Kenan Thompson

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Kenan Thompson
Kenan Thompson 2012 (cropped).jpg
Thompson in May 2012
Born (1978-05-10) May 10, 1978 (age 40)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
OccupationActor, comedian
Years active1993–present
Television
Spouse(s)
Christina Evangeline (m. 2011)
Children2
Websitewww.kenanthompson.net

Kenan Thompson (/ˈkiːnən/ born May 10, 1978)[1] is an American actor and comedian. Thompson began his acting career in the early 1990s, and garnered fame as an original cast member of Nickelodeon's sketch comedy series All That.

In his early career, he often collaborated with fellow All That costar Kel Mitchell. In 1996, they began starring in their own sitcom Kenan & Kel (1996–2000). He has been a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live since 2003, and is the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history, surpassing Darrell Hammond. Thompson is also known for his roles in The Mighty Ducks franchise, Good Burger, and the title character in the 2004 film Fat Albert.

He has received a Primetime Emmy Award from three nominations,[2] and is ranked at #88 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars.

Early life and career[edit]

Thompson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Fletcher and Elizabeth Ann Thompson. He has two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. He began acting at age 15, appearing in the school play The Gingerbread Duck.[3] He auditioned for a theatre company The Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA).[4] One of his earliest roles was as an entertainment reporter for CNN's "Real News for Kids",[5] and he would go on to star in All That with such characters as Principal Pimpell, Miss Piddlin, and Superdude, and as Kenan Rockmore Kenan & Kel.[5] While Kenan attended Tri-Cities High School, a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School in East Point, Georgia, he began filming his first movie, D2: The Mighty Ducks.

Film and television career[edit]

Kenan has starred in several films including Good Burger, based on the All That sketch of the same title, and Fat Albert, in which he played the title character. He has also had supporting roles in the movies Heavyweights, D2: The Mighty Ducks, D3: The Mighty Ducks, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, My Boss's Daughter, and Snakes on a Plane. Thompson had a recurring role on The Steve Harvey Show as Junior, with co-star Kel Mitchell.

In 2009, Thompson was a regular voice actor in the Fox cartoon series Sit Down, Shut Up, portraying Sue Sezno, who, as evinced by her last name, always says no.[6] The series premiered on April 19, 2009,[6] but was canceled after only four episodes due to low ratings and less than favorable reviews. Thompson provided the voice for the LeBron James puppet in Nike's MVP "Most Valuable Puppets" commercials, which were produced to be shown throughout the 2009 NBA Playoffs. Thompson also guest starred on the USA Network TV show Psych in Season 4's "High Top Fade Out" (episode 7). He played an estranged college singing buddy of the character Gus. In 2011, he briefly returned to Nickelodeon, as he guest starred in "iParty with Victorious", a crossover episode of TV sitcoms iCarly and Victorious.

Thompson appeared as a host of sorts of TeenNick's 1990s programming block, The '90s Are All That, appearing in many of the block's early bumpers and hyping material. He would return to the block, now called NickSplat but at the time called The Splat, for All That's 22nd anniversary, with segments filmed at the 2015 New York Comic-Con.[7]

In 2015, Fandango announced that Thompson would play their brand character, fictional character Miles Mouvay. Thompson would play Mouvay in 18 videos, eight 30-second commercials, and a few comedic skits.[8]

On September 23, 2015, Thompson appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon alongside former All That co-star Kel Mitchell in which they reprised their popular Good Burger roles as "Ed" and "Lester Oakes, Construction Worker".They later competed against one another in an episode of the revived Nickelodeon game show Double Dare that aired in November 2018.[9]

In February 2019, Thompson was announced as a judge for NBC’s upcoming comedy competition series Bring the Funny.[10]He was also announced as executive producer for Nickelodeon's All That revival, premiering in the summer. [11]

Saturday Night Live[edit]

Thompson returned to sketch comedy when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2003, becoming the first SNL cast member to be born after SNL's premiere in 1975. Thompson was a featured player until 2005 (spanning the 29th and 30th seasons) and was promoted to repertory player at the beginning of season 31 (the 2005–2006 season).

In 2013, he refused to play any more black women on the show and demanded SNL hire black women instead.[12][13]

Thompson has been a cast member on SNL for 16 seasons, breaking the record for the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history previously held by Darrell Hammond, who was on the show for 14 seasons. Thompson became the most senior cast member in the 2013–14 season, following the departure of Seth Meyers. He is also the longest-serving African-American cast member, surpassing Tim Meadows, who stayed on the show for ten seasons, and is also the second-oldest current cast member after Leslie Jones (born 1967).[14] Thompson also holds the record for most celebrity impressions performed on the show, performing 129, beating Hammond's previous record of 107.[15]

Personal life[edit]

Thompson married model Christina Evangeline on November 11, 2011.[16] Together, they have two daughters, born in June 2014,[17][18] and August 2018.[19]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1994 D2: The Mighty Ducks Russ Tyler
1995 Heavyweights Roy
1996 D3: The Mighty Ducks Russ Tyler
1997 Good Burger Dexter Reed
2000 The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Lewis
2002 Big Fat Liar Party Guest
2002 The Master of Disguise Guy on Computer
2003 Love Don't Cost a Thing Walter Colley
2003 My Boss's Daughter Hans
2004 Barbershop 2: Back in Business Kenard
2004 Fat Albert Fat Albert
2006 Snakes on a Plane Troy
2008 Space Chimps Ringmaster Voice
Wieners Wyatt
2009 Stan Helsing Teddy
2011 The Smurfs Greedy Smurf Voice
2012 The Magic of Belle Isle Henry
2013 The Smurfs 2 Greedy Smurf Voice
2014 They Came Together Teddy
2014 Opposite Sex Mitch
2016 Rock Dog Riff Voice
2016 Brother Nature Miesha
2017 Going in Style Keith
2018 The Grinch Bricklebaum Voice
2019 Wonder Park Gus

