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Thomas James "Tom" Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor, voice actor and comedian, best known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on Jacques Cousteau. He is also the narrator of Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls. 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 currently voices the Ice King in the Cartoon Network animated series Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, and voices additional characters on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, another Cartoon Network show. As of 2007, he has also hosted the show Funday Night at the Movies on TCM, which encourages children to watch old movies. He was born in Syracuse, New York.[1]

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 Idaho Music, Volume XIII 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 roady would go on to achieve fame: comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, whose film Shakes the Clown featured Kenny as Shakes' bitter archrival. In 1980 he was also briefly a member of Syracuse-based pop punk band The Trend along with Bobcat Goldthwait.

In 1992, 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 Jiménez. The music pays homage to The Beach Boys, The Archies, The Lovin' Spoonful, and The Troggs, among others.[2]

Voice acting career[]

File:Tom Kenny (2008).jpg

Kenny at the 2008 Comic-Con International.

Kenny has voiced many characters in over 200 productions.[3] Kenny said that he voices "a lot of sweet, kind of dumb yellow characters for some reason."[4]

Kenny played his first set of voice actor roles for Rocko's Modern Life.[4] Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for the series in a large casting call in Los Angeles, California.[5] On one occasion, 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. He said that this helped him believe that he could stand "toe to toe" with other voice actors.[6]

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.[7]

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, Etc.

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. Other villain roles have included the mobster villain the Penguin on the TV show The Batman.

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.[8] The series premiered on April 19, 2009.[8] Kenan Thompson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Bateman, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Henry Winkler, Will Arnett and Will Forte are the other main cast members.[8]

Kids' Choice Awards[]

Nickelodeon's annual Kids' Choice Awards is narrated by Tom Kenny. At the 2005 Kids' Choice Awards, he called himself "The World's Best Announcer". 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 2010 Kids' Choice Awards, he described himself as "The only Announcer that makes all this stuff up as he goes".

Filmography[]

Year Film Role Notes
1989 How I Got into College "B"
Dragon Ball Z Additional Voices Anime
1990 MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour Himself

1990 "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3" "Big Mouth (Voice Only as a Cameo)

