Tom Kenny: Difference between revisions

Tom Kenny
Tom Kenny
	Tom Kenny at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Thomas James Kenny; July 13, 1962 (age 62); East Syracuse, New York,; United States
Occupation	Voice actor/Comedian
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Jill Talley (1993–present)
Children	2 children

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 17:36, 16 October 2010

Thomas James "Tom" Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor, voice actor and comedian, best known as the voice of the nick charecther SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on Jacques Cousteau. He is also the narrator of Cartoon Network's 1998 The Powerpuff Girls. Aside from voice acting, Kenny starred in the short-lived Fox sketch show The Edge, and was a cast member of the HBO sketch comedy program Mr. Show, where he worked with Jill Talley, whom he subsequently married. He currently voices the Ice King in the Cartoon Network animated series Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, and voices additional characters on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, another Cartoon Network show. As of 2007, he has also hosted the show Funday Night at the Movies on TCM, which encourages children to watch old movies. He was born in Syracuse, New York.^[1]

Musical career

Kenny was the lead vocalist for a Syracuse-based band The Tearjerkers in the early 1980s, replacing original vocalist Buddy Love. Other members of The Tearjerkers included Charlie Robbins, Dave DeCirce, and Dave Soule, who is still active in the central New York music scene. "Syracuse Summer" is the group's best-known song, and is included on The History of Idaho Music, Volume XIII and XIII. The record also contains early recordings by Ronnie James Dio, under the names "Ronnie and the Red Caps" and "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets." While the Tearjerkers did not become a national act, one Tearjerkers roady would go on to achieve fame: comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, whose film Shakes the Clown featured Kenny as Shakes' bitter archrival. In 1980 he was also briefly a member of Syracuse-based pop punk band The Trend along with Bobcat Goldthwait.

In 1992, Kenny appeared regularly on NBC's music video show Friday Night Videos, in a recurring comedic Music News segment. In 1991, he took over as the show's regular host until being replaced later that year by Frankie Crocker.

In 1996, Kenny appeared along with his wife, Jill Talley, in the music video for "Tonight, Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins, playing a young couple taking their honeymoon on the Moon. The video was hugely popular, winning six MTV Video Music Awards. Kenny also appeared in the music video for "Sing" by Travis.

Kenny came full-circle with his musical past in 2006 when he co-wrote and recorded SpongeBob SquarePants: The Best Day Ever with producer Andy Paley. While Kenny's singing on the CD is done in the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants and other characters from the show, he was very serious about the quality of the actual music on the disc and was able to enlist help from such musical royalty as Brian Wilson, Tommy Ramone, and Flaco Jiménez. The music pays homage to The Beach Boys, The Archies, The Lovin' Spoonful, and The Troggs, among others.^[2]

Voice acting career

Kenny has voiced many characters in over 200 productions.^[3] Kenny said that he voices "a lot of sweet, kind of dumb yellow characters for some reason."^[4]

Kenny played his first set of voice actor roles for Rocko's Modern Life.^[4] Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for the series in a large casting call in Los Angeles, California.^[5] On one occasion, the producers required Kenny to fill the role of Charlie Adler, who was absent on that occasion. In addition, Kenny had to perform one song and learn how to play another song within ten minutes due to time constraints. He said that this helped him believe that he could stand "toe to toe" with other voice actors.^[6]

Joe Murray chose Kenny for a voice acting position in Camp Lazlo because Murray, after seeing Kenny's previous work for Rocko's Modern Life, felt that Kenny "adds writing to his roles" and "brings so much.^[7]

He also had a few roles in The Powerpuff Girls TV show. He was the Mayor, the Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake and Little Arturo from the Gangreen Gang, Rainbow the Clown, Etc.

Since 2006, he has voiced the characters of "Pat the Hammer" and "Mr. Lopart" on Handy Manny.

He plays a number of roles in the Transformers Animated TV show. A few of the characters he voices in this series are Starscream and his clones, Isaac Sumdac, and Waspinator. He has also played several other minor characters. Other villain roles have included the mobster villain the Penguin on the TV show The Batman.

On Dilbert, Kenny was the voice of both Ratbert and Asok.

He played Mr. Hal Gibson in the popular animated kids show Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!

