Donovan Patton

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**Donovan Patton** (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor, television host and singer. Patton graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and acted in Shakespeare plays such as *Much Ado About Nothing* and *Romeo and Juliet* before replacing Steve Burns as the host of Nickelodeon's long-running children's television program, *Blue's Clues* in 2002. Series co-creator Angela Santomero stated that Patton brought Joe, his character, closer to the preschool viewer, as Joe was more willing to "jump into a problem rather than figuring it out first like Steve." After *Blue's Clues* ended in 2006, Patton then voiced Bot on Nickelodeon's *Team Umizoomi* (2010).

Although most of his career has been in children's television programs, Patton has also appeared in independent films, such as *Black Wine* (2005), *Awake* (2013), *Lies I Told My Little Sister* (2014), *The Broken Ones* (2017), *The Murder* (2019), *The Anniversary* (2019), *Psycho Escort* (2020), and *DieRy* (2020), and in television shows, such as *Blue Bloods* (2011), *Nurse Jackie* (2011) and *Damages* (2012).

He also appeared in video games, such as *Grand Theft Auto V* (2013), *Lego Jurassic World* (2015), *Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire* (2015), *Halo 5: Guardians* (2015) *Horizon: Zero Dawn* (2017) and *God of War* (2018).

## Early life and education

Patton was born on a U.S. military base in Guam to Michael Patton (born 1951), an Air Force meteorologist and Darlene Curtis (born 1952), who worked for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He has an older brother, Casey. After his parents divorced when he was 3, he, his brother, and their mother moved to Colorado. They moved to Las Vegas when Donovan was 12. Patton graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in northwest Michigan in 1996, having transferred there his junior year.

## Career

His first acting roles were in Shakespeare plays such as *Much Ado About Nothing* and *Romeo and Juliet*. He took acting classes in Manhattan while working odd jobs such as a book clerk and a video deliveryman.

### *Blue's Clues*

Patton's "big break" came in 2002, when he was cast to replace Steve Burns as Joe, the second host of the Nickelodeon children's television program *Blue's Clues*. At the time, Patton worked as a waiter and a part-time actor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. He was originally set up for a part in *Blair Witch Project 2* at the time, but he considered the role as Joe "a happy accident". Patton became a "household name" and has been called "an unqualified star to the 5-and-under set and their parents". He was subjected to "the same kind of scrutiny" as Burns, who was involved in Patton's selection and helped train him, to earn the role. Patton was selected out of 1,500 auditions. He had never seen the show before his audition, but like Burns was the favorite with preschool test audiences. He said, "I am convinced that I got that part because of a Christopher Walken impression I sometimes do. There's a tape out there, somewhere, with both Steve Burns and myself doing a *Blue's Clues* scene both as Christopher Walken, which we did at the screen test. I haven't seen the tape, but I know somewhere it still exists". Beginning in September 2000, Burns trained Patton to take over the host spot and advised him not to "think of [the show] as children's TV", but rather as "acting and telling the truth".

According to Traci Paige Johnson, one of the producers and creators of *Blue's Clues*, Patton's character was more like a preschooler and more innocent than Steve. Angela Santomero, another producer and creator, stated that Patton's characterization as Joe brought him closer to the preschool viewer as Joe was more willing to "jump into a problem rather than figure it out first like Steve". Patton liked working on *Blue's Clues* because, as he stated, "I got to go be a kid for twelve hours a day". He called the show's crew "a real fun little family" and a "well-oiled machine" by the time he joined the show. Patton remained on the show for 50 episodes, until it ended its run in 2006, and also appeared in its spin-off, *Blue's Room*, which premiered in 2004. Several years later, Patton said he had not yet grasped the enormity of replacing Burns, even after he became a parent and witnessed the show's effect on his own children. He admitted that he preferred when his daughter, who was 2 at the time, watched the Steve episodes.

Patton, alongside Burns, made cameo appearances in the first episode of the 2019 revival *Blue's Clues & You!*, reprising their roles as Joe and Steve respectively to help their cousin Josh (which was played by Joshua Dela Cruz) to learn how to take care of Blue.

### Later roles

In 2012, Patton appeared in the short films *Awake* and *Pharmboy*, the latter of which was directed by his longtime friend Lawrence Feeney. Mark Finguerra, the director of *Awake*, was able to look past the potential typecasting of Patton's role in *Blue's Clues* to cast him in a darker role. Patton had impressed him in an audition for an earlier feature film. Finguerra called Patton a "complete professional [and a] tremendous actor", and enjoyable on set. He appeared in the soap opera *One Life to Live*, in which he played, in a departure of his previous roles, "a very angry man". In 2014, he appeared in a small movie shot mostly in New Jersey, entitled *Lies I Told My Little Sister*, directed by William Stribling and starring Lucy Walters.

