# Thomas Middleditch

Thomas Steven Middleditch (born March 10, 1982) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his role as Richard Hendricks in the HBO series Silicon Valley (2014–2019), earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He has voiced Penn Zero in the Disney XD animated series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero (2014–2017), Harold Hutchins in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), Sam Coleman in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Terry Opposites in the Hulu adult animated sci-fi series Solar Opposites. Middleditch made his Broadway debut in 2024 as Eli in Eureka Day. He also appeared in ads for Verizon Wireless.

## Early life

Middleditch was born on March 10, 1982, in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. His parents are British. He was cast in a play in eighth grade which he said "changed everything" for him. He discovered improv in grade school from performing with Theatresports. His first job was acting in Canadian Heritage Plays for his hometown.
He studied theatre at the University of Victoria before moving to Toronto, where he auditioned for and enrolled in George Brown Theatre School, but never began his course. He instead opted to make sketches on his own and worked at a New Balance store for an income. He relocated to Chicago, where he took classes at The Second City and iO Theater, while also performing regularly. He was a founding member in 2005 of The Improvised Shakespeare Company. Due to immigration issues, he worked various cash jobs until Charna Halpern sponsored him to get his work visa. While performing on a Second City cruise, he got an audition for Saturday Night Live. Though he did not get cast, the routine he used in his audition landed him a network holding deal and he moved to New York City.

## Career

While living in New York City, Middleditch began acting in commercials. In 2007 a sketch video for Chicken McNuggets he made with Fernando Sosa in Chicago was purchased by McDonald's and used as a commercial. He appeared in the 2009 romantic comedy Splinterheads, portraying the lead role of Justin Frost. On March 25, 2010, he joined a CBS pilot, Hitched, written by Josh Schwartz and directed by Rob Greenberg. On May 5, 2011, Middleditch made his first appearance in Jake and Amir, in the episode "Jake and Amir: Doobs".
On May 31, 2011, Middleditch joined the cast of the Paramount Pictures' comedy film Fun Size, directed by Josh Schwartz. On August 8, 2011, he joined Road to Nardo, a film that would have been Scot Armstrong's directorial debut. On December 12, 2011, he joined Jay Roach's The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis.
On July 23, 2012, Middleditch joined the cast of the comedy film Someone Marry Barry, directed and written by Rob Pearlstein and produced by Barry Josephson. On August 23, 2012, he appeared in The Office's final season episode "The Farm". He had a role in the 2013 comedy fantasy film The Brass Teapot, directed by Ramaa Mosley, and played a police officer in the 2013 CBS Films coming-of-age comedy film The Kings of Summer.
On January 30, 2013, Middleditch joined HBO's comedy pilot Silicon Valley playing Richard Hendricks. He has said that the pilot was written with him specifically in mind as the lead (the character was originally named Thomas Pickering; the latter being his mother's maiden name). This was a result of a "random" audio sketch he once made for a stand-up routine which he would later animate himself and pitched to several people, including Mike Judge's production partners John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who would later create the show.
For his work on the show, Middleditch has garnered four Satellite Awards nominations and a win in 2019, and two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations. In 2016, Middleditch earned his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in the show.
On April 23, 2013, he was added to the cast of the comedy film Search Party, playing Nardo, who travels to Mexico to win his fiancé back, starring alongside one of his Silicon Valley alumni, T.J. Miller. Middleditch made a small cameo appearance in the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street as a broker who is fired for cleaning his fish bowl during office hours.
He has played as a hipster thief in the You're The Worst episode "Sunday Funday". On The Pete Holmes Show, he played Nightcrawler and Gambit from the X-Men and Vega and Ken from Street Fighter II. On October 16, 2013, it was announced that the Disney XD-produced animated series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero would star Middleditch as the titular multiverse-hopping hero. The series premiered in late 2014. In 2015, he co-starred in the films The Final Girls and The Bronze. Also in 2015, he began streaming himself playing video games on the website Twitch.
In 2014 he joined a CollegeHumor series on YouTube called CAMP.
Middleditch voiced Harold Hutchins in DreamWorks Animation's animated feature Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), based on Dav Pilkey's book Captain Underpants. As of 2017, Middleditch has appeared in Verizon commercials as their spokesperson. In 2019, he appeared in the MonsterVerse film Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the basketball video game NBA 2K20.
In April 2020, Middleditch and fellow improviser Ben Schwartz starred in Netflix's first long-form improv special, Middleditch and Schwartz, a series of three hour-long performances filmed at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
In October 2020, Middleditch began playing the lead role of Drew Dunbar in the CBS comedy series B Positive which was written by Chuck Lorre. The series was originally supposed to air in March 2020, but production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, filming of the pilot had already taken place and so the show was moved to be CBS' only fall debut.

