Harris Wittels
Harris Wittels performing at a show in 2009Flickr

Harris Wittels, co-executive producer and writer for NBC's comedy sitcom "Parks and Recreation", died on Thursday aged 30.

His body was found lying on his couch in an unresponsive state by his assistant at his Los Angeles home. A spokesperson for LAPD said they responded to a call at noon regarding a probable drug overdose. A drug named paraphernalia was found at his home. There was no sign of injury or trauma on his body. He was declared dead at the scene, around 1 pm.

The cause of Wittels' death will be known only after an autopsy is performed by the coroner's office.

"Parks and Recreation" is in its final season and the last episode of the show, in which Wittels served as the co-executive producer as well as writer, will be aired next week.

According to TMZ, Wittels had performed at a comedy club, The Meltdown, in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. During his set, he said he was clean and sober, and was in a good place.

Wittels has always been very open about his struggle with drug addiction. He had gone to the rehab twice.

He was known for popularising the term "humblebrag". In 2012, he published a book around the idea of what can be termed as "modest boast". The name of the book was, "Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty."

After seeing him perform at Largo, legendary Sarah Silverman offered him a job at her Comedy Central Show. Paying tribute to Wittels, she wrote on Twitter: "You should know that Harris was brilliant beyond compare. That his imagination was without limit. That he loved comedy more than anything."

Tweets by other celebrities, paying their respects to Wittels, are as follows: