Trey Parker

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Trey Parker

Birth name	Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III
Born	October 19, 1969 (age 37) Conifer, Colorado, USA
Notable roles	Various in South Park Joe Cooper in BASEketball Gary Johnston in Team America: World Police Alfred Packer in Cannibal! The Musical

Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning American animator, screenwriter, film director, voice actor, actor and musician. He is most noted as one of the creators of the animated series South Park along with Matt Stone.

1 Biography
2 Filmography
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Randolph Severn Parker III is the younger of two children born to Randy and Sharon Parker (who are the basis for South Park characters Randy and Sharon Marsh). He has an older sister named Shelley (who is the basis for Shelley Marsh). In 1985, Parker and his friend Dave Goodman (who was also a co-writer with Parker in South Park in a few episodes from season 1 to season 3) recorded an album titled Immature: A Collection of Love Ballads For The '80's Man on cassette, that was released in 1987 and afterwards a few copies were sold on eBay. Parker attended West Jefferson Junior High School and Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, where he was voted class clown. He graduated from Evergreen High School in 1988.

Parker went to Berklee College of Music in Boston before transferring to the University of Colorado, where he met Matt Stone. He majored in music, and, with a goal to someday score films, took classes to learn more about the film-making process. He made several animated shorts while attending the university, including American History which won a Student Academy Award, and The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Frosty with Matt Stone. Whether or not he was kicked out has often been debated, but Parker confirmed that he was in a South Park Studios interview, saying that the reason for this was that he didn't go to class for "nearly a semester" due to filming Cannibal the Musical.

Parker's first live action film was a feature length piece about Alferd Packer, a Colorado miner who was the first person convicted of cannibalism in America. A trailer was shot over the summer, and was used to help raise enough funds to shoot the film. Alferd Packer, The Musical began filming during spring break in 1993. Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma Entertainment, wanted to name it Fudge Packer, the Musical, but was unsuccessful in his efforts. It was renamed Cannibal! The Musical when Troma picked up the film for distribution in 1996.

Parker's college film caught the eye of Brian Graden, a Fox executive. In 1995, Graden commissioned Stone and Parker to create a video Christmas card based on their animated college short. The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa was the result -- a five minute short that featured an uncensored Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick watching Jesus and Santa battle it out for ownership of Christmas.

That same year, Parker created a pilot for Fox called Time Warped -- a "musical romp through time" featuring a story about Aaron and Moses. Fox felt the idea would work better as a children's show so a new pilot, Rom & Jul was made for Fox Kids -- a Romeo and Juliet-esque story about a Homo erectus and Australopithecus who fall in love despite the conflict between their species.

Parker wrote, directed and starred in his second feature film, Orgazmo, in 1997, about a wholesome Mormon who becomes a celebrity in the Los Angeles' adult film world. Due to the NC-17 rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America it was not widely released.

Parker and Stone were then hired by Comedy Central to create a show based on the animated characters from The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa. Comedy Central decided to pick it up for six episodes anyway. South Park made its debut on August 13, 1997, and has since gone on to be the highest-rated original series in the network's history.

Trey Parker with Yasmine Bleeth in BASEketball.

In 1998, Parker starred with Stone, Dian Bachar and Yasmine Bleeth in BASEketball, directed by David Zucker of Airplane! and Naked Gun fame. The story follows a group of friends who take their homemade game from neighborhood driveways to the professional sports world. Parker rips on himself in the South Park episode, The Passion of the Jew: Stan demands his money back after seeing the Passion of the Christ, saying he should be able to get his money back just like after he saw BASEketball.

In the summer of 1999, Parker and Stone released their critically acclaimed feature length film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which was a musical. "Blame Canada", a song written by Parker and Marc Shaiman, was nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards. The award was lost to Phil Collins, who was spoofed in later episodes of South Park.

