Chris Parnell

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Chris Parnell

Born	February 5, 1967 Memphis, Tennessee

Thomas Christopher "Chris" Parnell (born February 5, 1967 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an actor and comedian who was a Saturday Night Live cast member in 1998-2001 and 2002-2006.

1 Career
2 Recurring characters
3 Celebrity impersonations
4 Movie appearances
5 TV guest appearances
6 Music appearances
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Career

After graduating from Germantown High School and the North Carolina School of the Arts, Chris Parnell moved to Los Angeles where he joined the improv-sketch comedy troupe, The Groundlings. It was here he was discovered and asked to audition for Saturday Night Live. He joined Saturday Night Live as a featured player on September 26, 1998, and was promoted to regular cast status the following season. He was fired in the summer of 2001 and re-hired the following March. Budget cuts and hiring four new cast members left Lorne Michaels without room to pay 15 cast members. Parnell and Jerry Minor were chosen as the ones to be fired over Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, and Maya Rudolph. However, thanks to lobbying from Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, Lorne rehired Parnell, who returned to the cast in March 2002.^{[citation needed]} More budget cuts in 2006 led to Parnell departing from SNL after his 8th season ended in May 2006. Only five people (Darrell Hammond, Tim Meadows, Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman and Horatio Sanz) have been cast members longer. He also starred in the failed unaired sitcom Thick and Thin. He recently starred in the Supafloss music video, "Chuck Norris" (along with Jack Black and John C. Reilly) where he plays Chuck Norris.

Parnell (right) starred in the SNL Digital Short "Lazy Sunday," aka "The Chronic-WHAT?!-cles of Narnia".

Parnell has played in numerous sketches, commercial parodies, and has performed memorable impressions of various celebrities. Parnell is particularly adept at rapping. One of his most popular rap sketches is Lazy Sunday, a nerdcore rap video he shot with Andy Samberg about buying cupcakes and going to see The Chronicles of Narnia. The sketch has gained such widespread fame that it has been reproduced and parodied. He has also performed raps about hosts Jennifer Garner, Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst and Ashton Kutcher.

In the summer of 2006, Lorne Michaels said that four cast members would be fired due to budget cuts, but he did not say who ^[1]. On September 22, 2006 it was announced that three cast members had been fired: Parnell, Horatio Sanz, and Finesse Mitchell. This effectively made him the only SNL performer to have been fired twice by Lorne Michaels.

[edit] Recurring characters

Alan "Sticks" McRae, one of Deandra Wells's drummers
Daniel, a student from Jimmy Fallon's "Jarrett's Room" sketch who lived in the dorm next to Jarret and Gobi and always falls for their bogus tricks to get girls (because of Parnell's short-lived termination, Parnell's Daniel was replaced by Jeff Richards's character, Jeff, a jock whose gross habits are always caught on Jarret's webcam)
Jeph, a member of the boy band 7 Degrees Celsius
Kevin Aquarius, a dancer covered in silver paint who does the robot on the talk show "Veronica and Co."
One of the Lundford Twins' Feel Good Variety Hour dancers
Merv "The Perv" Watson, a sleazy man who hits on women with equally sleazy double-entendres. Has a British cousin named Steve the Skeev (played by Colin Farrell) and a twin brother named Irv (played by Johnny Knoxville).
Sean DeMarco, a wannabe dancer who auditions to be an interpretive dancer for SNL's musical guests.
Tato, the strange manservant to bizarre art dealers Nuni and Nooni
An eyepatched Telemundo actor from Besos Y Lagrimas
Terrye Funck, a wannabe talk show host who creates his own show in the basement of his mom's house
Thad from Gays In Space
Tyler, a frequent patient from the recurring sketch Appalachian Emergency Room who always tells Nerod (Seth Meyers) the receptionist tall tales about how he got an object (can of Axe body spray, jar of cotton balls, a plastic bowling pin, a Native American rainstick, his car keys, etc) stuck up his rectum (and in one case, how he got a watermelon stuck to his penis).
Warren Kirney, a married man who always convinces the hired help in his family to have a three-way with him and his wife (Ana Gasteyer)
Wayne Bloder, a barfly who always hits on the women there, along with his brother, Kip (played by Jimmy Fallon)
DJ Intro, a DJ who can sing every action. ("SNL, On "Deep House Dish")