Peter Michael Davidson (born November 16, 1993) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He began his career in the early 2010s with minor guest roles on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Friends of the People, Guy Code, and Wild 'n Out before being hired as a cast member on the NBC late-night sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live which he starred in for eight seasons from 2014 to 2022.

Following his rise to prominence on SNL, Davidson starred in and executive produced the comedy film Big Time Adolescence (2019), and co-wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama film The King of Staten Island (2020), and the Peacock series Bupkis (2023). He continued acting in films such as The Suicide Squad (2021), Bodies Bodies Bodies, and Meet Cute (both 2022). Davidson has also released three comedy specials: Pete Davidson: SMD (2016), Pete Davidson: Alive from New York (2020), and Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli (2024).

Peter Michael Davidson was born on November 16, 1993 in the Staten Island borough of New York City to parents Amy (née Waters) and Scott Matthew Davidson. Scott was a New York City firefighter for Ladder 118 who died in service during the September 11th attacks, along with the rest of his unit. He was last seen running up the stairs of the Marriott World Trade Center in Downtown Manhattan just before the building was destroyed when the Twin Towers collapsed. His Requiem Mass was held at St. Clare's Catholic Church in Great Kills, Staten Island. Davidson, then aged seven, was profoundly affected by the loss. He told The New York Times that it was "overwhelming" and that he later acted out in school as a result of the trauma, at one point ripping his hair out until he was bald. In October 2016, he revealed on The Breakfast Club morning radio show that he struggled with suicidal thoughts when he was younger and that the music of Kid Cudi saved his life.

Davidson's father was predominantly of Jewish ancestry, with some distant German, Irish and Italian roots. His mother is of mostly Irish ancestry, with some distant German roots. He has a younger sister named Casey, and was raised Catholic. Davidson attended St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School, and then Tottenville High School in Huguenot, before transferring to Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and graduating from there in 2011. After high school, Davidson enrolled at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, which he attended for one semester upon which he decided to drop out to pursue a full-time career in comedy. He first tried stand-up comedy at age sixteen in a Staten Island bowling alley, where a group of friends that included future professional baseball player Matt Festa, knowing of his comedy aspirations, dared him to take to the stage.

Davidson's earliest onscreen appearance was in the third episode of the MTV comedy series Failosophy, which premiered February 28, 2013. The following month, he appeared in "PDA and Moms", a third-season episode of the MTV2 reality TV comedy series Guy Code, the first of four episodes in which he was featured. That June, his first televised standup aired as part of a second-season episode of the Comedy Central program Gotham Comedy Live, which showcases standup comedians at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City. The following month, he returned to MTV2 with an appearance on Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out, his first of six appearances on that show. He subsequently made standup appearances on television and appeared in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In 2014, he acquired a role in a Fox comedy pilot, Sober Companion, but it ultimately did not make it to series.

Davidson joined the cast of Saturday Night Live with the show's 40th-season premiere, which aired on September 27, 2014. At age 20, he was the first SNL cast member to be born in the 1990s and one of the youngest cast members ever. The first new addition to the cast that season, Davidson was given a chance to audition for the show through regular Bill Hader, whom he had met while filming a small part in the 2015 Judd Apatow feature film comedy Trainwreck. Hader subsequently told producer Lorne Michaels about him. His debut garnered positive critical notice, with his most noted skits during the season including an Indiana Jones-style sketch in which he and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, after being pelted with poison darts, were forced to mutually suck poison out of each other's various body parts, an endeavor that eventually found them entangled in the "69" position. Another involved Davidson being shot in the chest with an arrow by Norman Reedus. Over the years, Davidson played a number of characters, the most famous being Chad, an easily distracted apathetic man who first appeared in the season 41 episode hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as a pool boy who becomes entangled with a lonely housewife.

In March 2015, Davidson was a roaster on the Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber, and his set was praised as one of the best of the show. Among his bolder jokes was one at the expense of fellow roaster Snoop Dogg, host Kevin Hart, and their 2004 film Soul Plane. Davidson, whose firefighter father died responding to the September 11 attacks, called the film "the worst experience of [his] life involving a plane". In 2016, he was placed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. In April of that year, Comedy Central filmed Davidson's first stand-up special, Pete Davidson: SMD, in New York City.

In January 2019, it was announced that Davidson would be touring with John Mulaney in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts for a limited series of comedy shows titled "Sundays with Pete & John". Mulaney and Davidson became close after appearing together on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live. That May, after the 44th-season finale of SNL, Travis M. Andrews of The Washington Post credited Davidson with being the most memorable performer that season and its breakout star, which Andrews attributed to Davidson's mining of his personal struggles and his admission of his comedic missteps, which Andrews felt gave the season a mixture of comedy and pathos.