Rob Riggle

Rob Riggle
Riggle in August 2008
Born	Robert Allen Riggle, Jr. (1970-04-21) April 21, 1970 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian, U.S. Marine
Years active	1998–present
Military career
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps Reserve
Rank	Lieutenant colonel
Battles/wars	Kosovo War War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
Awards	Combat Action Ribbon

Robert Allen "Rob" Riggle, Jr. (born April 21, 1970) is an American actor, comedian and retired United States Marine Corps Reserve officer. He is best known for his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show from 2006 to 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 Lorax, 21 Jump Street, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, and Step Brothers. As of 2011, he has co-starred in the Adult Swim comedy-action series NTSF:SD:SUV::. Beginning in September 2012, Riggle replaced Frank Caliendo for the comedy skit and prognostication portions of Fox NFL Sunday.

Early life

Riggle was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Sandra Sue (née Hargis) and Robert Allen Riggle. He was 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, whilst also attained his pilot's license, 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.

Military career

Riggle is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and served in Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. He is 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 USO.

On January 1, 2013 Riggle announced, via his Facebook page and on an interview on Rove LA, that he had retired from the Marine Corps after 23 years of service.

Comedy career

Comedy partnership with Rob Huebel

He has a long-standing comedic partnership with comedian Rob Huebel with whom he frequently works with at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCBT) 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 UCBT and other comedy venues for many years. The show was one of the featured acts in the 2004 HBO Comedy Arts Festival. Around this time they began appearing together in several of Comedy Central and VH1's talking head commentary programs such as Best Week Ever and A2Z. They also appeared in Bravo network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments special in 2004. 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. Riggle, Huebel and most of their fellow castmates from Respecto Montalban also performed regularly in comedic sketches on Late Night with Conan O'Brien throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade).

The duo's growing popularity landed them an audition on Saturday Night Live in the summer of 2004. They auditioned together, though only Riggle ended up making the cut. After spending one season on Saturday Night Live from 2004–2005, Riggle soon joined Huebel and many of his other Respecto Montalban castmates in Los Angeles to work on new projects. Soon after, the two landed a holding deal at NBC in early 2006 to develop a new half-hour comedy program for the network, though nothing has come of it since then.

In September 2006, Riggle joined The Daily Show as a regular correspondent. Around the same time Huebel (along with Respecto Montalban member Paul Scheer and stand-up comic Aziz Ansari) started developing Human Giant, a sketch show for MTV. Riggle would often appear in the program's various sketches, as well as in the show'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". Riggle and Huebel can also be seen performing a sketch together on stage at the UCBT in Doug Benson's documentary Super High Me.

Saturday Night Live

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 De Niro (another sketch featuring Leviticus was scheduled to air on the episode hosted by Hilary Swank, but that sketch was cut after dress rehearsal).

Prior to being hired as a cast member, Riggle also appeared in a non-speaking role in the previous season (season 29) in a pre-taped parody of Fear Factor. Riggle played the father of one of the child contestants 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.

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 3, 2010, Riggle made a surprise cameo on The Daily Show during an interview with Will Ferrell. While Ferrell and Stewart began discussing Riggle's "lack of talent" and making other disparaging remarks about him, Riggle suddenly walked onto the set to surprise them and asks if they were talking about him. Riggle's intimidating presence appears to make Ferrell and Stewart visibly afraid, continuing the running-joke that Stewart is very afraid of Riggle.

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 credits John Oliver for first encouraging him to try stand-up while they shared an office together at The Daily Show.

Riggle hosted an episode of Comedy Central's stand-up series Live at Gotham on December 4, 2009. He also taped a Comedy Central Presents special that aired on March 5, 2010.

Other work

Riggle played the character of Eddie Reynolds in Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, 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 had 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.

In 2010, Riggle and comedian Paul Scheer wrote and starred together in a series of sketches called "Designated Driver" for the first season of the HBO sketch comedy program Funny or Die Presents. Riggle, Scheer and Rob Huebel wrote and starred in a new series of sketches called "Death Hunt", which appeared on the show's second season in 2011.

For the 2010-2011 NFL football season, Riggle recorded a Monday Night Football introduction and several short comedy bits for the Kansas City Chiefs to be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Riggle played the lead in 2011 CBS sitcom pilot "Home Game", executive produced by Mark Wahlberg.

Riggle is seen in stadium monitors at Qwest Field during Seahawks games encouraging fans to cheer.

