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Thomas Kenny
Kenny at the 2009 Comic-Con International in San Diego, California
Born	Thomas James Kenny
Occupation	Voice actor/Comedian
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Jill Talley (1993–present)

Thomas James "Tom" Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American voice actor and comedian, noted for his long-running role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name. He also voices Gary, the French narrator and others. Aside from voice acting, Kenny starred in the short-lived Fox sketch show The Edge, and was a cast member of the HBO sketch comedy program Mr. Show, where he worked with Jill Talley, whom he subsequently married. He also hosts the show Funday Night at the Movies on TCM, which tries to encourage kids to watch "old movies."

Musical career

Kenny was the lead vocalist for a Syracuse-based band The Tearjerkers in the early 1980s, replacing original vocalist Buddy Love. Other members of The Tearjerkers included Charlie Robbins, Dave DeCirce, and Dave Soule, who is still active in the central New York music scene. "Syracuse Summer" is the group's best-known song, and is included on The History of Syracuse Music, Volume XII and XIII. The record also contains early recordings by Ronnie James Dio, under the names "Ronnie and the Red Caps" and "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets." While the Tearjerkers did not become a national act, one Tearjerkers roadie would go on to achieve fame: comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, whose film Shakes the Clown featured Kenny as Shakes' bitter archrival.

In 1990, Kenny appeared regularly on NBC's music video show Friday Night Videos, in a recurring comedic Music News segment. In 1991, he took over as the show's regular host until being replaced later that year by Frankie Crocker.

In 1996, Kenny appeared along with his wife, Jill Talley, in the music video for "Tonight, Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins, playing a young couple taking their honeymoon on the Moon. The video was hugely popular, winning six MTV Video Music Awards. Kenny also appeared in the music video for "Sing" by Travis.

Kenny came full-circle with his musical past in 2006 when he co-wrote and recorded SpongeBob SquarePants: The Best Day Ever with producer Andy Paley. While Kenny's singing on the CD is done in the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants and other characters from the show, he was very serious about the quality of the actual music on the disc and was able to enlist help from such musical royalty as Brian Wilson, Tommy Ramone, and Flaco Jimenez. The music pays homage to The Beach Boys, The Archies, The Lovin' Spoonful, and The Troggs, among others.

Voice acting career

Kenny voiced many characters in many productions. Kenny said that he voices "a lot of sweet, kind of dumb yellow characters for some reason."

Kenny played his first set of voice actor roles for Rocko's Modern Life. Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for the series in a large casting call in Los Angeles, California, United States. On one occasion during the production, the producers required Kenny to fill the role of Charlie Adler, who was absent on that occasion. In addition, Kenny had to perform one song and learn how to play another song within ten minutes due to time constraints. Kenny achieved this goal. He said that this helped him believe that he could stand "toe to toe" with other voice actors.

Joe Murray chose Kenny for a voice acting position in Camp Lazlo 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 also had a few roles in The Powerpuff Girls TV show. He was the Mayor, the Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake and Little Arturo from the Gangreen Gang, Rainbow the Clown, and other characters.

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. He has also played several other minor characters. On Dilbert, Kenny was the voice of both Ratbert and Asok.

He played Mr. Hal Gibson in the popular animated kids show Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!

He was also the voice of Skids and Wheelie in the 2009 live-action Transformers movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

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 also voiced the Penguin On the Batman

Kids' Choice Awards

Nickelodeon's annual Kids' Choice Awards is narrated by Tom Kenny. At the 2007 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself the "Man of 1,000 Voices, all of them this one." Kenny was recently featured as the Voice in a Box at the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards. On the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself "the only announcer who does all of his own stunts". At the 2005 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself "The World's Best Announcer".

Filmography

See also

• Gotham Girls
• SpongeBob SquarePants

References

1. http://www.syracuse.com/blogs/listenup/index.ssf?/mtlogs/syr_listenup/archives/2006_10.html#194564
2. ^ "A discussion with Tom Kenny of 'SpongeBob Squarepants'." St. Augustine Record
3. "Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life," The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ
4. Lawson, Tim and Alisa Persons. The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors. "192."
5. Q & A with Joe Murray," Cartoon Network Pressroom
6. ^ "Sit Down, Shut Up". Fox. Retrieved 2009-04-14.

External links

• Tom Kenny at IMDb
• NNDB (Notable Names DataBase) Profile
• Interview with Tom Kenny on Fresh Air

• 1962 births
• Actors from New York
• American film actors
• American rock singers
• American stand-up comedians
• American voice actors
• Musicians from New York
• Living people
• People from Syracuse, New York
• SpongeBob SquarePants