s laughing again. Laughter is evergreen.”

This connective quality revealed itself yet again when Wilson booked a recurring role on I Love That For You, a Showtime comedy starring SNL alums Vanessa Bayer and Molly Shannon. While collaborating with Shannon, an old friend of Ferrell’s, Johnno shared the golf course story with her, only to receive a special text from her a week later.

“She said, ‘Johnno, I was with Will last night. He says congratulations on this show. He remembers you. He said the darts are starting to stick.’”

On the set of the Showtime TV series “I Love That for You” (2022)

Ferrell hit the bullseye with that one; now, a few years out from that project, Wilson has a number of exciting embers in the fire. In addition to Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, Johnno is set to hit the big screen later this year in Zach Cregger’s newest film, Resident Evil (2026), premiering September 18th. He has also been cast in season two of Vince Vaughn’s Bad Monkey for AppleTV+, though that release date has yet to be announced.

Aside from acting, Wilson also has ambitions to work behind the camera as a writer-director. He is currently tinkering with four feature-length comedy scripts, one of which is inspired by an experience he had while emceeing a fundraising auction at a Bel-Air country club, where an audience member asked if they could bid on an afternoon spent playing golf and dining with him. $1500 later, Johnno left the auction with both a flattering ego boost and an idea for a new script: an “odyssey” of all the “crazy, crazy stuff” that could hypothetically succeed such a spontaneous bid.

While chatting with Johnno, it’s hard to imagine someone so charismatic confined to a cubicle, spinning his wheels—both his brain’s and his swivel chair’s—day in and day out. And yet, his lifelong dream of performing might’ve shriveled on the vine had he not mustered up the courage to reject the deceptive comforts of the “safe” path. Moreover, had Johnno never taken the leap to move out to L.A., he would’ve never booked Raven’s Home, meaning he would’ve never met his wife, Anneliese, or become their daughter’s father.

“If you have a Georgetown education, you’re going to be okay in life, so don’t be afraid to listen to your gut and be honest with yourself and follow the thing that really inspires you,” Johnno said.

“As long as you’re your authentic self and you’re making the right connections and doing everything with the North Star of being a good person and trying your best, you’re going to be okay,” Wilson said. “Maybe that’s a little naive or a little too simplistic, but it’s what I believe, and it seems to be working for me.”

As Johnno’s story shows, while going after what you want can be scary at first, if you trust the process and trust yourself, a lifetime of joy and fulfillment might just be waiting on the other side.

To read other Alumni Spotlights, click here.