| Jeff Richards | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jeffrey Hanson Richards October 21, 1974 Walnut Creek, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor/Comedian |
| Years active | 2000–present |
Jeffrey Hanson "Jeff" Richards (born October 21, 1974)[1][2] is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. Richards was the first actor to have been a cast member on both Saturday Night Live (SNL) and MADtv.[3][4] He is perhaps best known for his frequent SNL character "Drunk Girl".[3][4][5]
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Richards was born in Walnut Creek, California and attended Las Lomas High School.[6] At age 17 he created a public-access television cable TV sketch comedy show called Hanson Live.[3][6] He later worked for KVHS, a student-run radio station which broadcasts from Clayton Valley High School.[7][8] He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and in his senior year at he joined the improvisational comedy team CHiPs.[3] Fellow CHiPs member Zach Ward brought Richards to the comedy club Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he performed at an open mic show; Richards would eventually go on to host at the club.[3]
After graduating from UNC, Richards moved to the Los Angeles to further develop his entertainment career.[6]
After moving to LA Richards worked the door at the The Comedy Store and eventually started to perform stand-up.
In 2000, Richards became a featured player in the cast of MADtv, appearing in 3 episodes of the show's 6th season. The following year Richards joined the cast of Saturday Night Live during its 27th season, giving him the distinction of being the first person to be a cast-member of both sketch comedy shows (Taran Killam would later become the only other performer to do so). Richards was promoted to repertory status for SNL's 29th season although he left the show after the 10th episode, which aired on January 17, 2004. In interviews, Richards has stated that he left the show on his own terms.[6]
Perhaps Richards' most popular character on SNL was "Drunk Girl", who appeared on the Weekend Update segment nine times. He based the character on an audience member he encountered while performing stand-up at The Comedy Store in La Jolla, California.[3][9]
In 2004 Richards appeared in the Comedy Central year-end retrospective special Last Laugh '04 as Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. In 2006 he again portrayed O'Reilly in episode of Mind of Mencia titled "Carlos Smoov".[2]
In 2007 he appeared on episode 22 of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen along with comics Jeff Jena, Natasha Leggero, and Mike Epps.[10]
Richards has also done voice work which includes characters in the 2004 video game EverQuest II, a character in the 2006 MTV animated series Where My Dogs At? and in 2010 he played the voice of Brad Pitt in an episode titled ""The Wedding" of the FOX sitcom 'Til Death.[2]
Richards produced a comedic album titled A$$WAX which was released on iTunes on March 3, 2009[3][11]; a portion of the proceeds from the album's sales was used to fight world hunger.[3] Richard also performed in a series of comedy benefit shows called "Asswax 4 Hunger" in 2009; the shows were hosted by friend Kato Kaelin. Richards and Kaelin also hosted a podcast called In Pod We Trust in 2011.
In 2009 Richards played the character of Jerome Murphy in episode 3 of the ABC science fiction series FlashForward.[2] That same year Richards appeared in the pilot episode of a sitcom created by comedian Bill Burr called The Burr Effect which appeared on Comedy Central;[2] the series did not get picked up by the network.
Over his career Jeff has also appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.[5]