Will Forte

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

Orville Willis "Will" Forte IV (born June 17, 1970) is an American comedic actor and writer best known for his roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (2002–2010), the title character of its spin-off film MacGruber, and as Paul L'Astnamé, Jenna Maroney's cross-dressing boyfriend, in 30 Rock.

Personal life

Forte was born in Alameda County, the son of Patricia C. (née Stivers) and Orville Willis Forte III, who divorced when Will and his sister Michelle were children. He was raised in Lafayette, California and graduated from Acalanes High School, where he played varsity football, was a swimmer, served as class president and was voted best personality. He attended UCLA, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and completed a degree in history. He planned to become a financial broker like his father, but worked at a brokerage house for just one year before deciding to pursue comedy professionally. When first entering comedy he worked as a math tutor (one of his students was actress Faye Dunaway’s son Liam) and at a music publishing house. Forte is a supporter of the camp Wampler's Kids and recorded a promotional piece at SNL with Will Ferrell. Forte was a childhood friend of founder Steven Wampler and previously the national spokesman for SciEyes, a non-profit organization created to support research, training and public education in stem cell biology and to further the field by recognizing and supporting its potential for creating new therapies for the treatment of blinding and debilitating eye diseases. Forte was one of the primary donors responsible for the establishment of a research fellowship for 3rd year medical students at Duke Medical Center. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness. He is especially close with his family. His mother has visited every film set he's worked on and made an appearance on the Mother's Day episode of SNL in which he sang a song to her on Weekend Update. Forte officiated his sister Michelle's wedding and filmed the birth of his niece and nephew. During a conversation with Scott Aukerman on the Podcast Comedy Bang Bang, Forte discussed his parents divorce and the family's decision to have Christmas together after his father’s second divorce. During the same interview, Forte joked about his OCD tendencies including a story of listening to only one song in his office at SNL for an entire year because he wanted to challenge himself. During an interview with Larry King, Forte discussed his OCDs as a challenge he had to overcome but not ones he wished he did not have, as it is a part of his personality.

Career

Forte was a member of The Groundlings and a comedic staff writer on the television series, his three television debut was on Jenny, Late Show with David Letterman, the short-lived comedies Action and The Army Show. Forte wrote a pilot called Dos Hermanos about brothers John and Dean which introduced him to Tom Werner of Carsey-Werner. He was given a development deal to turn the pilot into a feature film script and put on staff at 3rd Rock from the Sun, and later That '70s Show, as a writer. He was a consultant on the short-lived animated series God, the Devil and Bob and producer of That '70s Show during the 2001-2002 season. 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 guest voice on the animated series Drawn Together, Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Forte made an appearance on friend Demetri Martin's album, These Are Jokes and can be heard on the track "Personal Information Waltz". He guest starred on HBO's Flight of the Conchords as a "semi-professional" actor who poses as a record company executive. After his film debut Around the World in 80 Days, he was in the Broken Lizard films Beerfest and The Slammin' Salmon. Forte had struck a deal ten years earlier to write a feature based on characters from a pilot he'd written for Carsey-Werner. As an agreement to terminate his contract with Carsey-Werner and executive producer Tom Werner he agreed to develop a feature film about brothers. For The Brothers Solomon, he stars with Will Arnett, (whose ex-wife and SNL castmate, Amy Poehler considered him an ideal for the role of John Solomon (named after his writing partner) Kristen Wiig, Chi McBride, Malin Akerman, and Lee Major. The film was directed by comic Bob Odenkirk on a 32 day schedule on a budget of $10 million. In 2008, Forte had a small role in the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler film Baby Mama. 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 The Slammin' Salmon by the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. He guest starred in an episode of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother as one of Barney's co-workers and potential new wingman. 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. From 1997 to 2007, Forte contributed as a consultant and writer of segments on the MTV Movie Awards and MTV Video Awards. Forte voiced Martin Serious in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and played a radio host of the same name. He wrote the short story "Beware of Math Tutors Who Ride Motorcycles" for the book Things I’ve Learned from Women Who’ve Dumped Me. 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. He also voices Principal Wally, a recurring character on The Cleveland Show. On April 19, 2010, as MacGruber, he co-guest hosted WWE Raw with Kristen Wiig and Ryan Phillippe to promote the film of the same name. Forte co-wrote and starred in the title role of MacGruber, based on his SNL character which was co-written by writing partner John Solomon and director Jorma Taccone. They filmed it during their 2009 hiatus from SNL with a 28 day filming schedule in New Mexico on a $10 million dollar budget, Forte left SNL soon after its May 2010 theatrical release.

