Cole Escola

in 2020, Cole Escola Played as The Secret Kid on the Cartoon Network Animated Series Craig of the Creek in the Episode "Secret in a Bottle".

From 2008 to 2012, Escola was a perennial guest performer in the Our Hit Parade cabaret series, and later began performing monthly solo shows at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre. He appeared in Scott Wittman's 2012 cabaret show Jukebox Jackie at La MaMa and played an unborn fetus in Bridget Everett's 2014 cabaret show Rock Bottom at Joe's Pub. On June 14, 2017, Escola's hourlong solo show Help! I'm Stuck premiered at Joe's Pub, where it has since played numerous sold-out engagements.

From 2015 to 2017, Escola played Matthew on the Hulu television series Difficult People, a role that series creator Julie Klausner wrote with him in mind. He has appeared in recurring roles on Mozart in the Jungle, Girlboss, and At Home with Amy Sedaris, in which he plays Sedaris' neighbor, Chassie Tucker.

Escola was born and raised in Clatskanie, Oregon. When he was six, his father—a Vietnam War veteran with severe posttraumatic stress disorder—chased the entire family out of their mobile home with a gun. Escola, his mother, and his brother subsequently lived in government housing. His sister was not living with them at this time; she was elsewhere. He participated in community theater and starred in high school productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Les Misérables, and Little Shop of Horrors. After graduating from R. A. Long High School in 2005, Escola moved to New York City to study humanities at Marymount Manhattan College, dropping out after one year. He subsequently performed at children's birthday parties and worked at the Scholastic bookstore.

In 2013, Escola played Roland Maule in the Two River Theater revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter.

In 2008, Escola met fellow comedian Jeffery Self in New York; bonding over a shared love of theater and 1990s sitcoms, they began creating surreal, semi-scripted YouTube videos under the moniker "Very Good Looking (VGL) Gay Boys." The sketches, in which Escola often played the demented comic foil to Self's straight man, received over 100,000 views, prompting coverage in New York magazine and a development deal from Logo TV. Jeffery & Cole Casserole premiered on Logo on June 19, 2009; it ran for two seasons and has been deemed a "cult classic" by Vice magazine. Escola and Self also wrote the screenplay for as-yet-unproduced comedy in which two friends "have to go through a lot to redeem their free sandwich."

Cole Escola (born November 25, 1986) is an American comedian, actor, and singer, best known for his cabaret work and his appearances on the television series Jeffery & Cole Casserole (2009–2010) and Difficult People (2015–2017).