Raymond Siller

Raymond "Ray" Siller (born April 8, 1939) is an American television writer and political consultant. He was nominated for four Emmy Awards as long-time head writer on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He has written for four U.S. presidents and contributed articles to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times and USA Today. He lives in New York City.

Siller was born and raised in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brooklyn Prep and Fordham University, wrote for the student newspaper, The Fordham Ram, and was a chief announcer on Fordham’s FM station, WFUV. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960.

His professional career began in New York as an ABC Television Network page, and he was later employed as a radio director at ABC’s flagship rock station, WABC. He subsequently gained a staff director position at the ABC Radio Network, working with Charles Osgood, Ted Koppel, Peter Jennings, and Howard Cosell.

Siller moved over to ABC-TV in 1968 as an associate director on The Dick Cavett Show where he transitioned to Cavett’s writing staff.

During the 1970 congressional elections, President Richard M. Nixon invited Siller to be a consultant at the White House. He assumed that post and at the same time consulted for Vice President Spiro Agnew. On the wedding day of Nixon’s daughter, Tricia, attended by both Agnew and comedian Bob Hope, Agnew appeared in Los Angeles at an Army Ball honoring Hope. In his introduction to Hope, Agnew peppered his speech with many of Siller’s one-liners. They included jokes about the wedding. Hope, following Agnew on the dais, had to cross out from his own monologue the topical references that Agnew had just delivered. Hope asked his nephew, Peter Malatesta, at the time Agnew’s aide, “Who the hell wrote those jokes?” When Malatesta informed him it was Ray Siller, Hope said, “Tell him he’s hired”.

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