Rob Riggle

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Allen "Rob" Riggle, Jr., USMCR (born April 21, 1970) is a United States Marine Corps officer, actor and comedian best known for his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show from 2006–2008, as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2004–2005, and for his comedic roles in films such as The Hangover, The Other Guys, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard and Step Brothers.

Personal life
Riggle was born in Louisville, Kentucky and raised in Overland Park, Kansas, where he attended Shawnee Mission South High School. He later graduated from the University of Kansas in 1992 with a B.A. in Theater and Film, and is a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He went on to earn a Master of Public Administration degree from Webster University in 1997. Riggle currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tiffany and their two children.

Military career
Riggle is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and served in Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. He is currently a public affairs officer with the New York City Public Affairs unit and is a recipient of the Combat Action Ribbon. Riggle joined the Marines in 1990 after getting his pilot's license, intending to become a Naval Aviator, but left flight school in order to pursue his comedy career. He has referred to his military experiences on The Daily Show, often when acting as the show's "Military Analyst", publicly stating he could kill any other member of the show.

In August 2007, Riggle went to Iraq to report for The Daily Show as well as to entertain the troops under the purview of the United Service Organizations.

Comedy partnership with Rob Huebel
He has a long-standing comedic partnership with comedian Rob Huebel with whom he frequently works at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and in their former improvisational sketch comedy troupe Respecto Montalban. Perhaps the duo's best known creation was their long running two-man show Kung Fu Grip which they often performed at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and other comedy venues for several years. The show gained so much popularity it was one of the featured acts in the 2004 HBO Comedy Arts Festival. Around this time the duo also began appearing together on a number of Comedy Central and VH1 programs. They appeared together on numerous talking head commentary programs such as VH1's Best Week Ever and A2Z. They also appeared on Bravo network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments special. These appearances got the duo their first mainstream exposure to television viewers. The two were instant fan favorites among regular viewers of the VH1 commentary programs.

The duo's growing popularity in the New York comedy scene landed them an audition on Saturday Night Live in the summer of 2004. The two auditioned together, getting called back a number of times before the SNL producers finally made their choice. Only Riggle ended up making the cut. After spending one season on SNL from 2004–2005, Riggle soon joined Huebel and many of his other Respecto partners in LA to work on new projects. It was announced soon after that the two were hired by NBC in early 2006 to help develop ideas for a possible new half-hour comedy program for the network.

In September 2006, Riggle ended up joining The Daily Show as a regular correspondent. Around the same time Huebel (along with Respecto member Paul Scheer and stand-up comic Aziz Ansari) started developing Human Giant, a sketch show for MTV. Riggle often appeared in the program's various sketches, as well as the group's 24-hour live marathon which aired on MTV in May 2007. One of Riggle's most memorable guest appearances was as hired muscle, Ham-Bone, who appeared alongside Aziz Ansari in the season one sketch "Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru".

Saturday Night Live
Before Riggle was hired as a cast member, he had a non-speaking role in a pre-taped season 29 sketch called "Fear Factor, Jr.", which was featured on the episode hosted by Donald Trump (with musical guest Toots and the Maytals featuring Bootsy Collins and The Roots). Riggle played the father during the "Breakfast in Bed" challenge in which a child must eat the maggots off a plate of Eggs Benedict or his parents will divorce.

A featured player during the 2004-2005 season, his first appearance as a cast member was on the show's thirtieth season premiere on October 2, 2004. He has portrayed Larry the Cable Guy, Howard Dean, Rick Sanchez, Mark McGwire, and Toby Keith, and had a one-shot character named Leviticus, a loud, violent street preacher who only appeared on a Weekend Update segment on the Christmas episode hosted by Robert DeNiro (another sketch featuring Leviticus was scheduled to air on the episode hosted by Hilary Swank, but that sketch was cut after dress rehearsal).

The Daily Show
In September 2006, he joined the cast of The Daily Show to replace the departing Rob Corddry. Riggle made his debut on The Daily Show on September 20, 2006.

During the 2008 Olympics, Riggle traveled to China to tape sketches for The Daily Show, producing a four-part special feature titled "Rob Riggle: Chasing the Dragon."

Riggle left The Daily Show on December 10, 2008, in his words "to go fight crime"; however, he appeared at Bonnaroo 2009 - along with John Oliver and Rory Albanese, one of the show's executive producers - in a show entitled An Evening (or Afternoon) with the Daily Show featuring John Oliver, Rob Riggle & Rory Albanese.

On August 9, 2010, Riggle appearred on the Daily Show during an interview with Will Ferrell. While Ferrell and Stewart were discussing Riggle's lack of talent, Riggle came onto the set to "say hi".

Stand-Up Comedy
Previously, Riggle's live comedy work was mostly improvisational and sketch based, but beginning in 2006 he wanted to try something different and decided to work on creating a stand-up comedy act. After working on his act around various comedy clubs throughout New York City, he later began touring colleges and other local comedy clubs, often performing in stand-up shows with John Oliver and other writers from The Daily Show.

Riggle most recently performed some stand-up while hosting an episode of Comedy Central's Live at Gotham on December 4, 2009. He also taped a Comedy Central Presents special that aired March 5, 2010.

Other work
Riggle played the character of Eddie Reynolds in Blackballed, a 2004 film starring Rob Corddry as the lead character, and featuring almost all of the Respecto Montalban group. Later that year Riggle was one of the "Flab Four" on the Comedy Central mini-series Straight Plan for the Gay Man, a parody of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that ran for three episodes.

In 2006, Riggle guest-starred as a boat captain named Captain Jack on the "Booze Cruise" episode of The Office, and as an anti-euthanasia activist on Arrested Development. He was also seen as a NASCAR announcer in Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell.

In late 2007, Riggle began appearing as a spokesman in a series of Budweiser commercials. The year 2008 saw Riggle sign a talent holding contract with CBS and CBS Paramount Network TV, which includes a development deal to create and star in a half-hour comedy series. In addition he gained a supporting role in Step Brothers, in which he plays a rude co-worker of Brennan (Will Ferrell). He had memorable supporting roles in the 2009 films The Hangover and The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Riggle also has supporting roles in the 2010 comedies Going the Distance, Killers and The Other Guys.

In 2009, Riggle started a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried. Riggle played the role of Mitch, Jay Mohr's brother from the Marines.

Riggle and comedian Paul Scheer recently wrote and starred together in a series of filmed sketches called "Designated Driver" for the HBO sketch comedy program Funny or Die Presents, which began airing in February 2010. Riggle, Scheer and Rob Huebel are also currently working on a new series of sketches together for Funny or Die Presents upcoming second season, which starts airing in early 2011.

Riggle plays Captain Andy in the children's fire safety series "Rainbow Valley Fire Department".