Saturday Night Live

Forte did not audition for Saturday Night Live in 2001 and had the initial offer to write and produce That '70s Show. He re-auditioned in 2002 and was hired as a featured player and writer. He was upgraded to full cast member the next season and the last cast member rehired after his third season (the show’s cast was considered bloated and there were major cuts made during the hiatus). 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 his Groundlings character Tim Calhoun, The Falconer, MacGruber, 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 bits on Weekend Update, such as one of The Kelly Brothers, Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, and a member of reverse Bon Jovi band, Jon Bovi. Forte was one of the writers and stars of the first "SNL Digital Short" Lettuce. Many of his absurdist sketches were aired late in the show. Although he played them, Forte felt impersonations were not his strong suit (with the exception of musical impressions), one of the reasons Jason Sudeikis took over the role of George W. Bush. He extended his seven-year contract an additional year. On August 26, 2010, Forte left SNL after eight years on the show to focus on other projects. Forte stated in an interview his primary reason for leaving was to be close to family. Since leaving, Forte has stated he left on good terms with executive producer Lorne Michaels. On April 2, 2011 & May 12, 2012, he made a guest appearance on the show, reprising his role of Greg Stink.

After SNL

Forte reprised his role as Randy in the How I Met Your Mother and guest starred on Parks and Recreation as Kelly in the episode "Time Capsule". 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 had voicework in animated shows such as HBO’s The Life and Times of Tim, American Dad!, Allen Gregory, The Cleveland Show, and Gravity Falls. He recorded a guest appearance for the third season of Bob's Burgers. Forte has appeared in 11 episodes of the sitcom 30 Rock. After playing a bit part in the episode "Black Tie", Forte returned to the show to portray main character Jenna Maroney's "GenderdysmorphicBigenitalianPansexual" partner, Paul L'Astnamé. Forte guest stars in the FX series The League the fall of 2011 and appeared in three episodes of Up All Night as a friend of Will Arnett’s character. He was a leading character in the raunchy comedy A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (costarring SNL castmate Jason Sudeikis). He had cameos in the 2012 films Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, Rock of Ages, That's My Boy and The Watch. Forte appears with Andy Samberg as male cheerleaders in Grown Ups 2. In spring 2012, he was cast in the lead of the comedy pilot Rebounding. Despite high approval rating, the series was not picked up by Fox but was shopped to other networks and cable channels. Forte filmed the Steph Green drama "Run and Jump" in Ireland the summer of 2012. Forte stars in upcoming films, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Alexander Payne’s upcoming feature film Nebraska, with Bruce Dern, and in Elmore Leonard's untitled project as Marshall Taylor, replacing Ty Burrell.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Around the World in 80 Days	Young French Police Bobby
2006	Beerfest	Otto
2007	The Brothers Solomon	Dean Solomon	writer
2008	Baby Mama	Scott
2009	The Slammin' Salmon	Horace
	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	Subject #72
	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	Joe Towne	voice
	Fanboys	THX Security Guard #4
2010	MacGruber	MacGruber	writer
2011	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Glenn
2012	Rock of Ages	Mitchy Miley
	Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie	Allen Bishopman
	That's My Boy	Phil
	The Watch	Sgt. Bressman
2013	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Chester V	voice
	Grown Ups 2	Male Cheerleader	uncredited
	Nebraska	David Grant
	Run and Jump	Ted Fielding
2014	Untitled Elmore Leonard Project	Marshall Taylor

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997–1998	Late Show with David Letterman	Snow Shovel Murder Victim	writer, uncredited
2002–2003	Clone High	Abe Lincoln, Narrator	main cast, voice
2002–2010	Saturday Night Live	Various	writer, featured and main cast
2006	Campus Ladies	Stuart	guest, 2 episodes
	Drawn Together	Kirk Cameron	Episode: Lost in Parking Space Part 1, voice
	Aqua Teen Hunger Force	Alien	voice
2007	Flight of the Conchords	Ben	Episode: The Actor
	Tim and Eric Nite Live	Emanuel Melly	Episode # 1.5
2008–2010	How I Met Your Mother	Randy Wharmpess	2 episodes
2009–2012	American Dad!	Various	voice, 5 episodes
2009	Sit Down, Shut Up	Stuart Proszakian	main, voice
2009–2013	The Cleveland Show	Principal Wally Farquhare, Various	recurring, voice, 20 episodes
2010	The Life and Times of Tim	Chipper	Episode: Unjustly Neglected Drama, voice
	Funny or Die Presents	Various	2 episodes, season 1
2007–2012	30 Rock	Paul L'Astnamé	recurring, 13 episodes
2010–2013	Conan	Ted Turner	recurring, guest, 14 episodes
2011	Parks and Recreation	Kelly Larson	Episode: Time Capsule
	Allen Gregory	Ian, Stuart Rossmyre, Sid Lampis	voice
	The League	Chuck	Episode: The Out of Towner
2011–2012	Up All Night	Reed	recurring, 3 episodes
2012	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Chet Barnsider	Episode: Zach Galifianakis Wears a Blue Jacket & Red Socks
	Rebounding	Danny	TV film
2012–present	Gravity Falls	Tyler the Cute Biker	recurring, voice
	Lab Rats	Eddy	recurring, voice

Other

• Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned - Martin Serious

Writing Staff

• Jenny (1997)
• The Army Show (1998)
• Action (1999–2000)
• 3rd Rock from the Sun (1999–2001)
• God, the Devil, and Bob (2000)
• That '70s Show (2001–2003)

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