Jefferson City Jays Coach Ted LePage has already had his 15 minutes of national television fame on the "American Gladiators" show in the '90s. Now it's his nephew's turn.
Brooks Wheelan, the 27-year-old son of LePage's sister, Chris Ann Wheelan, will join the 39th season of Saturday Night Live as a new cast member. His grandparents are Tom and Gert LePage of Russellville.
His mother, Chris Ann, is a Helias Catholic High School graduate, who still has six brothers and sisters in the Jefferson City area.
"We're very, very, very excited," his mom said in a telephone interview from her home in Iowa. "I've been calling Jeff City for the last three weeks now, calling all my siblings. We're all just very excited. It's surreal, very hard to believe."
She said Brooks was a very intelligent and athletic kid. "He was quiet growing up, which is hard to believe. He has two talkative parents and two talkative older brothers."
Brooks Wheelan earned a 4.0 GPA in high school and earned a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Iowa. He worked a day job in biomedical engineering in Los Angeles, while performing standup comedy at night.
Chris Ann Wheelan said her son has wanted to be an SNL cast member since fifth or sixth grade.
Link: