Napoleon Dynamite took the world by storm.
For what seemed like years, an entire generation couldn't stop making jokes about ligers, llamas,
and sweet skills.
But what's become of Jon Heder, the man who wore the iconic "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt?
A lot, as it turns out.
Throughout much of his career, Heder has been been known to get positively weird.
He's appeared in all manner of bizarre web productions, side projects, and short films.
From Robot Chicken to Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, his range of expression
and delivery has added the perfect touch of surrealism to many productions.
But there is no work that more encapsulates this facet of his filmography than Sockbaby.
A four-part action comedy series, Sockbaby is a hallucinatory spoof of everything from
Blaxploitation to classic sci-fi.
It's the kind of thing you get introduced to in college and then quote obsessively for
years afterward.
Heder plays the leader of the dastardly Frogmen, who promptly gives birth to his own doppelganger.
In real life, Heder is a kind-hearted family man, but on screen, he's far from afraid of
the truly bizarre.
It's not all glitz, glamour, and weird online comedy for Heder.
He seems to mostly love his life as a typical family man more than anything else.
He married fellow Brigham Young University alumnus Kirsten Bales in 2002, and they're
raising four children together in their California home.
Heder's Instagram features plenty of highlights of fatherly joy: from helping out with Halloween
costumes, to petting llamas, to the Heder family getting their Nintendo on.
Though Heder has worked steadily for years now and shows no signs of stopping, it's clear
that his home life is very much the sun around which he orbits.
He lives a quiet life by Hollywood standards, and it seems to suit him just fine.
Though his career has extended far beyond Vote for Pedro t-shirts and jokes about "skills,"
Heder isn't averse to revisiting his signature performance.
On screen, he reprised the role of Napoleon in a Robot Chicken sketch and recorded a number
of commercials with Pedro himself, Efren Ramirez, to promote the 2005 Utah State Fair.
"Who won?"
"What?"
"Who won the battle?"
"Do you see any flippin' Sasquatches around here?"
Plus, in 2014, Heder played the part of "Napoleon Bonafrog" on Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles.
This is to say nothing of the many interviews in which, in the middle of promoting something
entirely different, he's asked to perform a famous line.
"Hey Napoleon, did you wet the bed last night?"
"Hey Dawn, did you take a dump in your bed last night?"
"Dead on.
That was perfect."
Happily, Heder takes it all in stride, and he's never lost any gratitude for his iconic
role.
In 2018, he told the Herald-Tribune,
"Parents are introducing it to their kids, friends are introducing it to their younger
friends, 14 years since it came out.
I think it will always relate to youth culture and the awkwardness of being young and being
on your own without any responsibility."
In the years since Napoleon Dynamite, Heder has been presented with plenty of opportunities.
He keeps the details to himself for the most part, but it's clear that he's turned down
more than a few chances to be part of some projects that ended up going the distance.
While some might see this as foolish, Heder considers it an asset: because of his early
work, he can pick and choose exactly what kind of work he wants to do and figure out
a work-life balance few actors get to have.
In 2012, he told Vulture,
"I realized how happy I am trying to be somewhat normal without becoming huge.
And not so much normal, but grounded, down-to-earth."
He also compared his work to that of his father, a family doctor.
The two professions may appear quite different, but Heder's always wanted the same level of
community and quiet in his life.
This affords him the option of saying no to projects he finds distasteful, like raunchy
comedies.
Though he's not strayed too far from his comedy roots, Heder does dip a toe into the world
of dramatic film now and then, especially the independent ones.
In recent years he's appeared in the relationship drama Weepah Way for Now, the Walt Disney
biopic Walt Before Mickey, and For Ellen, a downbeat story of divorce and creative failure.
Heder's been fairly tight-lipped about this stage of his career.
Perhaps it's an experiment he's still waiting to see the results of, or a new direction
entirely.
Regardless, it's a pleasure to see him do his thing as an actor, especially when he's
pushed to take his skills to new emotional places.
Beyond Heder's role in one of the biggest sleeper hits of the 21st century and his continued
passion for the performing arts, one of the most important parts of his life is his foundation
in the Mormon church.
His entire life has been shaped by his faith, from his time at Brigham Young University
to his choosiness when it comes to what projects he's part of.
When asked of the effects of his upbringing on his career, he told Vulture,
"These are the standards I live by and whatever comes my way in the future, whether filmmaking
or animation or whatever, I'm going to do my best to live by those standards."
Regardless of fame, fortune, or fairweather friends, Heder will always have those grounding
principles to guide him.
If the future is like the past, they should take him far.
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