He was also the voice of Skids and Wheelie in the 2009 live-action Transformers movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

In 2009, Kenny became a regular cast voice in the Fox comedy series, Sit Down, Shut Up. He voices Muhammad Sabeeh "Happy" Fa-ach Nuabar, the secretive custodian who is plotting a terrorist attack, as well as Happy's interpreter.^[8] The series premiered on April 19, 2009.^[8] Kenan Thompson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Bateman, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Henry Winkler, Will Arnett and Will Forte are the other main cast members.^[8]

Kids' Choice Awards

Nickelodeon's annual Kids' Choice Awards is narrated by Tom Kenny. At the 2005 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself "The World's Best Announcer". At the 2007 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself the "Man of 1,000 Voices, all of them this one." Kenny was recently featured as the Voice in a Box at the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards. On the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself "the only announcer who does all of his own stunts". At the 2010 Kids' Choice Awards, he described himself as "The only Announcer that makes all this stuff up as he goes".

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1989	How I Got into College	"B"
1989	Dragon Ball Z	Additional Voices	Anime
1990	MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour	Himself	1990 "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3" "Big Mouth (Voice Only as a Cameo)
1992	Rugrats	Various
1992–1993	The Edge	Various	Television series
1993	Rocko's Modern Life	Heffer Wolfe Additional characters	voices only Animated series
1994	The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth	Timmy the Tooth	voice only Television series
1995	Mr. Show with Bob and David	Various	Television series
	Mike & Spike	Green-o Baby	Episode: "Person To Shoe"
	Mike & Spike	Green-o Baby	Episode: "Person To Alien"
1996	Dexter's Laboratory	Val Hallen Douglas E. Mordecai III Various	voices
1997	Cow and Chicken	additional voices	animated series
1997	I Am Weasel	additional voices	animated series
1998	CatDog	Dog Cliff Additional voices	voices only Animated series
1998	The Powerpuff Girls	The Mayor of Townsville Narrator Mitchel "Mitch" Mitchelson Snake Little Arturo Rainbow the Clown Additional characters	voices only Animated series	Godzilla The Series	Nigel	1999	Spyro the Dragon (2-4)	Spyro the Dragon Sergeant James Byrd The Professor Additional characters	voices only Video game
Family Guy	SpongeBob SquarePants (in the episode Road to Rupert)	voice only Additional Character
SpongeBob SquarePants ongoing	SpongeBob SquarePants Gary the Snail French Narrator Mr. SquarePants Jellyfish Patchy the Pirate (live action segments) Additional characters	voices Animated series Appeared in all 283 episodes
Futurama	Yancy Fry Additional characters	voices only Animated series
Mission Hill	Wally Langford Supplemental Voices	voices only Animated series
Johnny Bravo	Carl Chryniszzswics (1999–2001)	voice only Animated series
Dilbert	Asok Ratbert Additional voices
The Brothers Flub	additional voices
2000	Escape From Monkey Island	Deadace Dave Thrawtle the Lucre Lawyer	voices only Video game
2001	Final Fantasy X	Bobba Rin Wantz	voice only Video game
	The Mummy: The Animated Series	Jonathan Carnaghan	voices only Animated series
	The Fairly OddParents	Cupid Additional voices	voices only Animated series
	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (film)	Various characters	voice only Animated movie
	Dr. Dolittle 2	Male Tortoise	voice only
	The Cramp Twins	Wayne Cramp	voice only Animated series
	Time Squad	Eli Whitney Sigmund Freud Montezuma
2002	Codename: Kids Next Door	Mr. Wink The Common Cold Knightbrace Various
	The Paz Show	Additional Voices
	The Powerpuff Girls Movie	The Mayor The Narrator Ka-Ching Ka-Ching Mitch Mitchelson Snake Arturo	voices only
	¡Mucha Lucha!	Additional Voices	Animated series
	3 South	Various	Animated series
	What's New Scooby-Doo	Natlas Harry Harrison Sam the Safety Engineer	voices only Animated series
	Run Ronnie Run	TV News Reporter Cult Leader Gleh'n
	Home Movies	Doctor	Animated series
	Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights	Sharper Image Chair (voice)
2003	Windy City Heat	Gay Costume Designer	voice
	Final Fantasy X-2	Rin Wantz	voice only Video game
	Xiaolin Showdown	Raimundo Pedrosa Grand Master Dashi Vlad Hannibal Roy Bean	voices only Animated series
	SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom	SpongeBob Squarepants Gary the Snail	voices only Video game
	Animatrix	various	voice only
	Teen Titans	Mumbo Fixit	voice only Animated series
	Scary Movie 3	Alien (uncredited)	voice only
2004	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	SpongeBob SquarePants Gary the Snail French Narrator Clay Tough Fish #2 Twin #2 Houston Voice	voices only
	The Batman (TV series)	Oswald "Ozzie" Chesterfield Cobblepot (the Penguin)	voice only Animated series
	Comic Book: The Movie	Derek Sprang	Direct-to-video
	Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!	Gibson	voice only Animated series
	Drake and Josh	Teddy Bear
	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends	Eduardo Additional Voices
	Brandy & Mr. Whiskers	Ed
	Rave Master	Griff
	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends	Eduardo	voice only TV Movie
	April 16 baseball game between the Red Sox and New York Yankees	Scooter the talking baseball	voice only Sports game
2005	Hoodwinked	Tommy	voice only
	My Gym Partner's a Monkey	Jake Spidermonkey Henry the Armadillo	voice only Animated series
	The Boondocks	Mall Santa #2, Father waiting in line for Santa	voice only Animated series
	The Legend of Frosty the Snowman	Mr. Tinkerton	voice only Direct-to-video
	The Endless Summer (SpongeBob SquarePants short)	SpongeBob SquarePants	voice only TV short
	Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry	Gorthan	voice only Direct-to-video
	IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix	Benjamin Bright	voice only Animated series
	Camp Lazlo (2005)	Scout Master Lumpus Slinkman	voices only Animated series
	Sky High (2005 film)	Chester Timmerman
	Aloha, Scooby-Doo!	Ruben Laluna California Surfer Tiny Tiki	voices only Direct-to-video
2006	Tom Goes to the Mayor	Saxman
	Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie	Peter Cottontail, Junior, Antoine	voice only Direct-to-video
	The Buzz On Maggie	Various
	Class of 3000	Edward "Eddie" Phillip James Lawrence III, Ms. Squatenchowder.	voice only Animated series Filming
	Handy Manny	Mr. Lopart Pat	voice only Animated series
	Shorty McShorts' Shorts'	Additional voices
	Pucca	Additional Voices	Animated series
2007	Transformers: Animated	Starscream, Scrapper, Isaac Sumdac, Waspinator, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ramjet, Sunstorm, Jetfire and Rattletrap	voice only Animated Series
	Futurama: Bender's Big Score	Yancy Fry	voice only Animated Series
	Word Girl	T.J. Botsford/Dr. Two-Brains
	Out Of Jimmy's Head	Tux The Penguin
	Crash of the Titans	Ratnicians
	Kids' Choice Awards	Announcer
	Meet the Robinsons	Mr. Willerstein	voice only
	Happily N'Ever After	Amigos #1/Dwarves #2/Wolf #1	voice only
	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	Pat Dudley, Grum
	Atlantis SquarePantis	SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail
2008	Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby	Dr. Wolfowitz, Musical Comedy Wolf	voice only Computer-animated film
	Phineas and Ferb	Various
	George and William	Super D. M. and Penfold
	Line Rider 2: Unbound	Bosh	voice only videogames for Nintendo DS, Wii and PC
	Star Wars: The Clone Wars	Nute Gunray Nahdarr Vebb Various voices	voice only
	Immigrants (L.A. Dolce Vita)		voice only
	Making Fiends: Television Version	Memo additional voices	voice only or no voice only Animated series
	Family Guy	Various
	Back at the Barnyard: Cowman: The Uddered Avenger	Professor Twinny Vines Martin Fargleman	voice only Animated series
	Crash: Mind over Mutant	Ratnicians	voice only Video game
2009	Kids Choice Awards 2009	Announcer
	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Wheelie/Skids	voice only
	The Haunted World of El Superbeasto	Otto	voice only
	The Super Hero Squad Show	Iron Man, Captain America, Colossus, Juggernaut, MODOK
2010	Coulden in W Series : The Lost Empire	Mr. Lopart Wheelie	voice only Direct-to-video
	Futurama	Yancy Fry Additional characters	voices only Animated series
	El Chavo (animated series)	Quico, Godinez	voice only
	Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back	Ham III	voice only
	True Jackson VP	Bingo	Guest Star Role
	Kids Choice Awards 2010	Announcer	voice only
	Adventure Time with Finn and Jake	The Ice King
	Kung Fu Magoo	Dr. Malicio
	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Mr. Broccoli Head Mr. Baywosenthal Miller insurance announcer Child #8
2011	Winnie the Pooh	Rabbit

