Breckin Meyer | |
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Born | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1983–present |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Breckin Meyer [1] (born May 7, 1974) is an American actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for his roles in films such as Clueless (1995), The Craft (1996), Road Trip (2000), Rat Race (2001), and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). He played Jon Arbuckle in the live-action Garfield movies. He also voiced teen Joseph Gribble in King of the Hill (2000–2010) and starred as Jared Franklin in Franklin & Bash (2011–2014). His work on the stop-motion animated sketch show Robot Chicken has earned him two Annie Awards and five Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Meyer was born on May 7, 1974, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Dorothy Ann (née Vial), a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. [2] He has lived in California, Texas, West Virginia, and New Jersey. He has an older brother, Frank, and a younger brother, Adam. Meyer attended elementary school with Drew Barrymore (and was apparently her first kiss) [3] [4] and also attended Beverly Hills High School. [5] Through his elementary school, he came into contact with Barrymore's agent, who signed Meyer. As a little boy, he was mostly seen in television advertisements, and also appeared as a child participant in the game show Child's Play . [6] He also claims to have slept in a closed coffin for several years in high school. [7]
Meyer played several roles as a druggie, starting with his debut in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), in which he was dispatched in a video game. His breakthrough screen role was in the teen hit Clueless (1995) as the skateboarding stoner. Meyer offered similar characterizations in The Craft and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (both 1996). He played the best friend of an Olympic hopeful in the biopic Prefontaine (1997) and a high-school student yearning to leave his hometown in Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998).
In 54 (also 1998), a look at life in the famous '70s nightspot Studio 54, the actor was cast as a busboy married to the coat check girl (Salma Hayek) and pursued by a bartender (Ryan Phillippe). Meyer is close friends with Phillippe, with whom he and Seth Green share a production company.
Meyer would subsequently appear in films including Go (1999) and The Insider (1999) before graduating to a full-fledged leading role in the DreamWorks hit Road Trip (2000), in which he again played a character traveling cross country, a college student hoping desperately to retrieve a videotape of himself having sex with another girl, which was accidentally mailed to his long-distance girlfriend.
He re-teamed with Amy Smart in yet another racing cross country film, this time as part of the multi-plot ensemble of Rat Race (2001), a sort-of homage to the all-star screwball chase films of the 1960s, such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . Meyer put in a supporting turn as Meg Ryan's character's brother in the whimsical fantasy-comedy Kate & Leopold (2001). Meyer also took on the role of Jon Arbuckle, the hapless owner of the famed comic strip cat in the film adaptation of Garfield (2004).
Meyer also starred in Blue State (2007) with Anna Paquin in which he plays a passionately liberal guy on the campaign trail for John Kerry in the 2004 elections. He drunkenly pledges to move to Canada if Bush wins the election, and on his journey meets a mysterious young woman, played by Paquin. He co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). Meyer starred opposite Emily Kinney and Giselle Eisenberg in the independent dark comedy The Enormity of Life (2021) about a suicidal man struggling with life and love.
Meyer regularly does writing and voice work on Robot Chicken , and was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on the Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials. He also voiced the adolescent Joseph Gribble on the animated series King of the Hill and starred on the Adult Swim series Titan Maximum .
Meyer is also a musician, playing drums in the punk band The Street Walkin' Cheetahs as well as with artists including The Nightwatchman, Ben Harper, Cypress Hill, Slash and Perry Farrell at L.A.'s Hotel Café.
Meyer is the former drummer for Tom Morello's side project The Nightwatchman's back-up band The Freedom Fighter Orchestra. He toured with Morello on The Nightwatchman's 2008 Justice Tour. He appears in Street Sweeper Social Club's video for "100 Little Curses" [8] and "Promenade".