## Personal life

Middleditch became engaged to costume designer Mollie Gates in June 2015. They were married on August 22, 2015, in Middleditch's hometown. In a 2019 Playboy interview, he revealed that the pair had an open relationship and said that "swinging has saved our marriage." In May 2020, Gates filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was reportedly finalized in April 2021.
Middleditch stated during a January 2022 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that he had become a U.S. citizen.

### Sexual misconduct allegations

In March 2021, the Los Angeles Times published allegations that Middleditch sexually harassed women at Cloak & Dagger, a Los Angeles-based goth club, including one incident where he groped a woman's breast. The woman revealed several messages she received from Middleditch in which he apologized for the incident.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | The Rebound | Maverick | |
| 2010 | Splinterheads | Justin Frost | |
| 2010 | The Other Guys | Art Exhibition Curator | Uncredited cameo |
| 2010 | Night Home | James | Short film |
| 2011 | Certainty | Game Guy | |
| 2011 | Michel Jean-Michel: Overexposed | Michel Jean-Michel | Short film |
| 2012 | Being Flynn | Richard | |
| 2012 | The Campaign | Travis | |
| 2012 | The Brass Teapot | Gilad | |
| 2012 | Fun Size | Manuel Fuzzy | |
| 2013 | The Kings of Summer | Rookie Cop | Cameo |
| 2013 | The Wolf of Wall Street | Stratton Broker in a Bowtie | Cameo |
| 2014 | Someone Marry Barry | Kurt | |
| 2014 | Search Party | Daniel "Nardo Narducci | |
| 2015 | SMILF | Dan | Short film that inspired the TV series SMILF |
| 2015 | The Bronze | Ben Lawfort | |
| 2015 | The Final Girls | Duncan | |
| 2016 | Joshy | Josh | |
| 2016 | Sunspring | H | Short film |
| 2017 | Kong: Skull Island | Jerry | Voice role |
| 2017 | Entanglement | Ben Layten | |
| 2017 | Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie | Harold Hutchins | Voice role; also songwriter for "Saturday" |
| 2017 | Once Upon a Time in Venice | John | |
| 2018 | Tag | Dave | |
| 2018 | Replicas | Ed Whittle | |
| 2018 | Henchmen | Lester | Voice role |
| 2019 | Jake and Kyle Get Wedding Dates | Kyle Westen | Voice role Direct-to-video |
| 2019 | Godzilla: King of the Monsters | Sam Coleman | |
| 2019 | Zombieland: Double Tap | Flagstaff | |
| 2020 | Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe | Garnoz | Voice role |
| 2022 | DC League of Super-Pets | Keith | Voice role |
| TBA | Messy | Max | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2010 | Robotomy | Additional voices | Episode: "Bling Thing" |
| 2011 | Ugly Americans | Additional voices | Episode: "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" |
| 2011 | Beavis and Butt-Head | Stewart Stevenson / Teacher | 7 episodes |
| 2011 | The League | Julian | Episode: "The Light of Genesis" |
| 2011 | Fact Checkers Unit | Kerry | Episode: "Fly Like a Buttress" |
| 2013 | Newsreaders | Micah Berkley | Episode: "Auto Erotic" |
| 2013 | The Office | Jeb Schrute | Episode: "The Farm" |
| 2013 | Key and Peele | Monsieur Thénardier | Episode: "Les Mis" |
| 2013 | Trophy Wife | Nurse Terry | Episode: "Lice and Beary White" |
| 2013 | The Pete Holmes Show | Gambit / Nightcrawler | 2 episodes |
| 2014–2019 | Silicon Valley | Richard Hendricks | Main cast |
| 2014–2019 | You're the Worst | Hipster Ringleader | 2 episodes |
| 2014–2017 | Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero | Penn Zero | Main voice role (61 episodes); also writer: "Ultrahyperball" |
| 2015 | Scheer-RL | Jeff Timons | Episode: "98 Degrees" |
| 2015 | Comedy Bang! Bang! | Himself / Tim Landers | 2 episodes |
| 2015–2019 | Drunk History | Various | 3 episodes |
| 2016 | Great Minds with Dan Harmon | William Shakespeare | Episode: "William Shakespeare" |
| 2016 | TripTank | Warlock / Caller | Voice, episode: "TripTank 2025" |
| 2017 | Animals. | Simon | Voice, episode: "Rats." |
| 2017 | Rick and Morty | King Tommy | Voice, episode: "The ABC's of Beth" |
| 2018–2019 | Bob's Burgers | Alex | Voice, 3 episodes |
| 2018–2019 | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | Narrator | 2 episodes |
| 2019–2021 | Big City Greens | Donny Tinselton, Bash | Voice, 3 episodes |
| 2020 | Middleditch and Schwartz | Himself | Main role; also creator and executive producer |
| 2020 | Death Hacks | Adam | Voice, main role |
| 2020 | Dream Corp LLC | Virgil Bottoms | Episode: "Virgil Bottoms" |
| 2020–present | Solar Opposites | Terry Opposites | Voice, main role |
| 2020–2022 | B Positive | Drew Dunbar | Main role |
| 2021 | Amphibia | Bernardo | Voice, episode: "Bessie & MicroAngelo" |

