Grant Alexander McCord was born on April 17, 1997, in Philadelphia, PA.

He grew up in Bryn Mawr, PA, alongside his brother, dogs, cat, and beloved bearded dragon. In his youth, he was loud, messy, and brilliant. He’d show up to school in a full cow costume, then stay up all night playing guitar, talking to friends online, and reading comics. He was always in motion – tearing through the neighborhood on “stream runs” (covert voyages through his neighbors’ yards), or heading out on late-night Wawa adventures. He once held a full funeral for his Spider-Man toy, dressed in a too-small blue blazer and delivering a solemn eulogy that began, “We are gathered here today…” – and then, being Grant, he later dug Spider-Man up and went right back to playing. He and his friends invented new ways to raise hell – including luging down a steep church parking lot, seated on skateboards and fueled by laughter and bravado. It was a childhood lived at full volume, unforgettable to anyone lucky enough to join the ride.

Told he had to pick one instrument and stick with it, Grant took up guitar at the age of five and never looked back. He poured himself into music, eventually learning how to slap bass, compose songs from scratch, and demolish a full drum kit. He had a huge and ever-evolving musical appetite, with a deep love for everything from Metallica to ELO, Otis Redding to Sufjan Stevens, Stevie Wonder, Rage Against the Machine, Genesis, Queens of the Stone Age, and the dreamy rhythms of Tropicalia. If it made noise, Grant wanted to understand it – and then play it louder.

He attended Friends’ Central School, in Wynnewood, and spent a semester of his junior year at the Mountain School, in Vermont, where he threw himself into farming, academics, and most of all, making new friends. One night, he and another Mountain Schooler memorably performed the final dance scene from Dirty Dancing – not for a talent show, just of their own accord – and he embodied that over-the-top energy throughout the semester. Back at Friends’ Central for his senior year (before graduating in 2015), he played Belize in a groundbreaking high school production of Angels in America, sparking his early passion for theatre. Grant was someone who made friendships that lasted: he remained close with hometown and semester school friends throughout his life.

Grant then attended Dartmouth College, where he flaunted his improv chops as part of the Dog Day Players (Dartmouth’s long-form improvisational comedy troupe), pledged to local fraternity Alpha Chi Alpha, and became a campus fixture via his band Fake Nudes. A major in Earth Sciences with a minor in Government, Grant also worked at the student-run campus cafe and took every opportunity to spend time outdoors – most notably in the Earth Sciences semester-long road trip, The Stretch, when he traipsed through the Rocky Mountains on an adventure that would become a highlight of his collegiate academic experience. He graduated in 2020.

In recent years in Brooklyn, Grant worked as a field director for canvassing operations (including to promote access to COVID vaccines early in the pandemic), then worked in client services to support up-and-coming chefs early in their careers, and then in marketing strategy. He embedded himself in Brooklyn’s comedy scene, fought passionately for his and his roommates’ rights as tenants, and made music constantly. His location was always Ground Zero for a jam sesh with friends – but even when alone, he would noodle away, spilling groovy bass lines from his room at all hours. He was a friend to animals – feeding feral cats (many of whom he named and observed lovingly from his bedroom vantage point), working as a dog sitter for some extra cash, and dreaming of the day when he would eventually adopt a cat of his own.

In the final year of his life, Grant achieved new heights as an artist and creative. He had numerous irons in the fire – drafting TV pilots, planning his sketch comedy show, and painting blind-contour portraits in surreal colors. In 2024, Grant co-wrote and directed a sketch comedy show titled Jeff Does His Taxes, and leading up to his untimely death, he was in rehearsal for the much-anticipated follow-up show, Swayze Kicks High. Although first and foremost a comedy writer, Grant could create and perform just about anything. He could paint, act onstage, make music, and tell the best stories you’d ever heard. He was poised for a promising career in the arts, and not just one of “the arts” – he could have done them all.

All of the above information is true, but it is also inadequate. No timeline of Grant’s life can fully illustrate the impression that he left on the people and places he encountered. His larger-than-life presence captivated the truly unknowable number of loved ones and acquaintances who experienced his rib-cracking hugs, his unmatched eruptions of laughter, and his blend of quick brilliance, love of beauty and wit, and delight in the crude, the indecorous, and the irreverent. Grant embodied extremes and superlatives and, fittingly, left an outsized mark on the world in his 28 years.

Grant died unexpectedly, and long before his time, in early June, 2025. He is survived by his mother, Leigh Jackson; his father, Rob McCord; his brother, Jackson McCord; and innumerable friends, family members, and loved ones who are lucky enough to have been in his orbit.

A memorial was held in New York City on August 9, 2025. Grant would never have allowed a quiet, solemn affair -- and we didn't have one. Three hundred people showed up. We laughed. We loved his music; we enjoyed funny photos of him making mischief, dressed as Robin, playing guitar with his college band the Fake Nudes, hanging with friends and family. We laughed. We reminded each other of the many communities he loved, and we reminded each other of our love for him. That was the only way to honor someone like Grant -- by being fully, messily, and beautifully alive. If you’d like, you can visit the YouTube link here to listen to the speeches from Grant’s celebration of life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qV4EdIcKK8

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating through this page and/or to the list of organizations below.

Funds raised through this page will go to cover the expenses of Grant’s Celebration of Life in NYC; any leftover donations will go to the organizations below, to fund causes that Grant passionately supported. If you can give, thank you. If you can’t, that’s okay – share your stories, your photos, your memories. Keep Grant close. Tell the stories. Do the bits. Make the jokes. Hug your people too tight. Take up too much space. Love unreservedly. That’s what Grant did. That’s what Grant is.

We love you, Grant. Always.

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Organizations to consider supporting in Grant’s honor:

New York Tenant Bloc

Entertainment Community

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

826 National

New York Small Theatres Fund

Brooklyn Comedy Collective

Sierra Club

Comedy Gives Back

Activation Residency

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