Will Forte

Will Forte
Forte at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
Born	Orville Willis Forte IV June 17, 1970 (1970-06-17) Alameda County, California
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer
Years active	1997–present

Orville Willis Forte IV, better known as Will Forte (born June 17, 1970), is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002–2010 and for starring in the SNL spin-off film MacGruber, as well as for the role of Paul L'Astnamé, Jenna Maroney's cross-dressing boyfriend, on NBC's 30 Rock.

Early life

Forte was born in Alameda County, California, the son of Patricia C. (née Stivers) and Orville Willis Forte III. He was raised in Lafayette, California, and graduated from Acalanes High School and UCLA with a history degree. While at UCLA, he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Saturday Night Live

Forte joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2002 as a featured player. He was upgraded to full cast member the next season. Forte took over the role of then-president George W. Bush following the departure of Will Ferrell, a season with Chris Parnell in the role, and a brief half-season of Darrell Hammond playing the part. Forte featured as a number of recurring characters over the years, including The Falconer, MacGruber, Tim Calhoun, Mr. Dillon in the Gilly sketches, Greg Stink, and as one of the characters in the Song Memories sketches. Forte was often featured as a guest at the Weekend Update desk. He had several recurring Update characters, such as Tim Calhoun; He often appeared in musical Update bits, such as one of The Kelly Brothers, Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, and a member of reverse Bon Jovi band, Jon Bovi. On August 26, 2010, Forte announced that he would be leaving SNL after eight years on the show (2002–2010) to focus on other projects. On April 2, 2011, he made a guest appearance on the show, reprising his role of Greg Stink.

Other work

Before joining SNL, Forte was a member of The Groundlings. He has written and/or produced on the television series Late Show with David Letterman, 3rd Rock from the Sun, That '70s Show, and Action. Forte provided the voice of Abe Lincoln and the show announcer on the critically acclaimed but short-lived animated series, Clone High. He was a consultant on another short-lived animated series, God, the Devil and Bob. He made a cameo in the movie Around the World in 80 Days and was in the Broken Lizard film Beerfest. Forte made an appearance on Demetri Martin's album, These Are Jokes and guest starred in an episode of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. Forte is a recurring guest on the Adult Swim comedy program Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, also appearing in Tim and Eric Nite Live!, Forte also appeared on The Young Person's Guide to History, a television special on Adult Swim. On March 31, 2009, he appeared on SNL alum Jimmy Fallon's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Forte wrote the film The Brothers Solomon, in which he stars opposite Will Arnett (husband of former SNL castmember Amy Poehler). He and frequent writing partner John Solomon wrote some segments for Extreme Movie along with fellow SNL castmember Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island. He appeared in the 2009 film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, directed by John Krasinski and adapted from the short story collection of the same title. Forte had a cameo in the 2009 comedy The Slammin' Salmon by the comedy troupe Broken Lizard (with whom he worked on the comedy Beerfest).

Forte in May 2008

Forte guest starred on HBO's Flight of the Conchords as a "semi-professional" actor who poses as a record company executive, as well as on CBS's How I Met Your Mother as one of Barney's co-workers and potential new wingman.

Forte has also guest voiced on the American Dad! episode "Family Affair," as a Disneyland security guard. He has also guest voiced in the episode "Every Which Way But Lose," as Mayor Woodside. He also appeared on the Christmas fantasy episode Rapture's Delight with SNL co-star Andy Samberg. Forte appeared in seven episodes of the sitcom 30 Rock ("Black Tie", "Argus", "I Do Do", "Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish", "Christmas Attack Zone", "100", and "Respawn"). After playing a bit part in the first episode Forte returned to the show to portray main character Jenna Maroney's "GenderdysmorphicBigenitalianPansexual" partner, Paul L'Astnamé.

Forte lent his voice to Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and played a radio host called "Martin Serious". In 2009, Forte became a regular voice cast member in the Fox comedy series, "Sit Down, Shut Up". He voices Vice Principal Stuart Proszakian, a former prison clown now working as Knob Haven High's vice-principal. The series premiered on April 19, 2009. Kenan Thompson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Bateman, Tom Kenny, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Will Arnett and Henry Winkler are the other main cast members.

He also voices Principal Wally, a recurring character on The Cleveland Show.

On April 19, 2010, as his MacGruber character, he co-guest hosted WWE Raw with Kristen Wiig and Ryan Phillippe to promote the film MacGruber.

Forte guest starred on fellow SNL alum Amy Poehler's third season of Parks and Recreation playing Kelly, a Twilight-loving resident of the fictional town of Pawnee, in the episode "Time Capsule". In the fall of 2010, Forte guest starred on How I Met Your Mother, reprising his role as Randy Wharmpess, a low-level Goliath National Bank employee. On November 10, 2010, Forte began making recurring appearances as a parodic version of TBS founder Ted Turner on the third episode of Conan O'Brien's new talk show, Conan, which airs on TBS.

Forte serves on the Board of Directors of the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness.

In 2010, he appeared in a commercial for the United Parcel Service. Since then, he has appeared in commercials for Kayak.com, and Hyundai Motors.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
2002–2010	Saturday Night Live	Various	TV Series: Main Cast
2002–2003	Clone High	Abe Lincoln	TV Series: Main Cast
2004	Around the World in 80 Days	Young French Policeman Bobby
2006	Beerfest	Otto
2006–present	30 Rock	Paul / Tomas	TV Series: Recurring Cast
2007	The Brothers Solomon	Dean Solomon	Also Writer
2008	Baby Mama	Scott
2009	The Slammin' Salmon	Horace
	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	Subject #72
	Fanboys	Security Guard #1
	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	Joe Towne	Voice Only
2009–present	The Cleveland Show	Principal Wally	TV Series: Recurring Cast, Voice Only
2009	Sit Down, Shut Up	Stuart Proszakian	Voice
2010	MacGruber	MacGruber	Also Writer
	How I Met Your Mother	Randy Wharmpess	Guest
2010-present	Conan	Ted Turner	TV Series: Guest Cast
2011	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Glenn
2011	Parks and Recreation	Kelly	TV Series: Guest Star
2011	Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil	Gordie	secondary character
2011	Up All Night	Reed	Guest
2011	The League	Chuck	Guest
2011	Allen Gregory	Various Characters	Recurring
2012	Rock of Ages	Mitch Miley	filming
2012	Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie	Allen Bishopman
2012	Neighborhood Watch	Sergeant Bressman	filming
2012	Lab Rats	Eddie

External links

• Will Forte at the Internet Movie Database
• Will Forte LiveJournal Community
• Will Forte shares his favorite NY places at ontheinside.info
• Interview with Will Forte at CollegeHumor
• Forte supports the Writers Guild of America in this video