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Who is Mekki Leeper? Everything to Know about the St. Denis Medical Star
Audiences will recognize the Emmy Award-nominated comedy writer and actor from The Sex Lives of College Girls and Jury Duty.
St. Denis Medical, a hilarious mockumentary coming to NBC on November 12, boasts a wildly talented ensemble of stars, and actor Mekki Leeper is no exception.
Leeper joins comedy powerhouses Allison Tolman, Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier and more for a new sitcom that brings the laughs when following the day-to-day of healthcare workers at a small-town Oregon hospital. With Justin Spitzer as executive producer — the creative genius behind NBC’s Superstore and a producer from The Office — alongside fellow co-creator Eric Ledgin, audiences can expect the workplace-based series to become an instant hit amongst those who love to laugh out loud.
The 30-year-old Leeper shares the wing at St. Denis Medical as “an earnest and freshly minted E.R. nurse,” as previously reported by NBC Insider, and it’s likely audiences will recognize him right off the bat.
Learn why before St. Denis Medical premieres on November 12, 2024, on NBC.
Where have we seen Mekki Leeper before?
The Philadelphia-born actor, writer, and stand-up comic is making quite the name for himself around the comedy circuit. However, he might be best known for playing student and aspiring comedy writer Eric in the first two seasons of HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls — his breakout role.
Of the show, created by Mindy Kaling, Leeper said in an October 11, 2024, publication by W Magazine, “It completely changed my life.”
Leeper held the supporting role from 2021 to 2022, per his IMDB page, but he gained even more cred — and an Emmy Award nomination — for his role in Amazon Freevee’s Jury Duty.
Mekki Leeper was nominated for an Emmy Award
Leeper worked as a writer on the 2023 documentary-style hoax series Jury Duty, which garnered the comedian a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
The show focuses on a man who, in real life, believes he’s been called to serve on a jury, unaware that the hysterical antics of courtroom parties and fellow jurors — including actor James Marsden, as himself — are merely actors. In it, Leeper played the awkward Noah, a jurist who believes his girlfriend may be cheating on him.
“I thought it was really interesting to try to do a play for one guy and see if he notices,” Leeper told Nerds & Beyond on May 2, 2023. “That’s very funny to me.”
Jury Duty received an additional two Emmy nominations, as well as two Golden Globe nominations, among others.
When asked by W Magazine about what it was like to work as both actor and writer on the series, Leeper said it was “the closest feeling to making a video with your friends on the weekend.”
“Being on a show where they’ve been generous enough to give you some creative autonomy, you feel empowered to make suggestions,” he continued. “You never get to do that.”
Mekki Leeper’s early beginnings
As a child, Leeper grew up in a “deeply strict” household, which was sometimes “a little bit chaotic and uncomfortable,” he told W Magazine. However, things relaxed on Thursday evenings, when the family would come together to watch the NBC lineup, then including shows like The Office and 30 Rock.
“It’s a little corny to say, but it was this two-hour block where everybody would be nice,” said Leeper.
According to the aspiring comedy writer, he was taken by the talent of the multi-hyphenates, of writers who were also actors, something Leeper’s father also appreciated. Some of the St. Denis Medical star’s earliest influences included Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Judd Apatow, and Lena Dunham, particularly for their ability to wear many hats.
“It registered to me early that it was important,” he said in the recent interview.
Mekki Leeper from high school to the White House
Leeper got his start by creating YouTube videos with his friends throughout high school and college but admitted to W Magazine that they were “really bad.”
“I started doing stand-up to meet other comedians who could maybe be in the videos to make them better,” he said. “It was pretty cynical, but then I found out I really, really liked stand-up.”
He said he was discovered by comedian and writer Hasan Minhaj — whose Netflix comedy special Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj earned him an Emmy and a Peabody Award — after a writer from Daily Show pointed him to Leeper.
Both Leeper and Minhaj were selected to participate in the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Leeper’s cue to pursue his dreams.
“The next week, I dropped out of college and moved to L.A.,” Leeper told W Magazine.
According to Leeper’s website, his December 2019 Comedy Central Stand-up Featuring set remains one of the most-watched, with 7 million views and counting. He also wrote for the comedy network’s popular Crank Yankers from 2019 to 2020, according to his IMDB page, and performed stand-up on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Mekki Leeper on St. Denis Medical
On August 20, 2024, Leeper spoke to Iowa’s Sioux City Journal, giving a little more insight into his St. Denis Medical character, E.R. nurse Matt.
“Matt has a hunger to learn,” Leeper told the outlet. “At first glance, you might just think he’s comic fodder, that he’s like the dumb guy, but he’s not. He wants to be a nurse, and he wants to grow. That’s what’s so admirable about the character — and it’s a little scary. It’s given me tremendous respect for all healthcare workers every day.”
Leeper remains hopeful that his role on St. Denis Medical will be successful. Otherwise, he’ll “have to live with the minions,” at least according to the funnyman’s Instagram page.
See more of Mekki Leeper when St. Denis Medical premieres Nov. 12, 2024, airing new episodes every Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC and streaming the next day on Peacock.