In May 2011, Riggle appeared in a 2-minute short on funnyordie.com as the U.S. Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden. Riggle plays a humble US Navy Lieutenant (though the insignia on his uniform displays three solid gold bands, indicating the O-5 rank of Commander) who, upon being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, pledges absolute discretion—only to get intoxicated at a local bar and boast unreservedly to a large crowd that he was bin Laden's assailant.

Since 2011, Riggle has co-starred as "The President of the Navy" in the Adult Swim comedy-action series NTSF:SD:SUV::.

In April 2012, Riggle was announced as the upcoming host of the 2012 ESPY Awards on ESPN. The show aired on July 11, 2012.

In 2012, Riggle had a recurring role as "Kevin Jesquire", in season two of the FX comedy series Wilfred.

Fox NFL Sunday

Beginning with the 19th season premiere of the Fox NFL Sunday pre-game show on September 9, 2012, Riggle took over the comedy skit and prognosticator portions of the show previously performed by Frank Caliendo from 2003–2011.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Pushing Tom	Bob
2004	Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story	Eddie Reynolds
2004	Terrorists	Badger
2006	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	Jack Telmont
2006	Unaccompanied Minors	Head Guard Hoffman
2007	Super High Me	Himself
2007	Wild Girls Gone
2008	Step Brothers	Randy
2009	The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard	Peter Selleck
2009	The Hangover	Officer Franklin
2009	May the Best Man Win	John Freeman
2010	Furry Vengeance	Riggs
2010	Going the Distance	Ron
2010	Killers	Henry
2010	The Other Guys	Martin
2011	High Road	James Malone Sr.
2011	Larry Crowne	Jack Strang
2012	Big Miracle	Dean Glowacki
2012	Nature Calls	Gentry
2012	21 Jump Street	Mr. Walters
2012	The Lorax	Aloysious O'Hare	Voice
2013	The Internship	Randy
2014	Just Before I Go		Post-Production
2014	Let's Be Cops	TBA	Post-Production
2014	22 Jump Street	Mr. Walters
2015	Absolutely Anything

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998–2004	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	Various Characters	Several episodes
1998–2000	Upright Citizens Brigade	Various Characters	Five episodes
2004	Straight Plan for the Gay Man	Rob: Culture Guy	Three episodes
2004	Chappelle's Show	Debt Consolidation Pop-Up	Single episode
2004–2005	Saturday Night Live	Cast Member	20 episodes
2005–2006	Love, Inc.	Major Curtis	Two episodes
2006–2008	The Daily Show	Correspondent	Several episodes
2006	The Office	Captain Jack	Single episode
2006	Arrested Development	Congressman John Van Huesen	Single episode
2006–2007	Campus Ladies	Glen	Two episodes
2007	Family Values	Theo Gladdings	Sitcom Pilot
2007–2008	Human Giant	Various Characters	Several episodes
2007–2008	Bronx World Travelers	Coach	Two episodes
2009–2010	Gary Unmarried	Mitch	Seven episodes
2009–2010	American Dad!	Various Voices	Four episodes
2010	Chuck	Jim Rye	Single episode
2010	The Cleveland Show	Chet Butler	Single episode
2010	Comedy Central Presents	Himself	Single episode
2010	Glenn Martin DDS	Duke	Single episode
2010	Team Spitz	Jeff Spitz	CBS Sitcom Pilot
2010–2011	Funny or Die Presents	Various Characters	Several episodes
2011	30 Rock	Reggie	Single episode
2011	Childrens Hospital	Dr. Brock Stryker	Single episode
2011	Happy Endings	Drew	Single episode
2011	Home Game	Joe Allen	CBS Sitcom Pilot
2011	Ugly Americans	Drill Sergeant	Single episode
2011–2012	NTSF:SD:SUV::	President of the Navy	Several episodes
2012	Victorious	Vice Principal of Hollywood Arts	Episode: "The Breakfast Bunch"
2012	World Series of Dating	Host	Several episodes
2012	Wilfred	Kevin Jesquire	Several episodes
2012	Fox NFL Sunday	Self	First appearance on September 9, 2012
2012	New Girl	Big Schmidt	Episode: "Parents"
2013	Hollywood Game Night	Himself	Episode: "Don't Kill My Buzz-er"
2013	Drunk History	J. Edgar Hoover	Episode: Atlanta
2013	Modern Family	Gil Thorpe	Episodes: "Flip Flop", "Career Day"

External links

• Rob Riggle Official website
• Rob Riggle at Comedy Central's The Daily Show
• Rob Riggle at IMDb
• 2012 Rob Riggle interview with Jon Niccum