Thomas Patrick Lennon 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 16, 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, 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.
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!.
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, Childrens Hospital,
Party Down, Archer, New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, 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.
He has also appeared in supporting roles in dozens of films, including Bad Teacher, Memento,
How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Herbie: Fully Loaded 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 and The Dark Knight Rises.
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 Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings.
He supplied 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 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 2014, Lennon was cast as Felix Unger in the reboot of the television series The Odd
Couple.
He will be cast opposite Matthew Perry, who will play Oscar Madison.
and will star in Paramount Animation's Monster Trucks.
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 Lennon's 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 Network, announced that his network had ordered a pilot episode for a new Lennon/Garant
science fiction television comedy called USS Alabama, set 1000 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 wrote The Machine, which is set to star Vin Diesel.
Lennon and Garant wrote directed and starred in the 2013 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.
Filmography References
External links