Patton called his career, with its mixture of children's television and darker roles in independent films, "an odd experience" and told a reporter that he had spent half his life at Nickelodeon. In 2009, he was cast as Bot, the robot superhero, on the children's show *Team Umizoomi* through the relationships he had made at Nickelodeon on *Blue's Clues*. He found working on *Team Umizoomi* "comforting" because many of the same crew, producers, and creators had also worked on *Blue's Clues*. It was the first time he had worked as a voice-over artist, unlike on *Blue's Clues*, when he was able to be more physical acting in front of a blue screen. He said, about *Team Umizoomi*, "the work the animators have done on it has been superlative". He stated that he enjoyed working on *Team Umizoomi* because it gave him the opportunity to participate in a show from its inception, which he had missed with *Blue's Clues*. Patton said his voice performance of Bot, which he modeled on Brent Spiner's performance as the android Data on *Star Trek: The Next Generation* and was influenced by Mel Blanc's work in the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, "ended up sounding more like my natural voice, with a teeny bit of superhero in there". Despite both roles in *Blue's Clues* and *Team Umizoomi* requiring him to sing, he did not consider himself a natural singer and felt that he had to work hard at it. He said, about being cast as Bot, "I get to be a superhero. Who doesn't want to be a superhero?" Patton was the only main cast member to stay on *Team Umizoomi* for its entire run, voicing Bot in all episodes spread through its four seasons.

Patton is married to his wife Jackie and has two children. He is active in several charities in the New York City area, including Literacy Inc., the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, a large children's hospital.

## Filmography

**Video**

* *Dr. Ice* (1996) - Waiter
* *It's Joe Time* (2002) - Joe
* *Blue's Clues: Meet Joe!* (2002) - Joe
* *Blue's Big Band* (2003) - Joe
* *Blue's Biggest Stories* (2006) - Joe

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Template:Cite journal
2. ↑ https://www.people.com/archive/am-i-blue-absolutely-vol-57-no-21/amp/
3. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/23/nyregion/public-lives-searching-for-clues-in-the-land-of-the-blue-dog.html
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Yorio, Karia (2 October 2012). "Cliffside Park resident Donovan Patton, once Joe on 'Blue's Clues,' takes on new, dramatic roles". http://www.northjersey.com/community-news/cliffside-park-resident-donovan-patton-once-joe-on-blue-s-clues-takes-on-new-dramatic-roles-1.369171.
5. ↑ Barron, Natania (25 January 2010). "GeekDad Talks with Donovan Patton of the New Nickelodeon Show Team Umizoomi". http://archive.wired.com/geekdad/2010/01/geekdad-talks-with-donovan-patton-of-the-new-nickelodeon-show-team-umizoomi/.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Tracy, p. 48
7. ↑ Template:Cite AV media
8. ↑ Kiesewetter, John (29 April 2002). "'Blue's Clues' puts on new host, new shirts", *The Cincinnati Enquirer*.
9. ↑ Tracy, p. 47
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Adams, Laura (4 April 2013). "Animated Actor: Cliffside Park's Donovan Patton has a clue about acting". http://www.bergen.com/arts-and-music/tv/animated-actor-cliffside-park-s-donovan-patton-has-a-clue-about-acting-1.834466.
11. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 3.38
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Michel, Tori. "From Joe to Bot: My Interview with Donovan Patton". http://kidscartoons.about.com/od/backstage/a/From-Joe-To-Bot-My-Interview-With-Donovan-Patton.htm.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Barron, event occurs at 5.06
14. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia (26 January 2007). "Calling Blue: And on That Farm He Had a Cellphone", *The New York Times*.
15. ↑ Jacobs, Meredith. "'Blue's Clues & You!': Nickelodeon Reveals Premiere Date & Returning Hosts (VIDEO)". https://www.tvinsider.com/807661/blues-clues-you-nickelodeon-premiere-date-steve-joe-josh/.
16. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 10.30
17. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 3.10
18. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 0.38
19. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 5.53
20. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 9.45
21. ↑ Barron, event occurs at 8.30

## Works cited

* Barron, Natania (25 January 2010). "Donovan Patton Interview". *GeekDad.com*. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
* Tracy, Diane. (2002). *Blue's Clues for Success: The 8 Secrets Behind a Phenomenal Business*. New York: Kaplan Publishing. Template:ISBN.

## External links

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