Wikipedia

Chris Kattan

Christopher Lee Kattan (/kəˈtæn/ kə-TAN; born October 19, 1970)[1] is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Kattan found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003. He also played Doug Butabi in A Night at the Roxbury, Bob on the first five seasons of The Middle, and Bunnicula in Bunnicula. He's also known for playing the main antagonist Mr. Feather in Undercover Brother (2002).

Chris Kattan
Kattan at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York City at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born
Christopher Lee Kattan

(1970-10-19) October 19, 1970 (age 54)
Culver City, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • comedian
Years active1993–present
Television
Spouse
Sunshine Deia Tutt
​
​
(m. 2008; div. 2009)​
ParentKip King (father)
RelativesAndrew Joslyn (half-brother)

Early life

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Kattan was born in Culver City, California.[2] His father, Kip King (né Jerome Kattan; 1937–2010), was born to Jewish parents from Iraq and Poland and worked as an actor and voice artist. His mother, Hajnalka Biro (b. 1944), was once photographed for Playboy and worked as a model in London. She is a native of Budapest, Hungary, and is a Buddhist.[3][4] His stepfather was a Buddhist therapist and monk.[5] His half-brother, Andrew Joslyn, is a professional musician and composer.[6]

Kattan was raised on a Zen retreat on Mount San Antonio, outside Los Angeles.[5] He and his mother moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he attended Bainbridge High School, graduating in 1989.[citation needed]

Career

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Kattan was a member of several improvisational comedy (improv) and sketch comedy troupes, one of them being The Groundlings in Los Angeles. His father was an original member of the troupe.[7] Kattan also did some minor roles on TV, including the second episode of the second season of NewsRadio, "No, This Is Not Based Entirely on Julie's Life", as a photo shop employee.

He moved to New York City to work on Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003. His recurring characters included Mr. Peepers, Mango, Azrael Abyss, Kyle DeMarco from The DeMarco Brothers, Gay Hitler, and, most notably, one half of the Butabi Brothers with fellow SNL (and Groundlings) cast member Will Ferrell, known for their trademark head-bobbing. Kattan and Ferrell continued the characters in the 1998 film, A Night at the Roxbury.

SNL celebrity impersonations

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Kattan on August 19, 1999 (after Lorne Michaels received his star on the Walk of Fame)

2007–present: post-SNL work

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Kattan appeared in a Diet Pepsi Max commercial during Super Bowl XLII in 2008 that featured the song "What Is Love" and had many actors in the commercial performing the head bob from A Night at the Roxbury.

In August 2009, Kattan starred in the Independent Film Channel (IFC) miniseries Bollywood Hero, where he portrays himself and the difficulties he faces after a career as a comic actor, trying to attain leading man status.[8] Starting in late 2009, Kattan appeared in a supporting role in The Middle. Kattan played Bob, a colleague of Frankie Heck's at Mr. Ehlert's car dealership. Kattan appeared in an episode of How I Met Your Mother as a star in "The Wedding Bride", a fictional movie within the show. He played himself portraying Jed Mosely, the film's villain, which the screenwriter bases on his girlfriend's ex-fiancé, series protagonist, Ted Mosby. He reappeared as the character in the fictional film's sequel, Wedding Bride 2.[9] On December 17, 2011, Kattan made a guest appearance on the Saturday Night Live Christmas show, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, and again briefly on the final episode of SNL's 37th season.

In June 2014, Kattan reprised his role as former SNL character Mango in a preview of the music video for Sharaya J's "Shut It Down", featured in a fashion campaign by Alexander Wang.[10]

In 2017, Kattan was a contestant on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars paired with professional dancer Witney Carson. He was the first celebrity dancer eliminated.[11]

Kattan reunited with fellow SNL alumni Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, and Tracy Morgan during the December 18, 2018 cold open of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which also featured Ariana Grande, in a reprisal of their performance of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today".[12] It was the first time since 2011 that Fallon, Sanz, Kattan, and Morgan were all present for a performance of the song.

