David Cross

Irreverent comedian and social commentator David Cross has maintained a relatively low celebrity profile while at the same time working consistently in TV, film, and the live performance circuit, endearing himself to legions of fans. His smart and fearless comedy style is marked by a simultaneous honesty and cynicism that kind of goes beyond satire to somewhere else. His solo work tends to focus on topics of religion, politics, and a total refusal to skirt around any issue. Characterized by his small frame, bald head, and black glasses, his major career accomplishment has been as one-half of the HBO series Mr. Show with Bob and David. However, his memorable bit parts (Donnie, the guy who repeatedly says "Chicken Pot Pie" on NBC's Just Shoot Me) tend to stick in the imagination of the larger public. Born in Atlanta, GA, he went to college in Boston and started doing stand-up comedy before moving out to Los Angeles. He met Bob Odenkirk while working as a writer for The Ben Stiller Show on HBO and the two joined forces to create the unique sketch comedy series Mr. Show in 1995. With Odenkirk and Cross as the original funders, writers, actors, and executive producers, the show was nominated for several Emmy awards and eventually ended in 1998. Cross made several notable TV guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show and News Radio, as well as movies like Men in Black, The Cable Guy, Ghost World, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Waiting for Guffman. As a voice actor, he worked on the Hercules animated TV series, the feature films Small Soldiers and Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: Chipwrecked. Cross also continued to appear live on-stage in various formats (often with indie pop-rockers Ultrababyfat), wrote columns for magazines, and did a Mr. Show tour with Odenkirk. In November 2002, Cross released a two-disc comedy album, Shut Up You Fucking Baby!, consisting of highly charged political rants and other solo material recorded live in concert. Cross had a particularly memorable part on the beloved comedy series Arrested Development, and would later return to the small screen, writing and starring in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.