Louis C.K. is the stage name of Louis Szekely (born September 12, 1967), an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, producer and director. C.K. was born in New York City, to a father descended from Jewish Hungarians and Catholic Mexicans, and a mother with Irish Catholic ancestors. After four years in Mexico, he grew up in Massachusetts, in Framingham and, mostly, Newton. His family pronounces their surname Szekely roughly as "SAY-kay", and in his grade-school years he resorted to "C.