Thomas Lennon

For other uses, see Thomas Lennon (disambiguation).

Thomas Lennon
Lennon in 2015
Born	Thomas Patrick Lennon (1970-08-09) August 9, 1970 (age 48) Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	New York University
Occupation	Actor comedian screenwriter
Years active	1991–present
Spouse(s)	Jenny Robertson (m. 2002)
Children	1

Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director and novelist. As an actor he is best known for his work as a cast member on MTV's The State, for his role as Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the Comedy Central series Reno 911! and as Felix Unger on the CBS series The Odd Couple. Lennon is also an accomplished screenwriter of several major studio comedies with writing partner Robert Ben Garant. Their films include comedies such as the Night at the Museum films, The Pacifier, Balls of Fury, and Baywatch.

Contents

• 
  1 Early life
  


• 
  2 Career
  
  
  
  • 
    2.1 Acting and performing
    
  
  
  • 
    2.2 Screenwriting
    
  
  
  • 
    2.3 Novels
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  3 Personal life
  


• 
  4 Filmography
  
  
  
  • 
    4.1 Film
    
  
  
  • 
    4.2 Television
    
  
  
  • 
    4.3 Web
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Early life

Lennon was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Of Irish and Scottish descent,^[1][2] he is the son of Kathleen (McSheehy) and Timothy Lennon.^[3] He graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1988.

At the age of 16, he met friend and future co-star Kerri Kenney at Theatre Camp at Northwestern University. The two later attended NYU,^[4] where they joined a comedy troupe called The New Group.

Career

Acting and performing

While a member of The New Group, the comedy troupe changed its name to The State. As they performed their material at theaters and clubs in New York City, they worked on the MTV show You Wrote It, You Watch It. This led to the self-titled series The State (1993–95), which was nominated for a 1995 Cable Ace Award for Best Comedy Series. That same year, they created a special for CBS called The State's 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special.

Following the cancellation of The State, Lennon, along with Kenney, Robert Ben Garant and Michael Ian Black, went on to create and star in the Comedy Central program Viva Variety (1997–99). The show was based on a sketch that Lennon had written for the final season of The State, called "The Mr. and Former Mrs. Laupin Variety Programme." Viva Variety received a 1997 Cable Ace Award nomination for Best Comedy Series. After Viva Variety, Lennon, Kenney and Garant created and starred in Reno 911! (2003–09). Initially slated for Fox, the program later debuted on Comedy Central.

Lennon has appeared as a guest star in dozens of TV shows, including The League, Childrens Hospital, Party Down, New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Comedy Bang Bang, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. One of his notable guest starring roles was as Joey Tribbiani's blackjack dealing, "identical hand twin" on the Friends fifth-season finale ("The One In Vegas," Pts. I and II). Additionally, he has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, The Daily Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and at 31, had the second-most number of appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

In 2008, Lennon started doing stand-up comedy, occasionally playing guitar and incorporating music. He has appeared on The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, The Jeselnik Offensive, and The Benson Interruption. He was the guest on the first episode of Chris Hardwick's The Nerdist Podcast, which was recorded in Lennon's garage.

In 2010, Lennon and Garant created and starred in a sitcom pilot for NBC called The Strip. In May that year it was announced that NBC had decided not to produce it as a series.

In November and December 2011, Lennon filled in as guest voice for the robot sidekick Geoff Peterson on the CBS show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Lennon has also appeared in numerous films, including Bad Teacher, Memento, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and I Love You, Man, for which he and costar Paul Rudd were nominated for a 2009 MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. In both Christopher Nolan's film Memento (2000) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Lennon played the role of a doctor.^[5]

Lennon's voice acting work includes Kim Possible, Bob's Burgers, Archer and Planet Sheen, in which he played the character of Pinter. He played Scribble in Secret of the Wings and Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast. He supplied the voice of Eddie the Shipboard Computer in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and plays the voice of Fearless Leader in the 2014 DreamWorks short film version of Rocky and Bullwinkle. He is also the voice of Munk on Dawn of the Croods and the voice of Chief O'Hara in the Warner Brothers animated film Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders.

