# Dan Finnerty

Dan Finnerty (born January 22, 1970) is an American actor and singer.

## Early life

Finnerty was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in the small town of Bath, New York. He attended Emerson College in Boston. He was a member of the hit off-Broadway show Stomp in New York City.

## Career

He is the lead singer of the cult hit comedy group he created called The Dan Band, which Entertainment Weekly dubbed "the hottest ticket in Hollywood." The live show was filmed in Los Angeles as a one-hour concert special Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band: I Am Woman on the Bravo channel, directed by McG and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.
Finnerty gained fame for his hilariously foul-mouthed rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as the wedding singer at Will Ferrell's wedding in the movie Old School, directed by Todd Phillips. Phillips continued to feature Dan, as the sleazy bat-mitzvah singer in Starsky & Hutch and again as the irreverent wedding singer in The Hangover. After seeing The Dan Band, Steven Spielberg cast him in The Terminal and signed on to executive produce his comedy special.
Finnerty originated the role of Lonny in the world premiere of "Rock of Ages" in Los Angeles along with Kyle Gass from Tenacious D and made a cameo appearance in the film version of "Rock of Ages" as the tour manager for Stacee Jaxx played by Tom Cruise.
He appeared over 15 times as a comedy correspondent on "The Jay Leno Show" and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
"The Dan Band" has released three albums:
The Dan Band Live, the full-length CD of his live show released by Side One Dummy Records.
Ho. A Dan Band Xmas, featuring all original holiday songs, with videos for "I Wanna Rock U Hard This Christmas" featuring Florence Henderson from The Brady Bunch making the moves on Santa at a retirement home, as well as the anthemic "Please Don't Bomb Nobody This Holiday," featuring celebrity cameos including Sheryl Crow, Christina Applegate, Nicole Scherzinger, Kyle Gass from Tenacious D, Neil Patrick Harris, Meg Ryan, Donald Faison, Macy Gray, Christopher Guest, Cheri Oteri, Rachael Harris, Kathy Najimy, Nia Vardalos, Ian Gomez, Nathan Fillion, Ricki Lake, Michael Johns, Janeane Garofalo, Lauren Tom, Gia Carides and Matthew Perry.
The Wedding Album, released 2015 through Comedy Dynamics includes collaborations with Nicole Scherzinger, Rob Thomas, Bridget Everett, Nuno Bettencourt and TRAIN.
The Dan Band appeared numerous times on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show, Last Call with Carson Daly' and as the house band on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Pajama Party, and Spike TV's Spike Guys' Choice Awards. Finnerty also wrote and performed the finale song for the final season of Last Comic Standing.
In March 2017, AT&T announced that Finnerty would appear in advertisements for DIRECTV during March Madness, co-starring with Greg Gumbel. The spots feature Finnerty performing the Aerosmith song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", with lyrics tailored to each scene (generally people at work while tournament games are on).
He recently appeared in the Netflix film Dumplin' starring Jennifer Aniston as pageant host Eugene Reed, performing the song "Look At Her" which he co-wrote with American Idol musical director Michael Orland.

## Personal life

In August 1998, he married actress Kathy Najimy, with Gloria Steinem officiating the ceremony. The couple has one daughter, musician Samia, born December 1996.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1998 | Cosmo's Tale | Purse Snatcher | |
| 2000 | Lost Souls | Technical Director | |
| 2000 | Leaving Peoria | Bob | Short film |
| 2001 | The Wedding Planner | Best Man | |
| 2001 | Ca$hino | Dramatization Johnny | Short film |
| 2002 | The Princess and the Pea | Prince Rollo (singing voice) | |
| 2003 | Old School | Wedding Singer | |
| 2004 | Starsky & Hutch | Bat Mitzvah Singer | based on the television series |
| 2004 | The Terminal | Discovery Store Manager | |
| 2008 | Extreme Movie | Gigundocock | |
| 2009 | I Hate Valentine's Day | Grouchy Guy | |
| 2009 | The Hangover | Wedding Singer | |
| 2011 | A Great Catch | SWAT Captain | Short film |
| 2011 | Bench Seat | Bartender | Short film |
| 2012 | Rock of Ages | Tour Manager – Stacee | |
| 2018 | Dumplin' | Eugene Reed | |
| 2021 | Single All the Way | Kevin the Snow Plow Guy | |
| 2022 | Forty Winks | Vernon Whitaker | |
| 2022 | Hocus Pocus 2 | Lucas | |
| 2023 | Atrabilious | Levi Whitaker | |
| 2023 | Family Switch | | Post-production |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1995 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | Stomp | 2 episodes |
| 1996 | Ellen | Doorman | Episode: "No So Great Expectations" |
| 1997 | American Experience | Clarence McNeil | Episode: "Gold Fever" |
| 1997 | Veronica's Closet | Pizza Guy | Episode: "Veronica's Not Happy About the Book" |
| 1997 | Meego | Dave | Episode: "Fatal Attraction" |
| 1998 | Ellen | Crew Member Dan / Dan | Episode: "Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute (Part 1 & 2)" |
| 1998 | Any Day Now | Guy | Episode: "It's Who You Sleep With" |
| 1998–2000 | Rude Awakening | Joe the Bartender | Recurring role; 6 episodes |
| 2000 | Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place | Himself / Musical Guest | Episode: "Bridesmaid Revisted" |
| 2000 | Pajama Party | Dan | unknown episode |
| 2003 | The Dan Show | Dan Kennedy | Television Movie; also executive producer |
| 2004 | My Life as a Teenage Robot | Singer (voice) | Episode: "A Robot for All Seasons" |
| 2005 | King of the Hill | Darryl (voice) | Episode: "It' Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Neighbor Sings" |
| 2005 | The Life and Times of Juniper Lee | Singer | Episode: "Enter Sandman" |
| 2009 | Random! Cartoons | Wallo (voice) | Episode: "The Bravest Warriors" |
| 2014 | The Mysteries of Laura | Sad Sack | "Pilot" uncredited |
| 2016 | Graves | unknown role | Episode: "That Dare Not Speak" |
| 2022 | That's My Jam | Himself | 1 episode |