Television[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1994–99; 2002; 2005; 2019 All That Various Roles Main role; Guest role (seasons 7, 10); executive producer (season 11)
1996–98 The Steve Harvey Show Junior 4 episodes
1996–2000 Kenan & Kel Kenan Rockmore Main role
1997 Sister, Sister Trevor Episode: "Inherit the Twin"
1998 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Himself Episode: "Sabrina's Choice"
1999 The Amanda Show Himself Episode: "Episode 1"
1999 Cousin Skeeter Kenan Rockmore Episodes: "Hoo, I'm Wild Wild West" (Parts 1 & 2)
2000 The Parkers Damon Episode: "Trading Places"
2001 Felicity DeForrest Ingram 4 episodes
2002 Off Centre MC French 2 episodes
2003 Clifford the Big Red Dog Hamburger Episode: "Food for Thought/Friends Forever"
2003–present Saturday Night Live Various roles Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics (2018)
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics (2017)
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
2005, 2018 Wild 'N Out Himself Episodes: "Kenan Thompson"
"All That Takeover"
2006 Rugrats Mirror Episode: "Tales from the Crib: Snow White"
2007 Crank Yankers Mark Thomas Episode: "4.1"
2008 The Mighty B! Rocky Rhodes 3 episodes
2009 Psych Joon Episode: "High Top Fade-Out"
2009 Sit Down, Shut Up Sue Sezno 13 episodes
2011 iCarly Himself Crossover episode: "iParty with Victorious"
2011 Victorious
2011 The '90s Are All That Host
2013 Martha Speaks Stanley Episode: "Stanley Saves The Day/Milo Goes For Gold"[20]
2013–15 The Awesomes Austin "Impresario" Sullivan Voice
2015 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Lester Oakes Episode: "James Spader/Andrew Rannells/Brian Regan
2015–2017 Nature Cat Ronald Voice
2015 F Is for Family Additional Voices 5 Episodes
2016 Maya & Marty Various roles Main role
2016, 2019 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Roland 2 episodes
2017-19 Match Game Himself/Panelist 4 episodes[21]
2018 Double Dare Himself Contestant; episode: "Team Kel vs. Team Kenan"
2018 Studio C Himself, various roles [22][23]
2019 The Masked Singer Himself Guest judge; episodes 8, 9[24]
2019 Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Himself [25]

Albums[edit]

Year Title Notes
2004 Good Times Comedy album

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Kenan Thompson". TV Guide. Archived from the original on July 27, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  2. ^ "Kenan Thompson". emmy.com. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  3. ^ "Kenan Thompson Biography – Yahoo! Movies".
  4. ^ Tuck, Angela (August 5, 2015). "For 25 years, group for young Atlanta performers has mixed art, issues". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Kenan Thompson Biography (1978–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
  6. ^ a b "Sit Down, Shut Up". Fox. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
  7. ^ Harnick, Chris (March 23, 2016). "An All That Reunion Is Coming to The Splat—This Is Vital Information for Your Everyday Life". E! Online. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  8. ^ "Fandango To Launch Brand Personality Series Starring Kenan Thompson". Tubefilter. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  9. ^ Lawrence, Derek (June 25, 2018). "Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell reuniting to compete on special episode of Double Dare". Entertainment Weekly.
  10. ^ Otterson, Joe (February 1, 2019). "NBC Orders Comedy Competition Series With Jeff Foxworthy Among Judges". Variety.
  11. ^ Schwartz, Ryan (February 14, 2019). "All That Revival Ordered at Nick, With Kenan Thompson On Board as EP". TVLine.
  12. ^ Weisman, Aly. "'SNL's' Kenan Thompson Refuses To Dress In Drag Until The Show Hires A Black Woman". Business Insider. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  13. ^ Nast, Condé. "16 Times Women Changed the Game on 'Saturday Night Live'". Glamour. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  14. ^ "Fred Armisen Is Leaving 'SNL' Too, Jason Sudeikis "Probably"". May 16, 2013.
  15. ^ “Saturday Night Live – Kenan Thompson“ SNLarchives.net. Web. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  16. ^ Rebecca Macatee. "Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson Gets Married!". US Weekly. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  17. ^ Heller, Corinne (June 22, 2014). "Here's an SNL Weekend Update: Kenan Thompson Is a Dad!". E! Online. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  18. ^ Evelyn Diaz (June 23, 2014). "Kenan Thompson, Wife Welcome Baby Girl - It's the first child for the SNL comedian". BET. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  19. ^ "'SNL' Star Kenan Thompson and Christina Evangeline Welcome Their Second Child". August 4, 2018.
  20. ^ "PBS KIDS Debuts New Episodes & Online Content from ARTHUR and MARTHA SPEAKS – BWWTVWorld". Broadway World TV. October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  21. ^ http://epguides.com/MatchGame/
  22. ^ "Studio C + Kenan Thompson in Season 9 Premiere!". YouTube, Studio C Channel. September 10, 2018.
  23. ^ "Studio C Live from NYC". BYUTV.org. September 10, 2018.
  24. ^ Henderson, Cydney (February 20, 2019). "'The Masked Singer' recap: Two celebrities are revealed in the semifinals". USA Today. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  25. ^ "Boomerang Unveils New SCOOBY-DOO AND GUESS WHO? & YABBA-DABBA DINOSAURS! Series". Broadway World. May 23, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2018.

External links[edit]

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