Thomas Lennon2 Biography

Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer best known as a cast member on MTV's The State and for his role as Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the Comedy Central series Reno 911!.

Early life

Lennon was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Kathleen and Timothy Lennon. He is a 1988 graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School, and is of Irish descent. At age sixteen, Lennon met friend and future co-worker Kerri Kenney at Theatre Camp at Northwestern University. The two later attended NYU, where they joined a comedy troupe called The New Group.

Career

Acting and performing

The New Group later changed their name to The State. After performing their material at various theaters, bars and clubs in New York City, they started work 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 Cable Ace Award for Best Comedy Series.

Following the collapse of The State after a one-night stint on CBS, Lennon, along with Kenney, 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 Cable Ace Award nomination for Best Comedy Series.

After Viva Variety, Lennon, Kenney and Garant created and starred in another TV show, Reno 911! (2003"09). Initially slated for FOX, the program later debuted on Comedy Central. The show is currently syndicated around the world.

Lennon has appeared in dozens of TV shows, including The League, Children's Hospital, Archer, New Girl, Comedy Bang Bang, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, and is a cult favorite as Joey Tribbiani's blackjack dealing, "identical hand twin" on the Friends fifth season finale ("The One In Vegas," Pts. I and II). He has also appeared in supporting roles in dozens of films, including Bad Teacher, Memento, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and I Love You, Man, for which he and costar Paul Rudd were nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, The Daily Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Talkshow with Spike Feresten, and he holds a record, for his number of appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, both as himself and as Lt. Dangle.

Lennon appeared as a doctor in the Christopher Nolan films Memento (2000) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Lennon has done various voice work, including the shows Kim Possible, Bob's Burgers, and Planet Sheen, in which he played the character of Pinter. He plays the "The Reading Fairie" in the Tinkerbell movie: Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings. He played the voice of Eddie the Shipboard computer in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Lennon has also written for comic books. For The Goon, he wrote a short story called "Jimmy Turtle and the Legendary Box Car of Well-Made Ladies Shoes" and another for Dwight T. Albatross's The Goon Noir #3. He also wrote "The Pigmy Elixir" for Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #13. He is frequently a presenter at the Eisner Awards, given out each year at Comic-Con.

In 2008, Lennon started doing stand-up comedy, during which he will sometimes play guitar. He appears frequently at Comedy Death Ray in Los Angeles, and he was the photo for the month of July in the Comedy Death Ray 2010 Calendar. In 2009, he opened for Stella (starring The State and Viva Variety! alumni Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain) at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Also in 2009, The State reunited at the Eureka Theatre for two shows at San Francisco's Sketchfest, performing all new material. The shows sold out in minutes.

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

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

In 2012 he guest starred as Neil in the final episode of season one of New Girl.

Screenwriting

Lennon is a screenwriter and script doctor. Most of Lennon's screenplays are written in collaboration with partner Ben Garant. Their films have earned over $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office. Among his credits are the blockbuster film Night at the Museum and four of IFC's "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time"

In August 2010, John Landgraf, president of FX, announced that his network had ordered a pilot episode for a new Lennon/Garant sci-fi/comedy called USS Alabama, a sci-fi/comedy set a thousand years in the future, aboard a United Nations Peacekeeping spaceship, the U.S.S. Alabama.

In 2011, 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 2012, Lennon and Garant wrote a film version of Baywatch. They also wrote The Machine, which is set to star Vin Diesel.

Lennon and Garant recently wrote directed and starred in the 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.

Personal life

Lennon lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Jenny Robertson, and their son Oliver.

Selected Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	The State	N/A
1997	Viva Variety	Host Meredith Laupin
1999	Friends	Blackjack Dealer in Vegas (Joey's Identical Hand Twin)
1999	Drop Dead Gorgeous	Documentarian	Voice Only
2000	Memento	Doctor
2000	Row Your Boat	Census Taker
2001	Out Cold	Eric Montclare
2002	Boat Trip	The Priest
2003-2009	Reno 911!	Lieutenant Jim Dangle
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
2006	Conversations with Other Women	Videographer
2005	Herbie: Fully Loaded	Larry Murphy	Writer
2005	The Godfather of Green Bay	D.U.G.
2005	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Eddie the Shipboard Computer	Voice Only
2005	The Pacifier	N/A	Writer
2006	Night at the Museum	N/A	Writer
2006	Let's Go to Prison	N/A	Writer
2006	Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas	Police Officer
2006	Eden Court	Shroeder Duncan
2007	Balls of Fury	Karl Wolfschtagg	Writer, Producer
2007	Reno 911!: Miami	Lieutenant Jim Dangle	Writer, Executive Producer
2008	Hancock	Mike
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	Orville Wright	Writer Uncredited
2009	17 Again	Ned Gold
2009	I Love You, Man	Doug
2009	The League	Bryce	The Usual Bet
2010	Archer	Charles	Honeypot
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Customer	Uncredited
2010	Party Down	Nick DiCintio	Season 2 Episode 3 - "Nick DiCintio's Orgy Night"
2010	Planet Sheen	Pinter	Voice Only
2011	Cedar Rapids	Roger Lemke
2011	How to Survive a Robot Uprising	N/A	Writer
2011	Bad Teacher	Carl Halabi
2011	Memphis Beat	Keith Grant	Season 2 Episode 2
2011	What's Your Number?	Dr. Barrett 'Barry' Ingold
2011	A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas	Todd
2012	What to Expect When You're Expecting	Craig
2012	New Girl	Neil
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	Doctor
2012	How I Met Your Mother	Klaus	8.01, 8.02
2012	Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23	Trey	12/5/2012 Guest star
2013	Hell Baby	Pat	Writer/Director (With Robert Ben Garant)
2013	Planet Sheen	Pinter / Blurg
2013	Franklin & Bash	Harley	Season 3, Episode 9
2013	Newsreaders	Vincent Gates
2013	Rapture-Palooza	Mr.Murphy
2013	Knight of Cups	Rick's Friend
2013	We're the Millers	Rick Nathanson
2013	Sean Saves the World	Max	Pre-Production