Meyer married screenwriter and film director Deborah Kaplan on October 14, 2001, and has two daughters with her. They divorced in 2014. [9]
As of 2024, he is currently dating Kelly Rizzo, the widow of Bob Saget. [10]
His brother, Frank Meyer, is a staffer and producer of Fresh Ink Online at G4tv.com. [11]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1990 | Camp Cucamonga | Cody | |
1991 | Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare | Spencer Lewis | |
1995 | Clueless | Travis Birkenstock | |
Payback | Jim's Son | ||
1996 | The Craft | Mitt | |
Escape from L.A. | Surfer | ||
1997 | Prefontaine | Pat Tyson | |
Touch | Greg Czarnicki | ||
1998 | Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 | Keller Coleman | |
Can't Hardly Wait | Walter | Uncredited | |
54 | Greg Randazzo | ||
1999 | Go | Tiny | |
The Insider | Sharon's Son | ||
Tail Lights Fade | Cole | ||
2000 | Road Trip | Josh Parker | |
2001 | Josie and the Pussycats | Marco | |
Rat Race | Nick Schaffer | ||
Kate & Leopold | Charlie McKay | ||
2002 | Pinocchio | Pinocchio | Voice, English dub |
2004 | Garfield: The Movie | Jon Arbuckle | |
Blast | Jamal | ||
2005 | Herbie: Fully Loaded | Ray Peyton | |
Rebound | Tim Fink | ||
2006 | Caffeine | Dylan | |
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties | Jon Arbuckle | ||
Ted's MBA | Ted Meyers | Also known as Corporate Affairs | |
2007 | Blue State | John Logue | |
2008 | Stag Night | Tony | |
2009 | Ghosts of Girlfriends Past | Paul Mead | |
2010 | The Maiden Heist | Starving Artist | |
2013 | 3 Geezers! | Breckin | |
I Know That Voice | Himself | Documentary [12] [13] | |
2019 | Changeland | Dan | |
2020 | California No | Famous Actor | |
Unpregnant | Mark | ||
2021 | Happily | Richard | |
The Enormity of Life | Casey | Release date: April 6, 2021 |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | Child's Play | Himself | Child contestant |
1986 | Potato Head Kids | Spud | Voice, 23 episodes |
1988 | The Wonder Years | Gary Cosey | Episode: "The Heart of Darkness" |
1989 | Chicken Soup | Glen | Episode: "The Dinner" |
1990 | L.A. Law | Brian Campbell | Episode: "Whatever Happened to Hannah?" |
1992–1993 | The Jackie Thomas Show | Chas Walker | 18 episodes |
1993 | CBS Schoolbreak Special | Eddie | Episode: "Crosses on the Lawn" |
1995 | Betrayed: The Story of Three Women | Eric Nelson | TV movie |
1995–1996 | The Home Court | Mike Solomon | 20 episodes |
1996 | Clueless | Harrison | Episode: "Do We with Bad Haircuts Not Feel?" |
Party of Five | Alec Brody | Episode: "Gimme Shelter" | |
2000–2010 | King of the Hill | Joseph Gribble | Voice, 62 episodes |
2001–2002 | Inside Schwartz | Adam Schwartz | 13 episodes |
2002 | Kim Possible | Josh Mankey | Voice, episode: "Crush" |
2003 | Coupling | Jeff Clancy | Episode: "Original Pilot" |
2003–2004 | Married to the Kellys | Tom Wagner | 22 episodes |
2005–present | Robot Chicken | Various voices | Also writer and producer |
2007 | Robot Chicken: Star Wars | Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar | Voice, television special |
2008 | House | Brandon | Episode: "Adverse Events" |
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II | Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar | Voice, television special | |
Heroes | Frack | 2 episodes | |
2009 | Party Down | Michael | Episode: "Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen" |
Titan Maximum | Commander Palmer | Voice, 9 episodes | |
2010 | Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III | Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar | Voice, television special |
2011 | Mad | Various Voices | Episode: "The Social Netjerk/Smallville: Turn Off the Clark" |
2011–2014 | Franklin & Bash | Jared Franklin | 40 episodes |
2012–2014 | Men at Work | — | Creator, writer and executive producer |
2012 | Robot Chicken DC Comics Special | Superman, Mirror Master | Voice, television special |
2014 | Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 2: Villains in Paradise | Superman, Bizarro | |
2015 | Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Magical Friendship | Superman, Plastic Man | |
2015–2017 | SuperMansion | Courtney / Ringler, Various Voices | 11 episodes |
2016 | Second Chance | Wally Luskin | Episode: "That Time in the Car" |
Family Guy | S&M Guy | Voice, episode: "A Lot Going on Upstairs" | |
2018 | Designated Survivor | Trey Kirkman | 6 episodes [14] |
2019 | The Fix | Charlie West | 10 episodes |