### Web

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | Memoirs of a Manchild | Danny Nanners | 3 episodes; also writer and producer |
| 2010 | The Back Room | Die Antwoord | Episode: "Steve Agee" |
| 2009–2013 | CollegeHumor Originals | Various characters | 20 episodes |
| 2011 | Funny or Die | Woodshed Guy | Episode: "2.8" |
| 2011 | Matumbo Goldberg | Lenny | 5 episodes |
| 2011–2015 | Jake and Amir | Penis Anthony "Doobs" Doubligné | 6 episodes |
| 2012 | Bravest Warriors | Professor Fartsparkles (voice) | Episode: "Time Slime" |
| 2013 | The Funtime Gang | Randy the Racoon | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2013 | The Morning After | Dave | 5 episodes |
| 2016 | HarmonQuest | Dildo Bogpelt | Episode: "The Doors of Fores" |
| 2019 | This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy | Guest Star | Episode: "Money Laundering: A How-To Guide" |
| 2020 | Stream of Blood: Vampires of Pittsburgh | Miles Vanderbuck | 30 episodes |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2013 | Star Wars: The Old Republic - Rise of the Hutt Cartel | Additional Voices | |
| 2019 | NBA 2K20 | Zach Bailey | Voice role and motion capture |
| 2022 | Warped Kart Racers | Terry | Voice role; Archival recording |
| 2022 | High on Life | Ranchy | Voice role |

## Theater

| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Notes | Ref. |
| 2024-present | Eureka Day | Eli | Samuel J. Friedman Theatre | | |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 2014 | Critics' Choice Television Awards | Best Actor in a Comedy Series | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2014 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2015 | Critics' Choice Television Awards | Best Actor in a Comedy Series | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2015 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2016 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2016 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2016 | Gold Derby Awards | Best Comedy Actor | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2017 | Critics' Choice Television Awards | Best Actor in a Comedy Series | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2017 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Silicon Valley | Nominated |
| 2020 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Silicon Valley | Won |