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Trey Parker

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Trey Parker

Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969 in Conifer, Colorado) is an American animator, screenwriter, film director, voice actor, actor and musician. He is most noted, however, as one of the creators of the animated series South Park for which he won an Emmy.

Biography

Randolph Severn Parker III is the younger of two children born to Randy and Sharon Parker. He has an older sister named Shelley. Born in Conifer, Colorado, Parker attended West Jefferson Junior High School and Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, where he was voted class clown. He graduated from Evergreen High School in 1988. Trey currently resides in Bel Air and is married to Emma Sugiyama as of January 2006.

Parker went to Berklee College of Music in Boston before transferring to the University of Colorado, where he met Matt Stone. He majored in music, and, with a goal to someday score films, took classes to learn more about the film-making process. He made several animated shorts while attending the university, including American History which won a Student Academy Award, and The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Frosty with Stone.

Parker's first live action film was a feature length piece about Alferd Packer, a Colorado miner who was the first person convicted of cannibalism in America. A trailer was shot over the summer, and was used to help raise enough funds to shoot the film. Alferd Packer, The Musical began filming during spring break in 1993. Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma, wanted to name it Fudge Packer, the Musical, but was unsuccessful in his efforts. It was renamed Cannibal! The Musical when Troma picked up for distribution in 1996. Family, friends and fellow students all took part in the film. Students who participated received intern credit. Parker, however, was expelled due to excessive absences while filming, and did not go on to graduate. (Source-http://treyparker.info/biography.htm)

Parker's college film caught the eye of Brian Graden, a Fox executive. In 1995, Graden commissioned Stone and Parker to create a video Christmas card based on their animated college short. The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa was the result -- a five minute short that featured an uncensored Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick watching Jesus and Santa battle it out for ownership of Christmas. One of the recipients of the video (rumored to be George Clooney) made several hundred copies, and the animation became a must-see passed around Hollywood and the Internet.

That same year, Parker created a pilot for Fox called Time Warped -- a "musical romp through time" featuring a story about Aaron and Moses. Fox felt the idea would work better as a children's show so a new pilot, Rom & Jul was made for Fox Kids -- a Romeo and Juliet-esque story about a Homo erectus and Australopithecus who fall in love despite the conflict between their species. Fox Kids passed on the show.

Parker wrote, directed and starred in his second feature film Orgazmo in 1997, about a wholesome Mormon who becomes a celebrity in the Los Angeles' adult film world. Due to the NC-17 rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America it was not widely released.

Parker and Stone were then hired by Comedy Central to create a show based on the animated characters from The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa. Though it didn't test well with audiences, Comedy Central decided to pick it up for six episodes anyway. South Park made its debut on August 13, 1997, and has since gone on to be the highest-rated original series in the network's history.

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Trey Parker with Yasmine Bleeth in BASEketball.

In 1998, Parker starred with Stone, Dian Bachar and Yasmine Bleeth in BASEketball, directed by David Zucker of Airplane! and Naked Gun fame. The story follows a group of friends who take their homemade game from neighborhood driveways to the professional sports world. Parker rips on himself in the South Park episode, The Passion of the Jew. Stan demands his money back after seeing the Passion of the Christ, saying he should be able to get his money back just like after he saw BASEketball.

In the summer of 1999, Parker and Stone released their critically acclaimed feature length film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which was, naturally, a musical. "Blame Canada", a song written by Parker and Marc Shaiman, was nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards. The award was lost to Phil Collins, who was spoofed in later episodes of South Park.

After a contract renegotiation in 2000, three more seasons were added to South Park and Parker and Stone had a deal to create a live action sitcom. Their idea was to parody standard-issue network sitcoms by depicting the Commander in Chief as a wacky, lovable stock- character caught in outrageous situations involving contemporary hotbed political issues. Its main character was to be whoever won the 2000 Presidential election- scripts were prepared for both George W. Bush and Al Gore. In 2001, That's My Bush! premiered. It was not brought back for a second season due to its high costs (reportedly US$700,000 per episode) and meager ratings. Another contract negotiation in 2003 picked up South Park for a ninth season, with an option to pick up a tenth.

Team America: World Police, the duo's the most recent new creation, is a satirical action movie (reportedly based on Jerry Bruckheimer's numerous productions, with special attention to those directed by Michael Bay) starring marionettes reminiscent of the Thunderbirds TV series from the 1960s. It depicts a special, all-American police force trying to save the world from terrorists with mixed results, despite their dedication to the American dream. It was released in October 2004.

Parker and his partner, Matt Stone, have received criticism and acclaim from both sides of the political spectrum, making them hard to pin down politically, except that they display irreverence for almost any authority figure. The term South Park Republican has been coined to refer to those who claim that South Park reflects a Republican, although non-traditional, viewpoint. Historically, though, Parker has described himself as "middle-ground", and he is a registered member of the United States Libertarian Party.

On September 9, 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. The network has committed to 42 episodes (including those of the second half of season 9), or three more seasons, of South Park over the next three years, which means that the show will run till 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. A bowdlerized version of South Park bowed in syndication on September 19.

In addition to currently working on the tenth season of South Park, there is talk that Parker and Stone are creating a stage musical with Avenue Q creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. They also have plans to form a production company, possibly with Paramount. As for the prospect of making more films, Parker is not enthusiastic, for the time being: "Team America almost killed us. We'd like to figure out a way to do our own movies, but not die doing them, and maybe help some other people produce their movies, like graduate to the next level because we are getting up there in age." [1].

Contrary to his comments on November 14, Parker and Stone have signed a three-year production deal with Paramount Pictures. They named their new banner Trunity, a Mediar company, a division of True Mediar, a Unity Corpbopoly. Paramount and Comedy Central are both owned by Viacom, and will continue to be housed under the same umbrella when the parent company splits into two entities by year's end (2005).

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Trey and his emmy

Her name is actually spelled Ema Sugiyama and she used to works as a Hostess in a Japanese night club in Little Tokyo while she was a student at Santa Monica College. She was dating two other guys at the same time she met Mr. Parker but dumped them when she found out who he was. She was looking for that meal ticket and green card. You go Ema...

Filmography

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Matt Stone (left) with Parker.
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Recent photo of Matt Stone (left) with Parker.

Collaborations with Matt Stone

Miscellaneous

Voices on South Park

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