Since its premiere in October 2013, Lennon has appeared 17 times on the late-night internet-based improv panel game show, @midnight (which he also produces), winning a total of seven times.^[6]

In 2014, Lennon was cast as Felix Unger in the television series reboot of The Odd Couple opposite Matthew Perry, who plays Oscar Madison.^[7] The show ran for three seasons. In 2016, he co-starred as a scientist in Paramount Animation's Monster Trucks and began a recurring role on the Fox action sitcom Lethal Weapon as Leo Getz, a character previously portrayed on film by Joe Pesci. At the 2016 People's Choice Awards ceremony, he participated in an on-stage sketch parodying the recent gaffe by Steve Harvey at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant.^[8]

Screenwriting

Thomas Lennon is a successful screenwriter and script doctor. Most of Lennon's screenplays are written in collaboration with writing partner Robert Ben Garant.^[4] Their films have earned over $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office.^[9]

Among Garant and Lennon's credits are the Night at the Museum films, the 2005 Disney comedy The Pacifier and the 2006 prison comedy Let's Go to Prison.

In 2010, FX Network ordered a pilot episode for a Garant/Lennon science fiction television comedy called USS Alabama, set 1000 years in the future, aboard a United Nations peacekeeping spaceship, the U.S.S. Alabama.^[5] Garant and Lennon released a book about writing for film called Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can Too! in 2011.^[9]

Garant and Lennon wrote, directed and starred in the 2013 film Hell Baby starring Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb. The film was produced by Darko Entertainment, and shot on location in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hell Baby premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.^[5] Garant and Lennon are credited as story co-writers on the film version of Baywatch (2017).

More recently, The Machine, written by Garant and Lennon, is set to star Vin Diesel. Additionally, their script Action No. 1 is in pre-production.

Lennon is also the author of four of IFC's "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time."^[10]

Novels

Lennon has written a young adult novel Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles, the first in a series of Ronan Boyle novels.^[11][12]

Personal life

Lennon lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Jenny Robertson,^[4] and their son Oliver (born 2009). He is a fan of The Smiths and Morrissey,^[13] occasionally performing live with the tribute band "Sweet and Tender Hooligans" as a guest guitarist.^[14] Lennon is close friends with Weird Al Yankovic.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	A Friend of Dorothy	Moonie	Short film
1998	Row Your Boat	Census Taker
1999	Drop Dead Gorgeous	Documentarian (voice)
2000	Memento	Doctor
2001	Out Cold	Eric Montclare
2002	Boat Trip	The priest
2003	Le Divorce	Roger Walker
2003	How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days	Thayer
2003	A Guy Thing	Pete Morse
2004	Taxi	N/A	Writer
2004	Heights	Marshall
2005	Conversations with Other Women	Videographer
2005	Herbie: Fully Loaded	Larry Murphy	Writer
2005	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Eddie the Shipboard Computer (voice)
2005	The Godfather of Green Bay	D.U.G.
2005	The Pacifier	N/A	Writer
2006	Night at the Museum	N/A	Writer
2006	Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas	Police officer
2006	Let's Go to Prison		Writer
2006	Eden Court	Shroeder Duncan
2007	Balls of Fury	Karl Wolfschtagg	Writer, producer
2007	Reno 911!: Miami	Lieutenant Jim Dangle	Writer, executive producer
2007	The Ten	Scotty Pale
2008	Hancock	Mike
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	Orville Wright	Writer Uncredited cameo
2009	17 Again	Ned Gold
2009	I Love You, Man	Doug
2009	Al's Brain in 3-D	Co-Worker	Short film
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Customer	Uncredited
2011	Cedar Rapids	Roger Lemke
2011	How to Survive a Robot Uprising		Writer
2011	Bad Teacher	Carl Halabi
2011	What's Your Number?	Dr. Barrett 'Barry' Ingold
2011	A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas	Todd
2012	The Hunger Pains	Buttitch Totalapathy	Short film
2012	What to Expect When You're Expecting	Craig
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	Doctor
2012	Secret of the Wings	Reading Fairy (voice)
2012	Howard Cantour.com	Rocco	Short film
2013	Hell Baby	Pat	Writer, producer, director (with Robert Ben Garant)
2013	Rapture-Palooza	Mr. Murphy
2013	Jerry, the Exorcist Roommate	Jerry	Short film
2013	We're the Millers	Rick Nathanson
2014	Mr. Peabody and Sherman	Italian Peasant #2 (voice)	Also wrote additional dialogue
2014	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Chief of Staff
2014	Rocky & Bullwinkle	Fearless Leader / Mayan Princess (voice)	Short film; also writer
2014	Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast	Scribble (voice)
2015	Knight of Cups	Tom
2015	Hot Tub Time Machine 2	BMW Guy	Uncredited
2015	Grand Zero	David Van Vleck	Short film
2016	Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders	Chief O'Hara / Prison Warden (voice)
2016	Monster Trucks	Dr. Jim Dowd
2017	Baywatch	N/A	Story writer
2017	Pottersville	Brock Masterson
2017	Batman vs. Two-Face	Chief O'Hara (voice)
2018	A Futile and Stupid Gesture	Michael O'Donoghue
2018	The 15:17 to Paris	Principal Michael Akers
2018	Half Magic	Darren
2018	Dog Days	Greg
2018	Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich	Edgar