2020 | American Dad! | Himself | Episode: "A Starboy Is Born" |
Crossing Swords | Glenn | Voice, 4 episodes | |
2021 | Good Girls | Vance | 6 episodes |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2016 | Titanfall 2 | Dr. Jefferson Boyle |
Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | Young Artist Awards | Best Animation Voice Over Group (shared with the cast) | Potato Head Kids | Nominated |
2000 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Chemistry (shared with Amy Smart) | Road Trip | Nominated |
2002 | Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | Worst Actor (shared with Roberto Benigni) | Pinocchio | Nominated |
2003 | Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Actor (shared with Roberto Benigni) | Won | |
2008 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Animated Program | Robot Chicken: Star Wars | Nominated |
2009 | Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II | Nominated | ||
Annie Awards | Best Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form | Won | ||
2011 | Best Writing in a Television Production | Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III | Won | |
Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Animated Program | Nominated | ||
2014 | Outstanding Short Form Animated Program | Robot Chicken | Nominated | |
2020 | Nominated |
Thomas Baptist Morello is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is known for his tenure with the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, Morello was a member of the supergroup Prophets of Rage. Morello was also a touring musician with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Under the moniker the Nightwatchman, Morello released his solo work. Together with Boots Riley, he formed Street Sweeper Social Club. Morello co-founded Axis of Justice, which airs a monthly program on Pacifica Radio station KPFK in Los Angeles.
Matthew Ryan Phillippe is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas on the soap opera One Life to Live (1992–1993) and making his feature film debut in Crimson Tide (1995), he came to prominence in the late 1990s with starring roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), 54 (1998), Playing by Heart (1998), and Cruel Intentions (1999).
Anna Paquin is a New Zealand actress. She made her acting debut in the romantic drama film The Piano (1993), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 11, becoming the second-youngest winner in Oscar history. As a child actress, she had roles in Fly Away Home (1996), Jane Eyre (1996), Amistad (1997), The Member of the Wedding (1997), and A Walk on the Moon (1999), as well as in Cameron Crowe's comedy drama film Almost Famous (2000).
Garfield: The Movie is a 2004 American comedy film based on Jim Davis' comic strip Garfield. Directed by Peter Hewitt and written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, it stars Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr. Liz Wilson and features Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield, who was created with computer-generated imagery.
Donald Adeosun Faison is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his leading role as Dr. Chris Turk in the ABC/NBC comedy-drama Scrubs (2001–2010), and a supporting role as Murray in both the film Clueless (1995) and the subsequent television series of the same name. He also starred as Phil Chase in the TV Land sitcom The Exes (2011–2015). Faison has also co-starred in the films Waiting to Exhale (1995), Remember the Titans (2000), Uptown Girls (2003), Something New (2006), Next Day Air (2009), Skyline (2010), and Kick-Ass 2 (2013).
Robot Chicken is an American adult stop motion-animated sketch comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The twelve-minute show consists of short unrelated sketches usually satirizing pop culture characters or celebrities. Toys are employed as the players, animated via stop motion and supplemented by claymation. The voice cast changes every episode, and features many celebrity cameos. The writers, most prominently Green, also provide many of the voices. Robot Chicken has won two Annie Awards and six Emmy Awards.
"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the eleventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network on May 14, 2000. After a failed marriage attempt with Otto, Becky stays with the Simpson family. However, Marge begins to get paranoid at her family's newfound love of Becky, and begins to think that she is seducing Homer.
