“The League” star Steve Rannazzisi has made a career as a comedian with a backstory about how the events of 9/11 led him to move to Los Angeles. Now he’s been caught in a lie.
But when confronted by The New York Times with facts to the contrary, Rannazzisi confessed to making them up.
“As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough,” he said in a statement shared with news outlets and posted on Twitter. “I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry.”
The 37-year-old comedian actually was in Midtown that day and his girlfriend was set to temp in the nearby World Financial Center that day. The couple moved to Los Angeles not long after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Rannazzisi’s website also wrongly says he studied theater and film at the State University of New York at Purchase. In fact, he majored in communications at SUNY Oneonta.
His series of Wednesday morning tweets:
As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough.
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
After I moved with my wife to Los Angeles from New York City in 2001 shortly after 9/11, I told people that I was in one of the World Trade
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
Center towers on 9/11. It wasn’t true. I was in Manhattan but working in a building in midtown and I was not at the Trade Center on that day
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry.
For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man.It only made me more ashamed. How could I tell my children to be honest
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
when I hadn’t come clean about this?
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
it is to the victims of 9/11 and to the people that love them–and the people that love me–that I ask for forgiveness.
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
It was profoundly disrespectful to those who perished and those who lost loved ones. The stupidity and guilt I have felt for many years has
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
not abated. It was an early taste of having a public persona, and I made a terrible mistake.
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015