Tom Kenny

Batman: Brave and The Bold

**Thomas James Kenny** (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and voice artist. He is known for voicing the title character in the *SpongeBob SquarePants* TV series, video games, and films. Kenny has voiced many other characters including Heffer Wolfe in *Rocko's Modern Life*; the Ice King in *Adventure Time*; the Narrator and Mayor in *The Powerpuff Girls*; Carl Chryniszzswics in *Johnny Bravo*; Dog in *CatDog*; and Spyro from the *Spyro the Dragon* video game series. His live-action work includes the comedy variety shows *The Edge* and *Mr. Show*. Kenny has won a Daytime Emmy Award and two Annie Awards for his voice work as SpongeBob SquarePants and the Ice King.

## Biography

### Early life and stand-up comedy

Kenny was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, to Theresa Bridget (Donigan) and Paul Austin Kenny.[1][2] As a young child, he loved drawing and collecting record albums in the late 1960s and 1970s. in Syracuse. He met Bobcat Goldthwait in first grade and they became lifelong friends.[3] In their mid-teens, they saw an ad for an open-mic night at Skaneateles that featured comedian Barry Crimmins with the moniker "Bear Cat". He and Goldthwait went to the event, and performed under the monikers Tomcat and Bobcat, respectively, as a tribute to Crimmins, after which Goldthwait used Bobcat as his stage name.[4][5][6] Describing Kenny's stand-up routines, Goldthwait said, "Tom would get up there and talk about his therapist and he didn't even have a therapist, he just loved Woody Allen."[7]

Kenny went to Bishop Grimes High School, a Catholic high school.[8] After college, Kenny performed stand-up comedy around the country for about eight years before he moved on to other venues.[6]

### 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*[9] (1991) and *Comic Book: The Movie* (2004). On television, he would host the "Music News" segments of *Friday Night Videos* in the early 1990s. He appeared in sketch comedy shows *The Edge* which aired on Fox from 1992–93, and *Mr. Show* which aired on HBO from 1995 to 1998, both roles in the show were as a regular cast member. He appears in the live-action segments of *SpongeBob SquarePants* as Patchy the Pirate, 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

Kenny said that he voices "a lot of sweet yellow characters for some reason."[10] He described SpongeBob's voice as in between that of a child and an adult, stating "Think a Stan Laurel, Jerry Lewis kind of child-man. Kind of like a Munchkin but not quite, kind of like a kid, but not in a Charlie Brown child's voice on the TV shows."[11]

Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for Rocko's Modern Life in a casting call in Los Angeles, California.[12] 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*.[13]

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".[14]

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 The Penguin in 2004 TV series *The Batman*.

He voiced the character Squanchy on Rick and Morty.[15]

Kenny at New York Comic Con in 2014

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, Dilbert's shower, and some minor 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.[16]

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),[17] Experian (as a talking modem alongside DC Douglas),[18] and Talking Hank in the YouTube web series *Talking Tom and Friends*.[19]

In video games, Kenny is best known as the voice of Spyro the Dragon, having replaced previous voice actor Carlos Alazraqui. He first voiced Spyro in *Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!*, and continued to voice the character up until *Spyro: A Hero's Tail*, where he was replaced by Jess Harnell. He also voiced another character in the series, Sgt. James Byrd, in *Spyro: Year of the Dragon*.[20] He reprised both roles in *Spyro Reignited Trilogy*, a collection of modern remakes of the original Spyro trilogy.[21]

#### *SpongeBob SquarePants*

Main article: SpongeBob SquarePants

Kenny in 2010 at San Diego Comic Con

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. In 2018, he received the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program.