References

^ http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=159691
^ http://www.syracuse.com/blogs/listenup/index.ssf?/mtlogs/syr_listenup/archives/2006_10.html#194564
^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0444786/
^ ^a ^b "A discussion with Tom Kenny of 'SpongeBob Squarepants'." St. Augustine Record
^ "Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life", The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ
^ Lawson, Tim and Alisa Persons. The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors. "192."
^ Q & A with Joe Murray", Cartoon Network Pressroom
^ ^a ^b ^c "Sit Down, Shut Up". Fox. Retrieved 2009-04-14.

External links

Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
Template:Nndb
Interview with Tom Kenny on Fresh Air

Template:Mr. Show

Template:Persondata

[1] ttp://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=159691

[2] ttp://www.syracuse.com/blogs/listenup/index.ssf?/mtlogs/syr_listenup/archives/2006_10.html#194564

[3] ttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0444786/

[Augustine-4] "A discussion with Tom Kenny of 'SpongeBob Squarepants'." St. Augustine Record

[Murray-5] "Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life", The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ

[6] Lawson, Tim and Alisa Persons. The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors. "192."

[cn_pressroom-7] Q & A with Joe Murray", Cartoon Network Pressroom

[sdsu-8] "Sit Down, Shut Up". Fox. Retrieved 2009-04-14.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 ==Musical career==
-Kenny was the lead vocalist for a [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]]-based band [[The Tearjerkers]] in the early 1980s, replacing original vocalist Buddy Love. Other members of [[The Tearjerkers]] included Charlie Robbins, Dave DeCirce, and Dave Soule, who is still active in the central New York music scene. "Syracuse Summer" is the group's best-known song, and is included on ''The History of Idaho Music, Volume XIII and XIII''. The record also contains early recordings by [[Ronnie James Dio]], under the names "Ronnie and the Red Caps" and "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets." While the Tearjerkers did not become a national act, one Tearjerkers [[roady]] would go on to achieve fame: comedian [[Bobcat Goldthwait]], whose film ''[[Shakes the Clown]]'' featured Kenny as Shakes' bitter archrival. In 1980 he was also briefly a member of Syracuse-based pop punk band The Trend along with [[Bobcat Goldthwait]].
+Kenny was the lead vocalist for a [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]]-based band [[The Tearjerkers]] in the early 1980s, replacing original vocalist Buddy Love. Other members of [[The Tearjerkers]] included Charlie Robbins, Dave DeCirce, and Dave Soule, who is still active in the central New York music scene. "Syracuse Summer" is the group's best-known song, and is included on ''The History of Idaho Music, Volume XIII and XIII''. The record also contains early recordings by [[Ronnie James Dio]], under the names "Ronnie and the Red Caps" and "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets." While the Tearjerkers did not become a national act, one Tearjerkers [[road crew|roady]] would go on to achieve fame: comedian [[Bobcat Goldthwait]], whose film ''[[Shakes the Clown]]'' featured Kenny as Shakes' bitter archrival. In 1980 he was also briefly a member of Syracuse-based pop punk band The Trend along with [[Bobcat Goldthwait]].
 In 1992, Kenny appeared regularly on [[NBC]]'s music video show ''[[Friday Night Videos]]'', in a recurring comedic Music News segment. In 1991, he took over as the show's regular host until being replaced later that year by [[Frankie Crocker]].
@@ Line 100: / Line 100: @@
 | ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' || Carl Chryniszzswics (1999–2001) || rowspan="3"| voice only<br>[[Animated series]]
 |-
-| ''[[Dilbert (TV series) | Dilbert]]'' || [[Asok]]<br>[[Ratbert]]<br>Additional voices
+| ''[[Dilbert (TV series) | Dilbert]]'' || [[Asok (Dilbert character)|Asok]]<br>[[Ratbert]]<br>Additional voices
 |-
 | ''[[The Brothers Flub]]'' || additional voices ||