Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk
Odenkirk holding a producer credit for The 1 Second Film in January 2005
Born	Robert Odenkirk October 22, 1962 (1962-10-22) (age 46) Naperville, Illinois
Spouse(s)	Naomi Odenkirk
Official website

Robert "Bob" Odenkirk (born October 22, 1962) is an American comedian, actor, writer, director and producer. Odenkirk is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series, Mr. Show.

Biography

Early life

He was born in Naperville, Illinois and began his foray into comedy writing as a radio DJ for WIDB, his local college station at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Inspired by his local success, he decided to go to Chicago and, under the pretense of doing a radio-show interview, spoke with members of The Second City to see what it took to make a career in performing and writing comedy. While in Chicago, he ran into former Second City director Del Close (who had mentored the likes of Bill Murray and John Belushi) at a bookstore. Odenkirk nervously struck up a conversation with Close and asked if he would mind being interviewed. He agreed and they went back to Close's apartment, where their conversation inspired Odenkirk to seek work as a comedian.

Career

Odenkirk immediately moved to Chicago three credits shy of graduation and got involved in the local improv and comedy scene. He started in improv workshops, including The Players Workshop, and doing open-mic stand-up comedy. After a few years, he had made several friends as a result — one of whom was then-future Saturday Night Live writer Robert Smigel. It was through his friendship with Smigel he began submitting his work to SNL and was eventually hired as a writer. While still at Second City, Odenkirk wrote such memorable characters as Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker, for actor Chris Farley (who carried the character into SNL and prominently acknowledged Odenkirk's authorship). Odenkirk was initially elated to be working for SNL, but after a while he became more and more frustrated with the politics of the show and rarely got any of his work on air.

While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987–88 season, Odenkirk was part of an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien called Happy Happy Good Show. Odenkirk decided to leave SNL and try working in Los Angeles. Around this time, he visited his friend Steve Meisner, who informed him that the TV show Get a Life was looking for writers. Odenkirk submitted some material and was accepted onto the show. Though Get a Life was cancelled fairly quickly, Odenkirk made several important friends on the show who later helped him get a job writing for The Dennis Miller Show. There, he made his acting debut and was noticed by Ben Stiller, who later hired him as a writer and actor for The Ben Stiller Show. While working on Ben Stiller, Odenkirk met fellow writer David Cross, and after The Ben Stiller Show was cancelled, Odenkirk and Cross began performing in sketch-comedy shows together in LA. These sketch comedy shows eventually evolved into what became Mr. Show. Odenkirk has also made cameo appearances on Seinfeld as Ben Gelfen - Elaine's boyfriend, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Arrested Development, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. On the series The Larry Sanders Show, Odenkirk had a recurring role as Larry's oily agent, Stevie Grant. He also guest starred on an episode of Joey, "Joey and the Nemesis". He is also occasionally featured on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. He has starred in the episode "The Chain of Screaming" of How I Met Your Mother, playing Marshall's boss.

In May 2008 he appeared as part of T&E's Awesome Tour 2008 at the Echoplex in Los Angeles.^[1]

In late December of 2008, it was announced that Odenkirk would be joining the cast of AMC's Breaking Bad for five episodes. His character, shyster lawyer Saul Goodman, first appeared in the episode "Better Call Saul".

Other work

He was the spokesperson for Miller beer in their electoral-themed commercial campaign to become "The President of Beers" during the 2004 Elections, as well as the executive producer of Adult Swim's Tom Goes to the Mayor.

Odenkirk has directed three films: Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003), Let's Go to Prison (2006), and The Brothers Solomon (2007). Let's Go to Prison was written by two writers for the sketch comedy show The State, and starred Will Arnett of Arrested Development fame. Bob guest starred in Futurama episode "The Why of Fry" as Chaz, the mayor's aide. Bob also directed the music video for "Chicago X 12", a song by Rogue Wave from their album Asleep at Heaven's Gate.

He was one of the early members of Un-Cabaret, an important venue in the Los Angeles alternative comedy scene, and his performances can be heard on several compilation CDs. He has presented and introduced several of his un-aired TV pilots at "The Other Network", Un-Cabaret's live festival in NY and LA.

In 2006, he discovered a British sketch group called Straitjacket Comedy and began promoting them because he felt that they have an evolved comic sensibility that should not remain unexposed to the comedy viewing public. In August 2008, he appeared on the Showtime series Weeds.

He is also directing the Super Deluxe series Derek & Simon starring Simon Helberg and Derek Waters. Odenkirk said on The Sound of Young America podcast that he asked Helberg and Waters "you guys are so funny just talking, just hanging out, why don't we do a show where it's just you hitting on girls and failing?"^[2]

Filmography

Further reading

• Odenkirk, Naomi. Mr. Show: What Happened?! The Complete Story and Episode Guide. Squaresville Productions, September 2002.
• Klein, Robert. Patinkin, Sheldon. The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater. Sourcebooks, October 2000.

References

External links

• Bob and David.com - Official Site
• Bob Odenkirk at the Internet Movie Database
• Bob Odenkirk on Tom Green Live - July 26, 2006
• Bob Odenkirk on Tom Green Live - April 13, 2007
• Bob Odenkirk discusses Breaking Bad at AMCtv.com
• Interview With Bob Odenkirk at Scene Missing Magazine
• Bob's show on SuperDeluxe
• bobodenkirk.com - Official Unofficial Internet Homepage Website

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