Taran Killam Biography

Taran Hourie Killam (born April 1, 1982) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer, and writer. He is best known for his television work on shows such as The Amanda Show, Wild 'n Out, Mad TV, and Saturday Night Live.

Early life

Killam was born on April 1, 1982 in Culver City, California, and grew up in Big Bear Lake, California. He graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. His great-uncle was actor Robert Stack. Killam attended the University of California, Los Angeles for one year in 2000.

Career

Early career

In 1994, Killam made his first film appearance as an adolescent in Naked Gun 33?: The Final Insult. Killam was also featured on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, a sketch-comedy vehicle for Amanda Bynes, on which he played Spaulding, a boy who had a huge crush on Moody, in the soap opera parody "Moody's Point."

Killam joined the cast of MADtv as a featured player during its seventh season from 2001 to 2002. Although, of the 25 episodes that aired during MADtv's seventh season, Killam only fully appeared in 13 episodes. Joining the MADtv cast at age 19, Killam was the youngest cast member ever hired on the show and the only cast member on MADtv to get his start on children's shows (similar to Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live). He was also a regular cast member on the third and fourth seasons of Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out. In 2005, Killam co-starred in the television pilot Nobody's Watching, which never aired on network TV. The pilot, however, gained popularity after it was leaked online and they continued making webisodes from 2006 to 2007.

Killam co-starred in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. After MADtv, Killam appeared on TV shows such as Jake in Progress, Still Standing, Boston Public, Drake & Josh, Do Over, Roswell and Judging Amy. He had also appeared on Scrubs and Scrubs: Interns as Jimmy (the Overly Touchy Orderly). Killam appeared as a contestant on the episode of The Price Is Right which aired on December 7, 2006. The episode was re-aired on July 19, 2007.

He has also been in Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Anderson's Cross, and My Best Friend's Girl.

Killam was a member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch-comedy troupe the Groundlings. He retired from the main company in 2012.

Saturday Night Live

On September 25, 2010, Killam joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for the 36th season, making him the second Nickelodeon veteran (after Kenan Thompson) to join SNL and the second SNL cast member who was previously a cast member on the sketch show MADtv (after Jeff Richards). Killam has named Eddie Murphy as his favorite SNL cast member and Arcade Fire as his favorite musical guest. Killam was let go from his SNL contract on August 8, 2016.

Celebrity impressions

• Brad Pitt
• Jim Carrey
• Bruce Jenner
• Andy Cohen
• Ashton Kutcher
• Matthew McConaughey
• Piers Morgan
• George Clooney
• Steve Doocy
• Ted Cruz
• Eminem
• Paul Ryan
• Vin Diesel
• Sam Smith
• John Boehner
• Tom Brady
• Jim Palmer
• Christoph Waltz
• Donald Trump
• Marco Rubio
• Rick Santorum
• Martin O'Malley
• Owen Wilson
• Michael Cera
• Peyton Manning
• Christopher Robin
• Jack Black
• Dane Cook

Killam is one of only 4 cast members in SNL history to do over 100 impressions, the others being Darrell Hammond, Fred Armisen, and Kenan Thompson.

Other work

In December 2011, Killam decided to replicate the Robyn video "Call Your Girlfriend" in a small writer's room and post it to YouTube. The video immediately went viral and by January 6, 2015 it had been viewed more than 958,382 times. The late night antics briefly became an Internet phenomenon and garnered Killam significant media and public attention. When interviewed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Killam stated that he had not known the dance shown in the song's official video until Robyn was scheduled to appear on SNL as a guest; then, he watched the video repeatedly until he could perform it himself.

In 2011, Killam appeared in Community episode "Regional Holiday Music" as Mr. Radison (Mr. Rad), a parody of Will Schuester from Glee. In 2012 he appeared in iCarly episode "I Meet The First Lady" as a Secret Service Agent.

On November 10, 2012, Killam appeared (with Kenan Thompson) in a short video, "The Legend of Mokiki and the Sloppy Swish." Mokiki was a laboratory test subject who now wanders Manhattan performing a shuffling move known as the "Sloppy Swish." The sketch briefly became an Internet phenomenon and garnered Killam significant media and public attention. Mike Ryan of The Huffington Post wrote, "It is one of the most bizarre things to ever air on SNL, yet, the next day, everyone was talking about the Sloppy Swish."

Killam co-starred in the 2013 comedy film The Heat, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

Killam voices Zip "Frantic" Danger on the Hulu original series The Awesomes.