The Nightwatchman is the solo project of American musician Tom Morello. Morello began performing as the Nightwatchman in 2003 as an outlet for his political views while he was playing apolitical music with Audioslave.
Garfield is a fictional cat and the protagonist of the comic strip of the same name, created by Jim Davis. Garfield is portrayed as a lazy, fat, cynical and self-absorbed orange tabby Persian cat. He is noted for his love of lasagna and pizza, coffee, and sleeping, and his hatred of Mondays, Nermal, the vet, and exercise.
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is a 2006 adventure comedy film directed by Tim Hill and written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow. It is the sequel to Garfield: The Movie (2004), and stars Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Bill Murray reprising their respective roles as Jon Arbuckle, Dr. Liz Wilson, and the voice of Garfield. New cast members include Billy Connolly, Ian Abercrombie, Roger Rees, Lucy Davis and Oliver Muirhead in live-action roles and Tim Curry, Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Vinnie Jones, Joe Pasquale, Richard E. Grant, and Jane Leeves as the voices of the film's new animal characters. In the film, Garfield, Odie, Liz and Jon travel to the United Kingdom, where Prince, another cat that looks exactly like Garfield, is ruling over a castle after the death of his owner. His reign is soon jeopardized by an evil aristocrat, who plans to remodel the castle into condominiums, destroy the estate, and get rid of Prince. The story is loosely inspired by Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper, while its title is a parody of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.
Clueless is an American television teen sitcom based on the 1995 film of the same name. It premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996, as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season. The series then spent its last two seasons on UPN, ending on May 25, 1999. Alicia Silverstone had a development deal with Columbia-TriStar at this time, and was unable to reprise her role from the film.
Blue State is a 2007 Canadian/American romantic comedy film directed by Marshall Lewy and starring Breckin Meyer and Anna Paquin. The film was the first effort of Paquin in an executive role.
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor. His film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), and he went on to have supporting roles in comedy films throughout the 1980s, including Radio Days (1987) and Big Business (1988).
"Robot Chicken: Star Wars" is a 2007 episode of the television comedy series Robot Chicken, airing as a one-off special during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block on June 17, 2007. It was released on DVD on July 22, 2008.
"Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II" is a 2008 episode of the television comedy series Robot Chicken, and the sequel to the Annie Award winning "Robot Chicken: Star Wars", which aired as a one-off special during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block on November 16, 2008. Like "Robot Chicken: Star Wars", it has been released on its own DVD on July 21, 2009, and will not be part of a season box set. The DVD contains the original broadcast version, and the "Extended Version", which features an additional 15 minutes of footage cut from the broadcast version. It was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.
"Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III" is a 2010 episode special of the television comedy series Robot Chicken, and the third and final installment in the Annie Award-winning and Emmy-nominated Robot Chicken: Star Wars trilogy. It premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block on December 19, 2010. The special is 45 minutes long, as opposed to the usual 11-minute Robot Chicken runtime and the 21-minute runtime of the two previous Star Wars specials. It was the final Robot Chicken: Star Wars special.
The sixth season of the stop-motion television series Robot Chicken originally aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. Season six officially began on September 10, 2012, on Adult Swim, with Robot Chicken DC Comics Special and contained a total of twenty episodes. The first of the regular Season 6 episodes aired on September 17, 2012. This is also the first season to be streamed uncensored on HBO Max since the first 5 seasons are censored.
Robot Chicken DC Comics Special is an episode of the television comedy series Robot Chicken and it was aired as a one-off special during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on September 10, 2012.
Star Wars Detours is an unaired American animated comedy series. It is differentiated from the other Star Wars animated series in that it is a parody of the franchise. It offers a comedic take on what happened between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. The series was produced by Lucasfilm Animation in collaboration with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich. Although 39 episodes of the show have been produced, their release has been on hold since 2013, following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm.
Eric Swinderman is an American writer, director, and producer. He was the writer and director of the independent dark comedy The Enormity of Life starring former The Walking Dead star Emily Kinney, Breckin Meyer of Clueless fame and Giselle Eisenberg.