In 2022, Kattan was announced as a HouseGuest competing on the third season of Celebrity Big Brother.[13]

In 2023, Kattan did voice work in the film Leo as Alligator #1.[14]

Personal life

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Kattan married model Sunshine Deia Tutt on June 28, 2008, in Oakhurst, California, after proposing to her on Christmas Eve 2006.[15] The couple separated forty-four days later on August 10, 2008, and divorced in February 2009.[16]

On March 25, 2023, Kattan proposed to his girlfriend, Maria Libri, a writer and former on-air personality, in front of the stage at a Wilco concert held at the Riviera Theatre, while the Chicago band played "I'm the Man Who Loves You." The band members knew about the proposal. Kattan and Libri had met eighteen months before the proposal when Kattan was performing a stand-up comedy show at Boondocks Pub in Springfield. They have since collaborated on writing projects, including a romantic comedy, and have also appeared together on the YouTube channel, Hey Kattan![17]

Neck injury

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Kattan competed in Dancing with the Stars in 2017, where judges criticized him for his stiff upper body movement. Afterward, Kattan revealed that he broke his neck while performing a stunt fourteen years prior and has had impaired mobility ever since. He further admitted the pain medication he began taking following his fourth surgery led to a 2014 DUI arrest.[18] In his 2019 memoir, Kattan claimed that he broke his neck while filming an SNL sketch parodying The Golden Girls, during which he threw himself backwards on a chair. Additionally, NBC paid for two of the five surgeries he underwent afterwards.[19]

Memoir

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In 2019, Kattan published a memoir, titled Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live, which included the accident on SNL.[19]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Film Role Notes
1993 The Making of '...And God Spoke' Moviegoer #1
1998 A Night at the Roxbury Doug Butabi
1999 House on Haunted Hill Watson Pritchett
2000 Any Given Wednesday Al Pacino Short film
2001 Monkeybone Organ Donor Stu
Corky Romano Corky Romano
2002 Undercover Brother Mr. Feather
2005 Adam & Steve Michael
Santa's Slay Jason Mason
2007 Undead or Alive: A Zombedy Luke Rudd
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Walter Melon (voice) [20]
Nancy Drew Burglar
Christmas in Wonderland Leonard Cardoza
2008 Delgo Filo (voice) [20]
2009 Scouts Honor: Badge to the Bone Brandon
Tanner Hall George Middlewood
2010 Hollywood & Wine Jack Sanders
Devolved Coach Papillion
2011 Hard Breakers Hertz Waters
A Holiday Heist Uncle Harry
2012 Foodfight! Polar Penguin (voice) [20]
Crazy Enough Fred/Teddy
Guns, Girls and Gambling Gay Elvis
2013 Slightly Single in L.A. Drew
2015 Troop Hood Phil Neffler Short film
Hotel Transylvania 2 Kakie (voice) [20]
The Ridiculous 6 John Wilkes Booth
The Passenger Sebastian Short film
ImagiGARY Officer Jones
2016 The Last Film Festival Harvey Weinstein
2017 Desiderata Man Short film
Walk of Fame Alejandro
Breaking Legs Robby
How to Get Girls Mr. Fox
2018 Mr. Malevolent Mr. Preevy
The Bobby Roberts Project Self Mockumentary
2019 The Soviet Sleep Experiment Subject 3
2020 Guest House Delivery Guy Ricky
In Other Words Maximillion Woods
2021 40-Love Bootman
Famous Lawrence Nichols
2023 Leo Alligator #1 (voice) [20]

