Thomas Christopher Parnell (/pÉ'Ë rˈnÉ›l/; born February 5, 1967) is
an American actor, voice artist and comedian. He was a cast member on
Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2006 and played the role of Dr. Leo
Spaceman on 30 Rock. In animation, he voices Cyril Figgis on the FX
series Archer, Jerry Smith on Adult Swim's Rick and Morty and the
narrator on the PBS series WordGirl. He also voices "The Progressive
Box" in a series of advertisements by the Progressive
Corporation.Parnell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a Southern
Baptist family. His father, Jack Parnell, was a radio personality in
Memphis. He attended the Southern Baptist Educational Center, and
graduated from Germantown High School. He decided to pursue acting as
a career at age 17 and set his sights on being a theater actor. He
attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he
received his BFA in Drama. He moved to Houston, Texas after college to
do an apprentice actor program for a season at the Alley Theatre, but
did not get asked back to join the company. He became momentarily
disenchanted with acting, and returned to his hometown and taught high
school for a year. He moved to Los Angeles and auditioned for the
Groundlings in 1992.While performing as a company player with the
Groundlings for a number of years, Parnell began doing commercials and
getting guest roles on various sitcoms, such as Seinfeld and Murphy
Brown. He was hired to join the cast of Saturday Night Live as a
featured player, and debuted on the show on September 26, 1998. He was
promoted to repertory player the following season. In the summer of
2001, because of budget cuts and the hiring of four new cast members,
Lorne Michaels was required to dismiss two cast members; he chose to
lay off Parnell and Jerry Minor over Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, and
Maya Rudolph, but Parnell was rehired in the middle of the following
season.While on SNL, Parnell appeared in numerous sketches, and
commercial parodies, and performed impressions of various celebrities.
Among his notable sketches are "Lazy Sunday", a rap video he shot with
Andy Samberg, and "More Cowbell". He has performed raps about hosts
Jennifer Garner, Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst, and Ashton Kutcher. On
the DVD commentary for the West Coast version of the 30 Rock episode
"Live Show", Tina Fey and Beth McCarthy Miller noted that Parnell was
nicknamed "The Ice Man" while working at SNL, because of his apparent
immunity to breaking character, citing the "More Cowbell" sketch in
which he was the only actor not to break.
an American actor, voice artist and comedian. He was a cast member on
Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2006 and played the role of Dr. Leo
Spaceman on 30 Rock. In animation, he voices Cyril Figgis on the FX
series Archer, Jerry Smith on Adult Swim's Rick and Morty and the
narrator on the PBS series WordGirl. He also voices "The Progressive
Box" in a series of advertisements by the Progressive
Corporation.Parnell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a Southern
Baptist family. His father, Jack Parnell, was a radio personality in
Memphis. He attended the Southern Baptist Educational Center, and
graduated from Germantown High School. He decided to pursue acting as
a career at age 17 and set his sights on being a theater actor. He
attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he
received his BFA in Drama. He moved to Houston, Texas after college to
do an apprentice actor program for a season at the Alley Theatre, but
did not get asked back to join the company. He became momentarily
disenchanted with acting, and returned to his hometown and taught high
school for a year. He moved to Los Angeles and auditioned for the
Groundlings in 1992.While performing as a company player with the
Groundlings for a number of years, Parnell began doing commercials and
getting guest roles on various sitcoms, such as Seinfeld and Murphy
Brown. He was hired to join the cast of Saturday Night Live as a
featured player, and debuted on the show on September 26, 1998. He was
promoted to repertory player the following season. In the summer of
2001, because of budget cuts and the hiring of four new cast members,
Lorne Michaels was required to dismiss two cast members; he chose to
lay off Parnell and Jerry Minor over Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, and
Maya Rudolph, but Parnell was rehired in the middle of the following
season.While on SNL, Parnell appeared in numerous sketches, and
commercial parodies, and performed impressions of various celebrities.
Among his notable sketches are "Lazy Sunday", a rap video he shot with
Andy Samberg, and "More Cowbell". He has performed raps about hosts
Jennifer Garner, Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst, and Ashton Kutcher. On
the DVD commentary for the West Coast version of the 30 Rock episode
"Live Show", Tina Fey and Beth McCarthy Miller noted that Parnell was
nicknamed "The Ice Man" while working at SNL, because of his apparent
immunity to breaking character, citing the "More Cowbell" sketch in
which he was the only actor not to break.
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