Tom Kenny

### Other Works

Spongebob Squarepants, Ice King - Adventure Time, The Mayor - The PowerPuff Girls

Tom Kenny is an American actor and comedian. He voices one of the main characters, Commander Peepers, Lord Hater's Second in Command.

## Personal Life

Kenny was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, the son of Theresa Bridget (Donigan) and Paul Austin Kenny. As a young child, he loved drawing and collecting record albums in the late 1960s and 1970s. He went to Bishop Grimes High School, a Catholic high school, in Syracuse. He became lifelong friends with comedian Bobcat Goldthwait after a teacher, who was displeased with Goldthwait, dragged him into Kenny's class. After college, Kenny appeared in films that Bobcat directed and starred in such as *Shakes the Clown* and *World's Greatest Dad*.

Kenny first met his wife Jill Talley in 1992 while working on *The Edge*. The two have also collaborated on HBO's *Mr. Show* and *SpongeBob SquarePants*. They have two children, Mack and Nora.

## Television and Film Career

Kenny has acted in many films and TV shows, debuting in *How I Got Into College* (1989) and later appeared in films such as *Shakes The Clown* and *Comic Book: The Movie*. He appeared in sketch comedies *The Edge* and *Mr. Show*. He appears in the live-action segments of *SpongeBob SquarePants* as Patchy the Pirate, and appeared on R.L. Stine's *The Haunting Hour* on the season four episode, "Uncle Howee" as Uncle Howee, a high-energy kids' show host with strange powers.

## Voice Acting Career

While working on the animated series *Rocko's Modern Life*, Kenny met marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, who was also the creative director in the show's fourth season. Hillenburg drew a square sponge that he thought was funny and decided that he had found his character. After the cancellation of *Rocko's Modern Life* in 1996, Hillenburg began developing the concept and hired former *Rocko* crew members. To voice the character of SpongeBob, Hillenburg approached Kenny. Hillenburg chose the name SpongeBob and used the name SquarePants as a family name that "had a nice ring to it".

The series premiered on May 1, 1999, on Nickelodeon and became a commercial success in 2000, during its second season. Kenny voices other characters on the show including Gary the Snail, the French narrator (a parody of Jacques Cousteau), SpongeBob's father Harold SquarePants, and his live-action portrayal of Patchy the Pirate. In 2010, Kenny received the Annie Award for "Voice Acting in a Television Production" for his role as SpongeBob in *SpongeBob's Truth or Square* (season 6, episode 23-24). He also voiced SpongeBob in the sequel film released on February 6, 2015.

Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for the series in a casting call in Los Angeles, California. On one occasion, the producers required Kenny to fill the role of Charlie Adler, who was absent. He voices Cupid for the Nickelodeon show *The Fairly OddParents*.

Joe Murray chose Kenny for several roles on another one of his projects, *Camp Lazlo* as Scoutmaster Lumpus and Slinkman, because Murray, after seeing Kenny's previous work for *Rocko's Modern Life,* felt that Kenny "adds writing to his roles" and "brings so much".

He voiced Dog in *CatDog*, as well as the voice of Cliff. He voices many characters in *The Powerpuff Girls*, including the Mayor, the Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake, and Little Arturo from the Gangrene Gang, Rainbow the Clown, etc. He voiced Eduardo, and various other characters in *Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends*, Dr. Two-Brains in the PBS Kids show, *WordGirl* and the villains Knightbrace, The Common Cold and Mr. Wink in *Codename Kids Next Door*. Kenny is also The Penguin in 2004 TV series *The Batman*.

He plays a number of roles in the *Transformers Animated* TV show. A few of the characters he voices in this series are Starscream and his clones, Isaac Sumdac and Waspinator. Kenny also voiced several characters on the animated show *Xiaolin Showdown*, as well as the Autobots Skids and Wheelie in the live-action *Transformers* film series. On *Dilbert*, Kenny voiced Ratbert, Asok and other one-time characters. He played Mr. Hal Gibson in the animated kids show *Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!*.

In 2009, Kenny became a regular cast voice in the Fox comedy series *Sit Down, Shut Up*. He voices Muhammad Sabeeh "Happy" Fa-ach Nuabar, the secretive custodian who is plotting a terrorist attack, as well as Happy's interpreter. The series premiered on April 19, 2009. Kenan Thompson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Bateman, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Henry Winkler, Will Arnett, and Will Forte are the other main cast members.

He plays The Ice King and Magic Man on *Adventure Time*. In 2011, Kenny took over the role of Rabbit from Ken Sansom in *Winnie the Pooh*. From 2012–2014, Kenny voiced Woody Johnson on Comedy Central's *Brickleberry*. He voices Flain, Seismo, and Teslo in *Mixels*, Sumo in the Cartoon Network show *Clarence*, Daddo in *Henry Hugglemonster*, Dr. Otto Octavius on *The Ultimate Spider-Man*, and Leo Callisto in *Miles from Tomorrowland*. He has also provided voices in television advertisements for Best Buy (as an elf for a Christmas spot) and Experian (as a talking modem alongside DC Douglas).

## Gallery

The gallery for Tom Kenny may be viewed here.

## Filmography

###

### Television

###

### Video Games

###

### Other

References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom\_Kenny