Friends and Colleagues Remember Harris Wittels

Yesterday we shared our sadness at learning of the untimely death of Harris Wittels, at age 30. Wittels’ impressive body of work included being a writer, executive producer and actor on the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation, contributing to The Sarah Silverman Show, stand-up comedy and producing the Analyze Phish podcast. Several of his friends, colleagues and admirers have shared words in tribute to Wittels which we’ve gathered below.


Wittels’ close friend and Parks and Rec cohort, comedian Aziz Ansari took to his Tumblr page to share a lengthy essay on the pair’s friendship. Ansari shares excerpts from unmade film screenplays the two worked on, tales of Wittels kindness and insight that the two had recently been closely working on developing a new project. Read the whole post here, which includes this endearing anecdote:

This week I spent a lot of time with Harris. On Monday he drove me to a cast dinner we were having. His iPod was on shuffle and every fucking song was a different Phish bootleg. I kept forcing him to skip until it was Phish maybe covering another more tolerable band’s song. Then we hit a band called Pralines and Dick. I told him this was particularly bad. He let me know it was his high school jam band and warned me about the upcoming 5 minute funk breakdown. I couldn’t help but enjoy it.

Amy Poehler, another of Wittels’ colleagues at Parks, was in a somber mood while at a Variety unite4humanity event on Thursday night. “Today, I lost a friend,” she said accepting an honor. “I lost a dear young man in my life, who was struggling with addiction and who died.” Watch her speak truthfully and honestly about the loss she was feeling the clip below via Entertainment Tonight:

Wittels was a writer for The Sarah Silverman Program and the program’s star took to her Twitter account to express her grief about and love for her friend. The tweets speak for themselves:

He was my baby. I just keep thinking of superman flying backwards around the earth. I wish I could do that. I’m so mad at you Harris

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 20, 2015

You should know that Harris was brilliant beyond compare. That his imagination was without limit. That he loved comedy more than anything.

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 20, 2015

That his heart was big and he FELT hard. That he was someone who would reach out to tell you he was thinking of you for no particular reason

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 20, 2015

That he was honest even if it was gonna piss u off or make him look shitty. He told the truth. Even when it was ugly. Even when he lied.

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 20, 2015

Comedian Marc Maron interviewed Wittels back in September 2013 on the WTF podcast. Maron reposted the entire episode, adding his thoughts on their chat and the news of his death, and it can be listened to for free here.

Among the many projects Wittels was involved in, he also found time to contribute to Relix Magazine, writing several articles over recent years. Relix editor Mike Greenhaus penned a heartfelt tribute that also mentioned a previous reference to the aforementioned Pralines and Dick high school band which can be read here. Relix also reposted Wittels contribution to their 40th Anniversary issue, “(Most) Everyone Loves Phish.”

Elsewhere, Phish fans have started a petition for the band to start their Summer Tour with a jammed-out “Tube” in Wittels’ honor.