Bill Maher to Receive 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Comedian and TV host Bill Maher, 70, will receive the 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at a Kennedy Center ceremony in Washington, D.C., on June 28, the center announced Thursday.

The award, established in 1998, recognizes performers who have had an outsized impact on American comedy and cultural commentary. Previous recipients include Conan O’Brien, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kevin Hart. 

The news comes less than a week after The Atlantic reported that Maher had been chosen for the prize. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung both denied the announcement at the time.

However, Politico and the Associated Press reported on Thursday that the honor was, in fact, moving ahead.

A statement from the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts described Maher as a comic voice who has shaped American conversation for decades.

“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy, ” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said in a statement reported by the AP. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse, one politically incorrect joke at a time.”

Maher, in his own statement, joked that the prize had just been explained to him and that it was “like an Emmy, except I win.” (His show, despite receiving 21 Emmy nominations to date, has yet to win one.) 

Born January 20, 1956, in New York City, Maher has spent decades building a career that blends stand-up, television and sharp-edged cultural commentary.

Maher will be the first Mark Twain Prize recipient chosen under the Trump administration's leadership of the Kennedy Center.  One week after the ceremony, the Kennedy Center will shut down for two years, beginning July 4, 2026, to undergo what Trump has described as a “complete rebuilding.”