Greg Proops

Stand-up comic and actor Greg Proops earned critical and audience praise for his wry, erudite observations on culture and current events in live and podcast settings, as well as his talents as an improvisational performer and voice-over artist in a wide variety of programming, from "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" (Channel 4/ABC 1998-2007). Born Gregory Everett Proops on October 3, 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona, Greg Proops was raised in the Bay Area suburb of San Carlos, California. He began performing comedy while attending the College of San Mateo and studied acting and improvisation at San Francisco State University. After college, Proops performed in an improv group, which caught the attention of the producers of the British comedy series "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" He performed on the long-running series for four years before returning to the United States, where he worked steadily as a guest performer on television and as a voice-over artist, most notably in Tim Burton's cult favorite "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993). When "Whose Line" was adapted for American television in 1998, Proops became a recurring guest performer on that series, as well as an acerbic presence on numerous other talk, variety and pop-culture-commentary programs. In 1999, Proops voiced Fode, the English-speaking half of the two-headed race commentator in George Lucas' "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" (1999). That same year, Proops was cast as the titular hero in the U.S. version of "Bob the Builder: Project Build-It" (Nick Jr. 1999-2004), a spin-off series of the hugely popular U.K. animated show "Bob the Builder" (CBBC/CBeebies 1998- ). He continued to divide his time between animated projects like "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (Cartoon Network, 2008-13; Netflix, 2014), guest turns on numerous series, including "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show" (The WB/Comedy Central 2004-05), and work as a regular on "True Jackson, VP" (Nickelodeon 2008-2011) and Ileana Douglas' web comedy "Easy to Assemble" (2008-2013). Proops also drew considerable acclaim for a weekly talk show, "The Greg Proops Show," which he hosted from the Largo nightclub in Los Angeles, California, as well as a podcast, "The Smartest Man in the World" (2010- ), which allowed him to comment on a wide variety of cultural topics before a live audience.