After a contract renegotiation in 2000, three more seasons were added to South Park and Parker and Stone had a deal to create a live action sitcom. Their idea was to parody standard-issue network sitcoms by depicting the Commander in Chief as a wacky, lovable stock - character caught in outrageous situations involving contemporary hotbed political issues. Its main character was to be whoever won the 2000 Presidential election- scripts were prepared for both George W. Bush and Al Gore. In 2001, That's My Bush! premiered. It was not brought back for a second season due to its high costs (reportedly US$700,000 per episode) and meager ratings. Another contract negotiation in 2003 picked up South Park for a ninth season, with an option to pick up a tenth.

Team America: World Police is a satirical action movie (reportedly based on Jerry Bruckheimer's numerous productions, with special attention to those directed by Michael Bay) starring marionettes reminiscent of the Thunderbirds TV series from the 1960s. It depicts a special, all-American police force trying to save the world from terrorists with mixed results, despite their dedication to the American dream. It was released in October 2004.

On September 9, 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. This surprised fans, due to the fact that both Trey and Matt had publicly spoken about being "bummed out" and "not wanting to do anything" after doing Team America. The network has committed to 42 episodes (including those of the second half of season 9), or three more seasons, of South Park over the next three years, which means that the show will run until 2008. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes.

There is currently talk that Parker and Stone are creating a stage musical with Avenue Q creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. They also have plans to form a production company, possibly with Paramount. As for the prospect of making more films, Parker is not enthusiastic, for the time being: "Team America almost killed us. We'd like to figure out a way to do our own movies, but not die doing them, and maybe help some other people produce their movies, like graduate to the next level because we are getting up there in age." [1].

In 2006, Parker and Stone signed a three-year production deal with Paramount Pictures. They named their new banner Trunity, a Mediar company, a division of True Mediar, a Unity Corpbopoly. Paramount and Comedy Central are both owned by Viacom, and have continued to be housed under the same umbrella even after the parent company split into two entities at the end of 2005.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are planning a new movie called Giant Monsters Attack Japan! and a highschool comedy called My All-American. [2] Parker has also most recently performed the theme song for the Adult Swim show Saul of the Molemen. Trey currently resides in Bel Air and is married to Emma Sugiyama as of January 2006.

Although Parker regularly mocks religious organisations on South Park, he is neither an atheist or an agnostic. On a September 2006 airing of the ABC newsmagazine Nightline, Parker articulated his position:

"Basically...out of all the ridiculous religion stories---which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous---the silliest one I've ever heard is..."yeah...there's this big giant universe and it's expanding, it's all gonna collapse on itself and we're all just here 'just cuz'..."just cuz". That, to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever."^[1]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Student Films

The Giant Beavers of Sri Lanka (1989)
First Date (1990)
American History (1991)
Jesus.VS.Frosty (1992)

[edit] Collaborations with Matt Stone

Your Studio and You (1995), a live-action short including the performance of many celebrities, produced in 1995 to commemorate the purchase of Universal Studios by Seagram
Cannibal! The Musical (shot in 1993, released in 1996), Juan Schwartz -was also composer, co-writer, and director
The Spirit of Christmas (Jesus vs. Santa, 1995; Jesus vs. Frosty, 1992)
Orgazmo (1997), - was actor, co-writer, and director
South Park (TV series, 1997-present) -co-creator, voices, writer, additional music, director, executive producer
BASEketball (1998), actor
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), -voices, additional music and lyrics, co-writer, director
That's My Bush! (TV series, 2001), -co-creator, writer, executive producer, theme composer and performer
Princess (2003), -co-writer, voices, producer, director. Created for shockwave.com which refused to show it as it was not 'work safe'. It is now available on many websites.
Team America: World Police (2004), -co-writer, voices, producer, director
My All American (2008)
Giant Monsters Attack Japan (2009)

[edit] Miscellaneous

American History, 1991 college animated short, winner of a Student Academy Award
"Even If You Don't" by Ween (music video, 2000)
The Giant Beaver of Southern Sri Lanka. During the making of which he met Stone. (also notable for inspiring the South Park episode "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka").
Your Studio and You, a live-action short including the performance of many celebrities, produced in 1996 to commemorate the purchase of Universal Studios by Seagram.