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	You Wrote It, You Watch It	Various	Also writer
1993–95	The State	Various characters	Also co-creator and writer
1995	The State's 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special	Various characters	Television special; also writer
1997	Viva Variety	Host Meredith Laupin	16 episodes; also writer
1997–1999	Hercules	Atlas (voice)	3 episodes
1999	Friends	Randall	2 episodes
1999	Strangers with Candy	N/A	Writer: "Bogie Nights"
1999–2000	Jesse	Ernie	2 episodes
2001	The Legend of Tarzan	Landlord (voice)	Episode: "Tarzan and the Mysterious Visitor"
2002	Kim Possible	Unknown character (voice)	Episode: "Kimitation Nation"
2002	MDs	Chester E. Donge	8 episodes
2003–09	Reno 911!	Lieutenant Jim Dangle	Also creator
2004–06	Brandy & Mr. Whiskers	Vic (voice)	2 episodes
2006	Stacked	Gary	Episode: "You're Getting Sleepy"
2007	Wainy Days	Ice Cream Man	Episode: "Dorvid Days"
2009	The League	Bryce	Episode: "The Usual Bet"
2010	Party Down	Nick DiCintio	Episode: "Nick DiCintio's Orgy Night"
2010	Svetlana	Fyodor	Episode: "Wish Fulfillment"
2010–11	Funny or Die Presents	Richard / Co-pilot	5 episodes
2010–13	Planet Sheen	Pinter / Blurg (voices)	15 episodes
2011	Memphis Beat	Keith Grant	Episode: "Inside Man"
2011	Childrens Hospital	Pat	Episode: "Home Is Where the Hospital Is"
2011	The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	Geoff Peterson The Robot Skeleton - Chloe Banderas (voice)	3 episodes
2012	New Girl	Neil	Episode: "See Ya"
2012–15	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Various	4 episodes
2012	How I Met Your Mother	Klaus	2 episodes
2012	Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23	Trey	Epis
2012	Blake Shelton's Not So Family Christmas	Director	Television special
2012–14	Bob's Burgers	Chuck (voice)	3 episodes
2013	Franklin & Bash	Harley	Episode: "Shoot to Thrill"
2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Santa	Episode: "Wreck the Halls"
2013	@midnight	Contestant	Also executive producer
2013	Key & Peele	Person at People Park #5	Episode: "Pussy on the Chainwax"
2013	Wendell & Vinnie	Lord Derek	Episode: "Swindle & Vinnie"
2013–14	Sean Saves the World	Max Thompson	14 episodes
2013–14	Newsreaders	Vincent Gates / Pritchard Batchman	3 episodes
2014	Archer	Charles (voice)	3 episodes
2014	Hollywood Game Night	Himself	Episode: "Things That Go Clue-Boom in the Night"
2014	The Goldbergs	Tauntaun Todd	Episode: "A Wrestler Named Goldberg"
2014	Hot in Cleveland	Agent Gilmore	Episode: "Surprise!"
2014	The Birthday Boys	Lou Skywalker	Episode: "Cerf's Folly"
2014	Comedy Central's All-Star Non-Denominational Christmas Special	N/A	Television special; writer
2015	Over the Garden Wall	Jimmy Brown (voice)	Episode: "Chapter 3: Schooltown Follies"
2015	The Hotwives	Garrett Truesdale	Episode: "You Make Me Wanna Drought"
2015	Crash Test: With Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer	Studio Security	Television special
2015	Robot Chicken	Various (voices)	Episode: "Garbage Sushi"
2015–17	The Odd Couple	Felix Unger	Main role; 38 episodes
2015–16	Another Period	Marquis de Sainsbury	5 episodes
2015–16	Drunk History	Major Jesse Marcel / Timothy Leary	2 episodes
2015–16	TripTank	Caller / Broker / Rob (voice)	3 episodes
2015–16	Dawn of the Croods	Munk / Crud (voices)	9 episodes
2016	Animals.	Kevin (voice)	Episode: "Rats."
2016	Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures	Wick Cooper / Cleaning Droid (voices)	4 episodes
2016	Bajillion Dollar Propertie$	Serge	6 episodes; also executive producer
2016, 2017	American Dad!	News Director, Satan (voices)	2 episodes
2017–present	Santa Clarita Diet	Principal Novak	Recurring role
2017–2019	Lethal Weapon	Leo Getz	Recurring role
2017	Milo Murphy's Law	Henry (voice)	Episode: "Murphy's Lard"
2017	Justice League Action	Amazo (voice)	Episode: "Boo-ray for Bizarro"
2017	Spirit Riding Free	Garrett Truesdale (voice)	Episode: "Lucky and the Long Way Home"
2018	The Thundermans	Assista Boy	Episode: "Side-Kicking and Screaming"
2018	For the People	Freddie Morris/Captain Shadow[15]	Episode: "Everybody's a Superhero"
2018	Sideswiped	Aaron Cunningham	Episode: "Matched Up"
2019	Teachers	LarryBop	Episode: "Face Your Peers"
2019	‘’Knight Squad’’		Episode: “Knight of the Living Dead”