Killam is an avid reader of comic books and a fan of James Bond films. He first became interested in comics with Jim Lee's 1991 work on X-Men #1. He counts among his favorite aspects of the Bond franchise On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the Nintendo 64 video game Goldeneye, and names Sean Connery, Goldfinger and "Skyfall" as his favorite Bond actor, film and theme, respectively. In 2013, he ventured into the spy genre and the comics industry with The Illegitimates, a six-issue comics miniseries co-written by Marc Andreyko, illustrated by Kevin Sharpe and published by IDW Publishing. The series focuses on a team of illegitimate siblings who are charged with taking the place of their father, Jack Steele, a James Bond-like spy, after his death. The first issue was published December 18, 2013, and received mixed reviews.

Killam appears in the 2013 Best Picture-winning film 12 Years a Slave, playing the role of Abram Hamilton, one of the kidnappers who brought the main character into slavery.

Killam is also a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise (Raphael in particular), and successfully lobbied for a cameo role in the 2014 film.

Killam made six guest appearances as Gary Blauman on his wife Cobie Smulders' TV series, How I Met Your Mother. His first appearance was in the March 20, 2006 episode, "Life Among the Gorillas" and the final one was the March 24, 2014 episode, "Gary Blauman".

Personal life

After several years of dating, Killam and Canadian actress Cobie Smulders became engaged in January 2009. They married on September 8, 2012, in Solvang, California. The couple have two daughters. The first, Shaelyn Cado Killam, was born May 16, 2009; the second, whose name was not revealed, was born in January 2015.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Naked Gun 33?: The Final Insult	Boy of Geriatric Park
2002	Big Fat Liar	Bret Callaway
2003	Just Married	Dickie McNerney
2006	The Showdown	The Batter	Short film
2006	Dr. Miracles	Mr. Peterson	Short film
2007	Epic Movie	Pirate
2008	My Best Friend's Girl	Josh
2009	Three Matthew McConaugheys and a Baby	Matthew McConaughey	Short film
2010	Anderson's Cross	Austin Wilson
2013	The Heat	Adam
2013	Grown Ups 2	Male Cheerleader
2013	12 Years a Slave	Abram Hamilton	Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Boston Online Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated"?Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated"?Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated"?Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated"?Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated"?Georgia Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated"?Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated"?San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble
2014	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Jim McNaughton
2015	Ted 2	Himself
2015	Underdogs	Captain Skip (voice)
2016	Brother Nature	Roger	Completed
2016	The Runaround	Gary	Filming
TBA	Why We're Killing Gunther	Blake	Filming;also director, producer and writer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994-2002	All That	Himself	15 episodes; also writer
2000	The Jersey	Varsity 1	Episode: "Nick's a Chick"
2000	Judging Amy	Freddie Felleman	Episode: "The Wee Hours"
2000	Touched by an Angel	Teenage Robert	Episode: "The Grudge"
2000-2002	The Amanda Show	Spaulding prof	7 episodes
2001	Undressed	Blake	40 episodes
2001	Roswell	Malamud	Episode: "Heart of Mine"
2001-2002	MADtv	Various	13 episodes
2002	Do Over	Dave	Episode: "The Block Party"
2004	Drake & Josh	Trevor	Episode: "Dune Buggy"
2004	Boston Public	Alex Buchanan	Episode: "Chapter Seventy-Eight"
2004	Still Standing	Andy, Varsity Basketball Player #1	Episode: "Still Narcing"
2004	Stuck in the Suburbs	Jordan Cahill	TV film
2005	Jake in Progress	Todd	Episode: "Loose Thread"
2006	Girlfriends	Jordan Gray	Episode: "Hustle & Dough"
2006-2014	How I Met Your Mother	Gary Blauman	6 episodes
2006-2007	Wild 'n Out	Various	29 episodes
2007	Nick Cannon Presents: Short Circuitz	Various	8 episodes; also writer
2009	Scrubs	Jimmy	4 episodes
2009	Scrubs: Interns	Jimmy	Episode: "The Late Night with Jimmy Show"
2010-2016	Saturday Night Live	Himself, Various	126 episodes
2011	Community	Cory Radison	Episode: "Regional Holiday Music"
2012	iCarly	Agent Kinsey	Episode: "iMeet the First Lady"
2012	Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday	Patient, Steve Doocy, Guy	2 episodes
2013-2015	Drunk History	William Clark, Frdric Auguste Bartholdi, Bobby Fischer	3 episodes
2013-2015	The Awesomes	Zip "Frantic" Danger (voice)	Main role
2014	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Smith Calvins	Episode: "Jenna Fischer Wears a Floral Blouse & Black Heels"
2014	Sesame Street	Professor Buck Awe	Episode: "School for Chickens"
2015	Nature Cat	Nature Cat	Voice
2016	New Girl	Fred	Episode: "What About Fred"

Bibliography

• The Illegitimates #1-6 (2013)