| Jon Heder | |
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Heder at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International |
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| Born | Jonathan Joseph Heder October 26, 1977 Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S. |
| Occupation | Screenwriter, actor, filmmaker |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Spouse | Kirsten Bales (2002-present) |
Jonathan Joseph "Jon" Heder (born October 26, 1977)[1] is an American screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker. His feature film debut came in 2004 as the title character of the comedy film Napoleon Dynamite. He has also acted in the films The Benchwarmers, School for Scoundrels, Blades of Glory, Mama's Boy, and When in Rome, and provided voice talents in the animated films Monster House and Surf's Up, as well as the upcoming Napoleon Dynamite animated series.
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Heder was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, the son of Helen (Brammer) and Dr. James Heder, a practicing physician. He has an identical twin brother,[2] Dan, as well as an older sister and brother, Rachel and Doug, and two younger brothers, Adam and Matt. Heder is the nephew by marriage of former NFL running back and current WCAU sportscaster, Vai Sikahema.[3] Heder is of part Swedish descent.[4] Heder attended Walker Middle School in Salem, Oregon, and graduated from South Salem High School in 1996, where he was on the swim team and was a member of the Drama Association.
A 2002 alumnus of Brigham Young University, Heder worked on the short CGI animated film "Pet Shop", written by Logan Deans, which earned a non-traditional animation student Emmy in 2005. After his movie career took off, he did not return to complete the work he started on the short, although his name does appear in the credits. Also, while attending BYU he befriended Jared Hess and starred in Hess' short film Peluca, which was later expanded into Napoleon Dynamite. Peluca received rave reviews on the BYU campus after showing at a few college and local film festivals and competitions.
Napoleon Dynamite, filmed in Preston, Idaho, earned more revenue than almost any other Sundance movie. In June 2005, Heder received the MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Performance and Breakthrough Male Performance for the role. On 8 October 2005, he hosted Saturday Night Live with musical guest Ashlee Simpson. After his success with Napoleon Dynamite, Heder and his film co-star Efren Ramirez filmed a series of commercials to promote the 2005 Utah State Fair. They appear as their characters from Napoleon Dynamite; in at least one commercial, they are shown with the FFA medals that they won in the context of the movie.
Heder appeared in the film The Sasquatch Gang. He had a supporting role as a clerk in a new age bookstore in the romantic comedy Just Like Heaven. Heder also appeared with Rob Schneider and David Spade in producer Adam Sandler's The Benchwarmers (2006), a comedy about three grown men making up for lost chances by creating their own Little League baseball team. He was the voice of the character Skull in the animated film Monster House, and starred in the comedy School for Scoundrels, opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Jacinda Barrett. With the exception of the Academy Award-nominee Monster House, Heder's post-Dynamite movies were widely panned and he risked becoming a one-hit wonder until he co-starred in 2007 with Will Ferrell in the well-received Blades of Glory (2007). Like many of Heder's films, Blades of Glory is an absurd, slapstick caricature, in this case revolving around male figure skaters who must team up in a pairs competition.
Heder's second turn at voice acting came in 2007 when he voiced the character of Chicken Joe, a surfing chicken, in the animated film Surf's Up. His first foray into web television was in the 2008 web series Woke Up Dead starring and produced by Heder.[5] Woke Up Dead is a web-based, live-action sci-fi comedy thriller about Drex, a twenty-something USC student who wakes up underwater in the bathtub one morning and suspects that he might be dead.
Jon and his twin brother Dan star together as villains in the fourth installment of the popular internet martial arts comedy series Sockbaby.
Heder's performance in When in Rome was praised by New York Times critic A. O. Scott: "Jon Heder as a goofy street magician is the funniest of the bunch."[6]
Heder will return to be the voice of Napoleon in the new Fox Network animated series, Napoleon Dynamite in 2012.
Heder lives with his wife Kirsten Heder in Los Angeles, California. The two have been married since 2002. The couple have a daughter, Evan Jane Heder, born April 6, 2007.[7] On February 2, 2010, edition of Lopez Tonight, he announced that he and his wife now have a son who is 6 months old.[8]
Heder is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served an LDS mission in Japan, for which he learned to speak Japanese. He, his brothers and father are Scouting enthusiasts with Heder and several of his brothers becoming Eagle Scouts.[9] He currently serves as a Scoutmaster.[9]
Jon stated during an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman that he and his identical twin, Dan, think alike and, as children, often finished each other's sentences. When Letterman asked him whether being an identical twin is a good experience, Jon replied that it is mostly good and that as children "we caused a lot of trouble by pretending to be the other, the memories still give me a good chuckle."
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | The Wrong Brother | Audience Member | |
| Funky Town | Officer Hardy | as Jonathan Heder | |
| 2003 | Peluca | Seth | |
| 2004 | Napoleon Dynamite | Napoleon Dynamite | Lead Role |
| 2005 | Just Like Heaven | Darryl | Supporting Role |
| Tankman Begins | Batman | TV movie | |
| 2006 | The Benchwarmers | Clark Reedy | Main Role |
| Monster House | Reginald "Skull" Skulinski | Voice Role | |
| School for Scoundrels | Roger | Main Role | |
| 2007 | The Sasquatch Gang | Lazer Tag Employee | Cameo |
| Blades of Glory | Jimmy MacElroy | Main Role | |
| Surf's Up | Chicken Joe | Voice Role | |
| Moving McAllister | Orlie | Main Role | |
| Mama's Boy | Jeffrey McMannus | Main Role | |
| 2008 | Sockbaby 4 | Manatu | Pool diver (with his brother, Dan) |
| 2010 | When in Rome | Lance | |
| Woke Up Dead | Drex Greene | Main Role | |
| For Ellen | TBA | (pre-production) | |
| Alive and Well | Oliver Vale | (pre-production) | |
| Three Men Seeking Monsters | TBA | in development | |
| Loudermilk | TBA | in development | |
| Mr. Machine | TBA | in development |
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