Television

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Year Film Role Notes
1995 NewsRadio Employee #3 Episode: "No, This Is Not Based Entirely on Julie's Life"
1996 Grace Under Fire Carnival Barker Episode: "Guess Who's Not Coming to Lunch?"
1996–2003;
2006; 2011 		Saturday Night Live Various roles Series regular: 1996–2003; guest: 2006 & 2011
148 episodes
2005 Enough About Me Chris Adams TV film
2006 Totally Awesome Gabriel TV film
The Year Without a Santa Claus Sparky TV film
2007 Two Dreadful Children Chet Dunbar (voice) TV film
2008 Gym Teacher: The Movie Sploopers Show Host/ESPN Announcer TV film
2009 AllaKattan! Self
2009–2014 The Middle Bob Weaver Series regular, 56 episodes
2010–2014 How I Met Your Mother Jed Mosely 2 episodes
2011 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Casey Madisenn/Bill Fisk Episode: "28 July 2011"
2014 The (206) Various roles Episode: "Season 2, Episode 12"
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Craig Newton Episode: "Kevin Spacey/Lewis Black"
2014–2015 Jake and the Never Land Pirates King Zongo (voice) 3 episodes
2015 The Awesomes Indiana Johnson (voice) Episode: "Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughters"
2016 Jingle Ballin' DJ Booth
2016–2018 Bunnicula Bunnicula, Arthur Monroe (voice) Main cast (69 episodes)[20][21]
2017 Real Rob Mitch Episode: "Acupuncture & Spring Rolls"
Sharknado 5: Global Swarming Prime Minister TV film
2017–2018 Voltron: Legendary Defender Blaytz (voice) 3 episodes
2018 The Time Capsule Rod TV film
Lent! Conrad TV film
2021 Beebo Saves Christmas Sprinkles, Elfin-Mark-V (voice) Television special[20]
2022 Celebrity Big Brother 3 Himself
The Cuphead Show! Werner Werman (voice) Episode: "Rat's All, Folks"

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Nominated work Result
2000 Teen Choice Awards Choice TV Personality Saturday Night Live Nominated
2001 Teen Choice Awards Choice Comedian — Nominated
2013 Bonehead Award Best Actor Just Crazy Enough Won
2016 Hoboken International Film Festival Award Best Supporting Actor Breaking Legs Nominated

References

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  1. ^ Chris Kattan [@ChrisKattan] (October 19, 2020). "I'm 50 years old today everybody everybody!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Kattan, Chris (October 8, 2001). "Interview with Chris Kattan". The Howard Stern Show (Interview). Interviewed by Howard Stern. Event occurs at 3:00. I was born in Culver City.
  3. ^ Parsi, Novid (August 5, 2009). "Kattan can…". Time Out Chicago. Archived from the original on 2012-10-17. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  4. ^ Bloom, Nate (April 15, 2008). "Celebrity Jews". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Archived from the original on April 15, 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ a b Rhodes, Joe (July 31, 2009). "Chris Kattan, Reincarnated in Mumbai for 'Bollywood Hero' on IFC". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Zwickel, Jonathan (January 25, 2017). "Pop Intuition". CityArts. Archived from the original on January 27, 2017.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ Gardner, Elysa (October 3, 2004). "After 30 years, The Groundlings still dig up yuks". USA Today.
  8. ^ *Bollywood Hero at IMDb
  9. ^ Stanhope, Kate (April 1, 2010). "How I Met Your Mother Taps Malin Akerman, Jason Lewis, Chris Kattan". TV Guide. Retrieved November 29, 2013.
  10. ^ "Watching The Week: T by Alexander Wang 2014 Campaign". Hunger TV. 8 June 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-06-17. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  11. ^ "Dancing With the Stars 2017: Season 24 celebrity cast and partners revealed on 'GMA'". ABC News. March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  12. ^ ""I Wish It Was Christmas Today" with Ariana Grande (Cold Open)". NBC. December 18, 2018.
  13. ^ "Celebrity Big Brother Season 3 Cast Revealed: Meet the New Famous Houseguests". January 26, 2022. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  14. ^ Luciani, Kim (November 22, 2023). "Adam Sandler plays emotional support lizard from Florida school in new Netflix movie Leo". News Press. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  15. ^ "Chris Kattan Engaged to Sunshine Tutt". Celebrific. August 1, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24.
  16. ^ "Chris Kattan Divorced After 2-Month Marriage". People. October 15, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  17. ^ "Chris Kattan proposes to Maria Libri at Wilco concert in Chicago". The State Journal-Register. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  18. ^ Gomez, Patrick (March 28, 2017). "Chris Kattan Tells All About His Secret 20-Year Health Nightmare After Breaking His Neck". People. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  19. ^ a b Schneider, Michael (May 3, 2019). "Chris Kattan Claims He Broke His Neck During Saturday Night Live Sketch". Variety. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g "Chris Kattan (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 23, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  21. ^ Serrao, Nivea (February 5, 2016). "5 Things to Know About Creepy-Cute Bunnicula From Cartoon Network". TV Insider. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
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