Rannazzisi, whose ascent to fame was largely pegged to his claim that he survived the attacks on September 11, admitted on Tuesday that the whole narrative was a farce.
Daniel Zuchnik / Getty Images
As first reported by the New York Times, comedian Steve Rannazzisi admitted on Tuesday to lying about being inside the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The narrative helped spur his career, helping him land gigs on Ashton Kutcher's MTV prank show Punk'd, several ABC sitcoms, and as a lead character on FX's The League, which is entering its seventh season.
In 2009 Rannazzisi told Marc Maron in a podcast interview that he worked on the 54th floor of Merrill Lynch when the twin towers were hit.
"I was there," he said. "The first tower got hit, and were, like, you know, jostled all over the place."
Rannazzisi even talked of how Port Authority officials announced on the building loudspeaker that things were being taken care of.
"I went downstairs, walked outside, and saw all the pandemonium, and then about five or six minutes later, bang," he added.
Rannazzisi embellished his story with other details about that day during the interview, including how a cab driver attempted to charge him $500 to get to Brooklyn from Manhattan's Financial District.
Listen to the full interview here.
In several interviews, he has maintained that his near-death experience motivated him and his then girlfriend, who is now his wife, to move to Los Angeles, which is where his career in entertainment began.
A representative of Forefront Media, the company that represents Rannazzisi, sent BuzzFeed News his official statement:
As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough.
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 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. 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 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 when I hadn't come clean about this?
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.
A representative of Buffalo Wild Wings, for whom Rannazzisi acts as a spokesman, told BuzzFeed News that the company was "disappointed to learn of Steve's misrepresentations regarding the events of September 11, 2001."
"We are currently reevaluating our relationship with Steve pending a review of all the facts," the statement added.
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