Web

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2019	Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television	Himself	Episode: "For Your Inconsideration"

References

1. 
   ^ juliehamill (2016-11-13). "Julie Hamill • 15 Minutes With Thomas Lennon, actor". Juliehamill.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


2. 
   ^ kevinpollakschatshow (2018-09-11), KPCS: Thomas Lennon #371, retrieved 2018-09-22
   


3. 
   ^ "That cop in the short shorts". Nl.newsbank.com. 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
   


4. 
   ^ ^abc Pearlman, Cindy. "Oak Park native acts, writes way to 'Reno 911!' and beyond", Chicago Sun-Times. Published April 15, 2009.
   


5. 
   ^ ^abc Thomas Lennon on IMDb
   


6. 
   ^ "Tom Lennon". Retrieved March 26, 2015.
   


7. 
   ^ Ausiello, Michael. "The Odd Couple Pilot Scoop: Look Who's Playing the Felix to Matthew Perry's Oscar". TVLine.com. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
   


8. 
   ^ "Jane Lynch Spoofs Steve Harvey's Miss Universe Gaffe At People's Choice Awards". Huffington Post. New York City: Huffington Post Media Group. January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
   


9. 
   ^ ^ab Morning Edition (2011-07-05). "You Too Can Be A Successful Screenwriter". NPR. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
   


10. 
    ^ "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time" IFC; April 7, 2008
    


11. 
    ^ https://news.avclub.com/on-the-late-show-thomas-lennon-shows-clips-of-his-firs-1833057973
    


12. 
    ^ Jarlath Regan (2 March 2019). "Tom Lennon". An Irishman Abroad (Podcast) (285 ed.). Retrieved 6 March 2019.
    


13. 
    ^ "Interview: Thomas Lennon spontaneously pares down his list of quintessential Smiths songs". rhino.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
    


14. 
    ^ "Sweet & Tender Hooligans – About". Sweetandtenderhooligans.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
    


15. 
    ^ Turchiano, Danielle. "Thomas Lennon Books Guest Role on ‘For The People’ (EXCLUSIVE)," Variety, February 8, 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2018
    

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Lennon.

• 
  Thomas Lennon on IMDb
  


• 
  Thomas Lennon on Twitter
  

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