Dennis M. Hedlund was born on September 3, 1947, in Hedley, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas, Austin, Texas with B.A. in Business Administration and also served as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.
He appeared as an extra in Paul Newman’s Oscar-winning movie Hud , and also in an episode of the TV show Route 66 . [1] He later performed on Ted Mack & The Original Amateur Hour television series and would eventually produce a DVD about the history of the Amateur Hour program. [1] [2] He performed as a stand-up comedian for three years.
Later on, he worked as a newscaster and disc jockey at KGNC, Amarillo, Texas; KOMA, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; WTIX, New Orleans, Louisiana; WFLA, Tampa, Florida.
He was Vice President of Sales at the Ampex Corporation in New York and then Vice-President Allied Artists Pictures, New York. [1]
Mr. Hedlund is the founder and Chairman, Kultur International Films Ltd., an award-winning film company started in 1980 that distributes over 3,000 performing arts programs on home video. In 1990 he created White Star Entertainment, producer of original programs for TV, and marketer of over 1,200 non-theatrical home video titles as well as 700 motor sports programs for TV and home video. SRO Entertainment and SRO Sports, was formed in 2000, a producer of sports and comedy programs for TV, and marketer of over 1,200 non-theatrical home video titles. [1] [3] [4]
He is the Director of New Jersey Chapter of the Ferrari Club of America, the world's largest Ferrari Club. [5] [6]
He is also the founder and chairman of The New Jersey Comedy Festival "King or Queen of Campus Comedy" a comedy festival to prepare college students to become stand up comedians. [7] [8]
Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990. The programme focuses on two teams, one always captained by Ian Hislop and one by Paul Merton, each plus a guest panelist, answering questions on various news stories on the week prior to an episode's broadcast. However, the programme's format focuses more on the topical discussions on the subject of the news stories related to questions, and the satirical humour derived from these by the teams. This style of presentation had a profound impact on panel shows in British TV comedy, making it one of the genre's key standard-bearers.
Kevin Brennan is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, and writer. He is the host of the Misery Loves Company podcast, and is best known for his work on Saturday Night Live'sWeekend Update in 1999 and 2000.
Jon Ferguson "Jay" Mohr is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and radio host. He is known for playing film producer Peter Dragon in the TV comedy series Action in 1999, Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer from 2006 to 2008 and the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried from 2008 to 2010. He was a featured cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1993 to 1995.
Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait is an American comedian, actor, director and screenwriter. He is known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and high-pitched voice. He came to prominence with his stand-up specials An Evening with Bobcat Goldthwait—Share the Warmth and Bob Goldthwait—Is He Like That All the Time? and his acting roles, including Zed in the Police Academy franchise and Eliot Loudermilk in Scrooged. Since 2012, he has been a regular panelist on the radio-quiz show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.
Patton Peter Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, Modern Family, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–present).
Marc David Maron is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician.
Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2005) and, subsequently, the HBO American television series (2007–2009). Most recently, they released the HBO comedy special Live in London in 2018. The special was concurrently released by Sub Pop as their fifth album.
Nicholas Roger Swardson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his recurring role as Terry Bernadino in the comedy series Reno 911!, for his work with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, and for his own personal sketch comedy series Nick Swardson's Pretend Time. He also had starring roles in the films Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and 30 Minutes or Less.
Dean Obeidallah is an American lawyer, comedian, and journalist. He is the host of SiriusXM Progress' The Dean Obeidallah Show and a frequent contributor to CNN, The Daily Beast, and MSNBC.
Patrice Lumumba Malcolm O'Neal was an American comedian and actor. He was known for his stand-up comedy career and his regular guest appearances on the talk show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and the radio show Opie and Anthony.
Charles Henry Danger Burgmann Firth is an Australian comedian, best known as a founding member of The Chaser.
José Antonio Díaz, also known as Joey "CoCo" Diaz, is a Cuban-American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, and author. After pursuing stand-up comedy full time in 1991 in the Colorado and Seattle areas, Diaz relocated to Los Angeles in 1995 where he began acting, securing various film and television roles, including My Name Is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris, The Longest Yard, Spider-Man 2, Grudge Match, and The Many Saints of Newark.
A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation, or a special event, and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on photographic film in formats that usually limited the movie-maker to about three minutes per roll of costly camera film. The vast majority of amateur film formats lacked audio, shooting silent film.
Trevor Paul Moore was an American comedian, actor, writer, filmmaker, and solo comedy musician. He was known for being one of the three founding members—alongside Sam Brown and Zach Cregger—of the New York City-based comedy troupe the Whitest Kids U' Know (WKUK), who had their own sketch comedy series on IFC that ran for five seasons.
Arthur Steven Lange Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and radio personality best known for his tenures on the sketch comedy series Mad TV from 1995 to 1997 and The Howard Stern Show from 2001 to 2009. Raised in New Jersey, Lange first worked as a longshoreman and taxi driver to help support his family, following the death of his quadriplegic father. He debuted as a stand-up comic in 1987 and took up the profession full-time five years later, developing his act on the New York City club circuit.
Iliza Vie Shlesinger is an American stand-up comedian, actress and television host. She was the 2008 winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing and went on to host the syndicated dating show Excused from 2011 to 2013. As well, she has hosted the TBS game show Separation Anxiety.
Dan Ilic is an Australian presenter, comedian and filmmaker. Ilic has been known for his parody work, including videos and Beaconsfield: The Musical, which he wrote, and more recently for his work on the show Hungry Beast. Dan's mother is half Lebanese and half Italian. Dan's father was born in Germany to Serbian parents. He was previously the head of satirical content for digital content provider AJ+ until he was fired for misusing company materials for a failed audition to The Daily Show.
Vir Das is an Indian comedian, actor and musician. After beginning a career in standup comedy, Das moved to Hindi cinema starring in films like Badmaash Company (2010), Delhi Belly (2011), and Go Goa Gone (2013) in supporting roles. In 2017, he performed the Netflix special Abroad Understanding. Das has appeared in approximately 35 plays, over 100 stand-up comedy shows, 18 films, eight TV shows and six comedy specials. He has written comedic columns for Femina, Maxim, Exotica, DNA and Tehelka. In 2019, he made his debut in American television with the television series, Whiskey Cavalier. He won the 2023 International Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series for the Netflix comedy special Vir Das: Landing.
The Tenderloins are an American comedy troupe composed of James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The group stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered on December 15, 2011. The program airs on truTV and TBS in the U.S. and on Comedy Central in the UK, Ireland, and India.
Jeff Valdez is an American producer, writer, and studio executive who created the category of Latino Programming in English. The films and TV shows written and produced by Valdez have been syndicated in more than 40 countries.