The State is an American sketch comedy television series originally broadcast on MTV from 1994 to 1995. The show combined bizarre characters and scenarios to present sketches that won the favor of its target teenaged audience. The cast consisted of comedy troupe The State, who were 11 comedians who created, acted, wrote, directed and edited the show. In various combinations, the former members of The State have continued to collaborate over the years, with alumni playing major creative, directing and acting roles in a number of notable projects including Reno 911! and Wet Hot American Summer.
Larry Kenney is an American voice actor and radio personality.
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series created by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver for Comedy Central. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically Cops, with comic actors playing the police officers. Lennon, Garant and Kenney-Silver all starred in and are billed as creators of the series.
Carlos Jaime Alazraqui is an American actor and comedian. His extensive voice-over work includes the original voice of Spyro from Spyro the Dragon; Shameless O'Scanty, Leslie P. Lilylegs, Elliott Sampson and Tad Tucker on New Looney Tunes; the Taco Bell chihuahua in the Taco Bell commercials; Denzel Crocker, Juandissimo Magnifico, and Sheldon Dinkleberg on The Fairly OddParents; Rocko and Spunky on Rocko's Modern Life; Scooter on SpongeBob SquarePants; Lazlo, Clam, and other characters on Camp Lazlo; Rikochet in ¡Mucha Lucha!; Grandpapi Rivera in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera; Carlos Casagrande, Sergio, Vito, and other characters in the franchise of The Loud House; Mr. Weed in Family Guy; and the Disney character Panchito Pistoles since 2001. He is a weekly contributor on The Stephanie Miller Show. In live action, Alazraqui is known for playing Deputy James Garcia on Reno 911!
Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans, previously on the Earwolf network, but now solely operated by himself and Brett Morris.
David Benjamin Wain is an American comedian, writer, actor, and director. He has co-written and directed six feature films, including Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Role Models (2008), Wanderlust (2012), and They Came Together (2014). He has also served as a creator, producer, writer and director on a number of television series, including Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Childrens Hospital, and Medical Police. He has had small roles in most of the films and TV series he has produced or directed. Wain had a starring voice role as The Warden on the 2008–2014 Adult Swim animated series Superjail!, and has provided the voices for Courtney Wheeler and Grover Fischoeder on Bob's Burgers since 2012.
Thomas Lennon is an American actor, screenwriter and comedian. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series Reno 911!, Andrei Novak on Santa Clarita Diet and Felix Unger on The Odd Couple. He is an accomplished screenwriter of several comedies released by major film studios with writing partner Robert Ben Garant. They wrote the Night at the Museum films, The Pacifier, Balls of Fury, and Baywatch.
Kerri Kenney-Silver is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and musician. She is best known for starring as Trudy Wiegel on the mockumentary series Reno 911!, for which she has been nominated for four prime-time Emmy Awards. She is also known for her previous sketch comedy work on MTV's The State, where she was the show's lone female cast member. She has also appeared with recurring roles on sitcoms such as Superstore, 2 Broke Girls, Love, and The Ellen Show. In the mid-late 1990s, Kenney fronted the all-female rock band Cake Like.
Viva Variety is an American sketch comedy series that aired on Comedy Central from April 1997 to December 1999. The series satirizes European variety shows.
Michael Patrick Jann is an American actor, writer, and director best known as a cast member on MTV's The State.
Andrew Daly is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Forrest MacNeil on the Comedy Central series Review, and had a supporting role in the HBO comedy series Eastbound & Down as Terrence Cutler. He has also made recurring appearances on television programs such as Silicon Valley, Veep, Modern Family, Black-ish, Trial & Error, the Netflix series The Who Was? Show, Reno 911!, and Comedy Bang! Bang!, as well as animated shows such as Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, Bob's Burgers, Adventure Time, and Harley Quinn.
Reno 911!: Miami is a 2007 American cop comedy film based on Comedy Central's Reno 911! series, directed by series co-creator Robert Ben Garant. The film stars Garant alongside Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Birdsong, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Niecy Nash and Cedric Yarbrough.
Stella is a comedy trio or comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, and David Wain. The group formed in 1997 as a weekly nightclub comedy attraction, performing at New York City nightclub Fez from 1997 until the club's closing in February 2005. Stella soon gained a wider cult following after a series of self-produced shorts known as the Stella shorts were released in limited quantities on DVD beginning in 2002. The trio later created and starred in a Stella television series in 2005. Now known for their unique blend of potentially mainstream comedy and surrealist humor, Stella has garnered a small but dedicated fanbase.
Kyle Dunnigan is an American comedian, actor and writer, best known as a writer for Inside Amy Schumer, and for his role as Craig in Reno 911!
Mitch Silpa is an American writer, actor, and director who starred in NBC's The Rerun Show, and has appearances in shows such as Brothers & Sisters, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Desperate Housewives, Gilmore Girls, I'm with Her, One on One, Kitchen Confidential, Reno 911!, Joey, and 2 Broke Girls.
Comedy Death-Ray is a two disc CD collection of highlights from the weekly comedy showcase Comedy Death-Ray, released on September 11, 2007, on Comedy Central Records. Disc one was recorded January 15, 2007, at Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco. Disc two was recorded at Comedy Death-Ray's twelve-hour fourth anniversary show September 30, 2006, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Hugh Davidson is an American actor, writer, and producer, best known for his work on the Adult Swim television series Robot Chicken.
Kulap Tukta Vilaysack is an American actress, comedian, writer, director, and showrunner. She co-hosts the Add To Cart podcast with SuChin Pak on Lemonada Media. She was the co-host of the Who Charted? podcast on the Earwolf network from 2010 until 2018.
Lady Dynamite is an American comedy television series starring Maria Bamford, and is loosely based on her life. It was created by Pam Brady and Mitch Hurwitz, on Netflix. The twelve-episode first season was released in its entirety on May 20, 2016. The series was renewed for a second season on July 27, 2016. The second season premiered on November 10, 2017. On January 13, 2018, the series was canceled after two seasons.
The State is an American comedy troupe. The troupe was founded by a group of New York University students in 1988, as an offshoot of the NYU improv comedy group The Sterile Yak; it was briefly named The New Group before landing on the name The State. The troupe's members are Kevin Allison, Michael Ian Black, Robert Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, Michael Patrick Jann, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter and David Wain. As a group, the troupe is best known for creating and starring in the 1993-1995 MTV sketch comedy series The State. However, since the show aired, members of the troupe have frequently collaborated on other television and film projects, including Viva Variety, Reno 911!, and the Wet Hot American Summer media franchise. The comedy group Stella is composed of three of The State's members, Showalter, Black and Wain, and starred in the 2005 sketch comedy series Stella, among other works. Additionally, some members of The State have achieved independent success as comic actors, writers and directors.