1992 Rugrats Various
1992–1993 The Edge Various Television series
1993 Rocko's Modern Life Heffer Wolfe
Additional characters
voices only
Animated series
1994 The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth Timmy the Tooth voice only
Television series
1995 Mr. Show with Bob and David Various Television series
Mike & Spike Green-o Baby Episode: "Person To Shoe"
Mike & Spike Green-o Baby Episode: "Person To Alien"
1996 Dexter's Laboratory Val Hallen
Douglas E. Mordecai III
Various
voices
1997 Cow and Chicken additional voices animated series
I Am Weasel
1998 CatDog Dog
Cliff
Additional voices
voices only
Animated series
1999 The Judy Show Benny the Easter Bunny Rabbit
Joey the Little Kangaroo (Australian with an Australian accent)
Bongo the Circus Bear
Rocky the Raccoon (Southern Drawl with an Southern Drawl accent)
Sammy the Squirrel
The Powerpuff Girls The Mayor of Townsville
Narrator
Mitchel "Mitch" Mitchelson
Snake
Little Arturo
Rainbow the Clown
Additional characters
1999 Spyro the Dragon (2-4) Spyro the Dragon
Sergeant James Byrd
The Professor
Additional characters
voices only
Video game
SpongeBob SquarePants ongoing SpongeBob SquarePants
Gary the Snail
French Narrator
Mr. SquarePants
Jellyfish
Patchy the Pirate (live action segments)
Additional characters
voices
Animated series
Appeared in all 283 episodes
Futurama Yancy Fry
Additional characters
voices only
Animated series
Mission Hill Wally Langford
Supplemental Voices
Johnny Bravo Carl Chryniszzswics (1999–2001) voice only
Animated series
Dilbert Asok
Ratbert
Additional voices
The Brothers Flub additional voices
2000 Escape From Monkey Island Deadace Dave
Thrawtle the Lucre Lawyer
voices only
Video game
2001 Final Fantasy X Bobba
Rin
Wantz
voice only
Video game
The Mummy: The Animated Series Jonathan Carnaghan voices only
Animated series
The Fairly OddParents Cupid
Additional voices
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (film) Various characters voice only
Animated movie
Dr. Dolittle 2 Male Tortoise voice only
The Cramp Twins Wayne Cramp voice only
Animated series
Time Squad Eli Whitney
Sigmund Freud
Montezuma
2002 Codename: Kids Next Door Mr. Wink
The Common Cold
Knightbrace
Various
The Paz Show Additional Voices
The Powerpuff Girls Movie The Mayor
The Narrator
Ka-Ching Ka-Ching
Mitch Mitchelson
Snake
Arturo
voices only
¡Mucha Lucha! Additional Voices Animated series
3 South Various
What's New Scooby-Doo Natlas
Harry Harrison
Sam the Safety Engineer
voices only
Animated series
Run Ronnie Run TV News Reporter
Cult Leader Gleh'n
Home Movies Doctor Animated series
Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights Sharper Image Chair (voice)
2003 Windy City Heat Gay Costume Designer voice
Final Fantasy X-2 Rin
Wantz
voice only
Video game
Xiaolin Showdown Raimundo Pedrosa
Grand Master Dashi
Vlad
Hannibal Roy Bean
voices only
Animated series
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom SpongeBob Squarepants
Gary the Snail
voices only
Video game
Animatrix various voice only
Teen Titans Mumbo
Fixit
voice only
Animated series
Scary Movie 3 Alien (uncredited) voice only
2004 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie SpongeBob SquarePants
Gary the Snail
French Narrator
Clay
Tough Fish #2
Twin #2
Houston Voice
voices only
The Batman (TV series) Oswald "Ozzie" Chesterfield Cobblepot (the Penguin) voice only
Animated series
Comic Book: The Movie Derek Sprang Direct-to-video
Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! Gibson voice only
Animated series
Drake and Josh Teddy Bear
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Eduardo
Additional Voices
Brandy & Mr. Whiskers Ed
Rave Master Griff
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Eduardo voice only
TV Movie
April 16 baseball game between the Red Sox and New York Yankees Scooter the talking baseball voice only
Sports game
2005 Hoodwinked Tommy voice only
My Gym Partner's a Monkey Jake Spidermonkey
Henry the Armadillo
voice only
Animated series
The Boondocks Mall Santa #2, Father waiting in line for Santa
The Legend of Frosty the Snowman Mr. Tinkerton voice only
Direct-to-video
The Endless Summer (SpongeBob SquarePants short) SpongeBob SquarePants voice only
TV short
Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry Gorthan voice only
Direct-to-video
IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix Benjamin Bright voice only
Animated series
Camp Lazlo (2005) Scout Master Lumpus
Slinkman
voices only
Animated series
Sky High (2005 film) Chester Timmerman
Aloha, Scooby-Doo! Ruben Laluna
California Surfer
Tiny Tiki
voices only
Direct-to-video
2006 Tom Goes to the Mayor Saxman
Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie Peter Cottontail, Junior, Antoine voice only
Direct-to-video
The Buzz On Maggie Various
Class of 3000 Edward "Eddie" Phillip James Lawrence III, Ms. Squatenchowder. voice only
Animated series
Filming
Handy Manny Mr. Lopart
Pat
voice only
Animated series
Shorty McShorts' Shorts' Additional voices
Pucca Additional Voices Animated series
2007 Transformers: Animated Starscream, Scrapper, Isaac Sumdac, Waspinator, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ramjet, Sunstorm, Jetfire and Rattletrap voice only
Animated Series
Futurama: Bender's Big Score Yancy Fry
Word Girl T.J. Botsford/Dr. Two-Brains
Out Of Jimmy's Head Tux The Penguin
Crash of the Titans Ratnicians
Kids' Choice Awards Announcer
Meet the Robinsons Mr. Willerstein voice only
Happily N'Ever After Amigos #1/Dwarves #2/Wolf #1
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Pat Dudley, Grum
Atlantis SquarePantis SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail
2008 Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby Dr. Wolfowitz, Musical Comedy Wolf voice only
Computer-animated film
Phineas and Ferb Various
George and William Super D. M. and Penfold
Line Rider 2: Unbound Bosh voice only
videogames for Nintendo DS, Wii and PC
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Nute Gunray
Nahdarr Vebb
Various voices
voice only
Immigrants (L.A. Dolce Vita)
Making Fiends: Television Version Memo
additional voices
voice only
Animated series
Family Guy Various
Back at the Barnyard: Cowman: The Uddered Avenger Professor Twinny Vines
Martin Fargleman
voice only
Animated series
Crash: Mind over Mutant Ratnicians voice only
Video game
2009 Kids Choice Awards 2009 Announcer
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Wheelie/Skids voice only
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto Otto
The Super Hero Squad Show Iron Man, Captain America, Colossus, Juggernaut, MODOK
2010 Coulden in W Series : The Lost Empire Mr. Lopart
Wheelie
voice only
Direct-to-video
Futurama Yancy Fry
Additional characters
voices only
Animated series
El Chavo (animated series) Quico, Godinez voice only
Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back Ham III
True Jackson VP Bingo Guest Star Role
Kids Choice Awards 2010 Announcer voice only
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake The Ice King
Kung Fu Magoo Dr. Malicio
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Mr. Broccoli Head
Mr. Baywosenthal
Miller insurance announcer
Child #8
2011 Winnie the Pooh Rabbit

See also[]

  • Gotham Girls
  • SpongeBob SquarePants

References[]

External links[]

  1. REDIRECT Template:NNDB

Template:Mr. Show

ga:Tomás Ó Cionnaith it:Tom Kenny nl:Tom Kenny pt:Tom Kenny ru:Кенни, Томас sr:Том Кени fi:Tom Kenny sv:Tom Kenny th:ทอม เคนนี tr:Tom Kenny

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