Thomas Lennon

Screenwriter

**Thomas Patrick Lennon** (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director and novelist. As an actor he is best known for his work as a cast member on MTV's *The State*, for his role as Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the Comedy Central series *Reno 911!* and as Felix Unger on the CBS series *The Odd Couple.* Lennon is also an accomplished screenwriter of several major studio comedies with writing partner Robert Ben Garant. Their films include comedies such as the *Night at the Museum* films, *The Pacifier*, *Balls of Fury*, and *Baywatch*.

## Early life

Lennon was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Of Irish and Scottish descent,[1][2] he is the son of Kathleen (McSheehy) and Timothy Lennon.[3] He graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1988.

At the age of 16, he met friend and future co-star Kerri Kenney at Theatre Camp at Northwestern University. The two later attended NYU,[4] where they joined a comedy troupe called The New Group.

## Career

Acting and performing

While a member of The New Group, the comedy troupe changed its name to The State. As they performed their material at theaters and clubs in New York City, they worked on the MTV show *You Wrote It, You Watch It*. This led to the self-titled series *The State* (1993–95), which was nominated for a 1995 Cable Ace Award for Best Comedy Series. That same year, they created a special for CBS called *The State's 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special*.

Following the cancellation of *The State,* Lennon, along with Kenney, Robert Ben Garant and Michael Ian Black, went on to create and star in the Comedy Central program *Viva Variety* (1997–99). The show was based on a sketch that Lennon had written for the final season of *The State*, called "The Mr. and Former Mrs. Laupin Variety Programme." *Viva Variety* received a 1997 Cable Ace Awardnomination for Best Comedy Series. After *Viva Variety*, Lennon, Kenney and Garant created and starred in *Reno 911!* (2003–09). Initially slated for Fox, the program later debuted on Comedy Central.

Lennon has appeared as a guest star in dozens of TV shows, including *The League*, *Childrens Hospital*, *Party Down*, *New Girl*, *How I Met Your Mother*, *Comedy Bang Bang*, *Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23*. One of his notable guest starring roles was as Joey Tribbiani's blackjack dealing, "identical hand twin" on the *Friends* fifth-season finale ("The One In Vegas," Pts. I and II). Additionally, he has appeared on *Jimmy Kimmel Live!*, *The Tonight Show*, *The Daily Show*, *Late Night with Jimmy Fallon*, and at 31, had the second-most number of appearances on *The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson*.

In 2008, Lennon started doing stand-up comedy, occasionally playing guitar and incorporating music. He has appeared on *The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail*, *John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show*, *The Jeselnik Offensive*, and *The Benson Interruption*. He was the guest on the first episode of Chris Hardwick's *The Nerdist Podcast*, which was recorded in Lennon's garage.

In 2010, Lennon and Garant created and starred in a sitcom pilot for NBC called *The Strip*. In May that year it was announced that NBC had decided not to produce it as a series.

In November and December 2011, Lennon filled in as guest voice for the robot sidekick Geoff Peterson on the CBS show *The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson*.

Lennon has also appeared in numerous films, including *Bad Teacher*, *Memento*, *How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days*, *Transformers: Age of Extinction*, and *I Love You, Man*, for which he and costar Paul Rudd were nominated for a 2009 MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. In both Christopher Nolan's film *Memento* (2000) and *The Dark Knight Rises* (2012), Lennon played the role of a doctor.[5]

Lennon's voice acting work includes *Kim Possible*, *Bob's Burgers*, *Archer* and *Planet Sheen*, in which he played the character of Pinter. He played Scribble in *Secret of the Wings* and *Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast*. He supplied the voice of Eddie the Shipboard Computer in the film version of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* and plays the voice of Fearless Leader in the 2014 DreamWorks short film version of *Rocky and Bullwinkle.* He is also the voice of Munk on *Dawn of the Croods* and the voice of Chief O'Hara in the Warner Brothers animated film *Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders*.

Since its premiere in October 2013, Lennon has appeared 17 times on the late-night internet-based improv panel game show, *@midnight* (which he also produces), winning a total of seven times.[6]

In 2014, Lennon was cast as Felix Unger in the television series reboot of *The Odd Couple* opposite Matthew Perry, who plays Oscar Madison.[7] The show ran for three seasons. In 2016, he co-starred as a scientist in Paramount Animation's *Monster Trucks* and began a recurring role on the Fox action sitcom *Lethal Weapon* as Leo Getz, a character previously portrayed on film by Joe Pesci. At the 2016 People's Choice Awards ceremony, he participated in an on-stage sketch parodying the recent gaffe by Steve Harvey at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant.[8]

### Screenwriting[edit]

Thomas Lennon is a successful screenwriter and script doctor. Most of Lennon's screenplays are written in collaboration with writing partner Robert Ben Garant.[4] Their films have earned over $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office.[9]

Among Garant and Lennon's credits are the *Night at the Museum* films, the 2005 Disney comedy *The Pacifier* and the 2006 prison comedy *Let's Go to Prison*.

In 2010, FX Network ordered a pilot episode for a Garant/Lennon science fiction television comedy called *USS Alabama*, set 1000 years in the future, aboard a United Nations peacekeepingspaceship, the U.S.S. *Alabama*.[5] Garant and Lennon released a book about writing for film called *Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can Too!*in 2011.[9]

Garant and Lennon wrote, directed and starred in the 2013 film *Hell Baby* starring Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb. The film was produced by Darko Entertainment, and shot on location in New Orleans, Louisiana. *Hell Baby* premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.[5] Garant and Lennon are credited as story co-writers on the film version of *Baywatch* (2017).

More recently, *The Machine*, written by Garant and Lennon, is set to star Vin Diesel. Additionally, their script *Action No. 1* is in pre-production.

Lennon is also the author of four of IFC's "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time."[10]

### Novels[edit]

Lennon has written a young adult novel *Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles*, the first in a series of *Ronan Boyle* novels.