Update #2: Parks and Recreation will pay tribute to Harris Wittels on their hour long series finale tomorrow night, February 24. It’s sure to be an emotional moment.

Update: Comedian Aziz Ansari wrote an amazing piece on Harris Wittels, Executive Producer of Parks and Recreation & Analyze Phish. Here’s an excerpt: 

“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.”

Read the full piece here.

Harris Wittels, co-host of Analyze Phish and Executive Producer of Parks and Recreation, was found dead today in his home. He was 30 years old. Law enforcement agencies found drug paraphernalia in the house, and are allegedly treating the case as an overdose.

You may know Harris Wittels as the guy always wearing a Phish shirt in the background of Parks and Recreation. Over many years, he worked his way up from staff writer to executive producer of the show, while also contributing to shows such as Eastbound and Down and the Sarah Silverman Project. He also coined the term ‘Humblebrag’ on social media, even putting out a coffee table book on the concept.

Wittels was a Phish superfan, turning on legions of new fans through his Analyze Phish podcast he co-hosted with Scott Aukerman of Comedy Bang Bang fame. Through 10 episodes, Wittels tried to convince Aukerman to enjoy Phish, and while he’d be the first to admit he sometimes didn’t do the best job, you could see how much he truly loved the band through each episode. He even would talk to fans on Phantasy Tour, despite being endlessly trolled. Analyze Phish is essential listening if you enjoy either Phish or comedy.

While performing stand up just last night, Wittels claimed to have been clean and sober, but he frequently talked about his struggles with addiction in the past. 

[via TMZ]