‘The Tonight Show’ Gets New Head Writer As A.D. Miles Returns & Mason Steinberg Exits

EXCLUSIVE: There’s change at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

A.D. Miles, who was previously head writer on the NBC show and also worked with Fallon on Late Night, is returning to the show as head writer.

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Mason Steinberg, who was hired in the role last year, is exiting.

Paul Masella, who is the co-head writer and head monologue writer, remains in his position. Masella, who was also a writer on The Late Show with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live, has been writing for the NBC show since 2016.

Miles has a long history with Fallon; he was head writer of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which aired between 2009-2014, and then moved with the former SNL star to The Tonight Show, where he was head writer between 2014-2017. In all, he has written on more than 750 episodes of late-night television with the host.

He is probably best known for appearing on the show itself; most notably as stepdad Gary in Fallon’s series of Ew! sketches, which have featured the likes of Emma Stone, Taylor Swift and Michelle Obama as well as Drew Barrymore earlier this year.

He has also performed as a member of The Ragtime Gals on The Tonight Show, which has also featured help from the likes of Justin Timberlake and Steve Carell.

After working on The Tonight Show, Miles moved back to Los Angeles to pursue other opportunities. He was head writer on ABC’s reboot of The Gong Show and he has acted in series such as Wet Hot American Summer, Sherman’s Showcase, Between Two Ferns: The Movie as well as on Netflix’s animated series Hoops.

However, Miles remained in Fallon’s orbit even after leaving the show, providing the voice for NBC’s Password, which is exec produced by Fallon, and bringing back The Ragtime Gals on Fallon’s That’s My Jam to perform covers of Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” And Kelis’ “Milkshake.”

Steinberg joined the show in 2022 as head writer, having written on a slew of awards shows including the CMT Music Awards, the MTV Movie & TV Awards and the E! People’s Choice Awards. He was also the head writer of NBC’s Bring the Funny, a comedy competition series starring Kenan Thompson, and TBS’ The Misery Index. He was also co-head writer on Chelsea, the Netflix late-night show starring Chelsea Handler; a staff writer on Lopez Tonight; and a writer on McEnroe, the short-lived talk show hosted by tennis legend John McEnroe.

The head writer move comes after Chris Miller became showrunner of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last year, replacing Jamie Granet-Bederman.

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