Matt Besser
Encyclopedia
Matthew Gregory "Matt" Besser (born September 22, 1967) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor and comedian best known as one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

sketch comedy troupe who also had their own show on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 from 1998-2000.

Life and career

Besser was born and raised Jewish in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a founding member of Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

 (UCB) which started out as a Chicago sketch and improv comedy group in 1991, earning a cult following from the start. Original members included Ian Roberts
Ian Roberts (actor)
Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian and writer best known as a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe.-Life and career:...

, Ali Farahnakian, Adam McKay
Adam McKay
Adam McKay is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedian Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys....

, Rick Roman
Rick Roman
Richard "Rick" Roman was an actor and improvisational comedian from Philadelphia. While attending Temple University, Roman began his career in comedy partnering with Paul F. Tompkins in Philadelphia at The Comedy Works....

, and Horatio Sanz
Horatio Sanz
Horatio Sanz is a Chilean-born American actor and comedian best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998-2006. Sanz most recently starred alongside his former SNL castmate Chris Parnell in the Comedy Central series Big Lake.-Early life:Sanz, the youngest of three sons, was born in...

. In 1996, the UCB relocated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. In NYC, they made three seasons of their sketch-comedy series Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 from 1998 to 2000. The cast consisted of Besser, Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...

, Ian Roberts
Ian Roberts (actor)
Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian and writer best known as a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe.-Life and career:...

 and Matt Walsh. It originally included a voice-over by Del Close
Del Close
Del Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...

. Nearly 10 years since its cancellation, the show continues to maintain a large following and is often hailed as one of the great cult sketch shows. Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 has released the first two seasons on DVD, it is not known when the third and final season will be released.

Since then, Besser and the UCB moved on to other projects and opened comedy theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. He was the creator and co-star of the Redman
Method Man & Redman
Method Man & Redman, also referred to as Red & Meth, Meth & Red, Doc & Meth or Mr. Mef and Funk Doc, are an American hip hop duo, consisting of rap superstars Method Man and Redman ....

 & Method Man
Method Man
Clifford Smith , better known by his stage name Method Man is an American hip hop artist, record producer, actor and member of the hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He took his stage name from the 1979 film The Fearless Young Boxer, also known as Method Man. He is one half of the rap duo Method Man...

 MTV hidden camera prank show Stung. In 2004 created and starred in his second Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 show, Crossballs
Crossballs
Crossballs: The Debate Show was a Comedy Central television show which poked fun at cable news networks' political debate shows, especially CNN's Crossfire and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. In each episode, comedians posing as experts on a particular subject would debate two real...

which mocked news debate shows by pitting fake experts (played by Besser and other comedians) against real people.

Besser has appeared in films such as Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 music comedy film written and produced by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan, directed by Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly...

, Martin & Orloff
Martin & Orloff
Martin & Orloff is a feature film written by and starring Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts along with Ian's wife Katie Roberts. The film was produced and directed by Lawrence Blume and features an ensemble cast of alternative comedians including H...

(written by UCB cohorts Roberts and Walsh), Year One
Year One
The term "Year One" in political history usually refers to the institution of radical, revolutionary change. This usage dates from the time of the French Revolution: after the abolition of the French monarchy , the National Convention instituted the new French Revolutionary Calendar, declaring that...

, Undead or Alive
Undead or Alive
Wanted: Undead or Alive is a 2007 comedy-horror Western film directed by Glasgow Phillips, it was written by Phillips and Scott Pourroy. The film stars Navi Rawat, Chris Kattan and James Denton.-Plot:...

, Drillbit Taylor
Drillbit Taylor
Drillbit Taylor is a 2008 comedy film starring Owen Wilson as the eponymous character and based on an original idea by John Hughes. It was directed by Steven Brill and the screenplay was written by Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen. Paramount Pictures released the film on March 21, 2008.Drillbit...

, and Junebug
Junebug (film)
Junebug is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by Phil Morrison. It was released on August 3, 2005 and stars Amy Adams, Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, and Benjamin McKenzie...

, in addition to a number of sitcoms. In 2003 the UCB filmed their first full-length improvised movie, Wild Girls Gone. After several years of being unreleased, in early 2010 the long-awaited film was screened at several indie theaters in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 area and is now sold for digital download on iTunes and on DVD at the official UCB Theater website. The troupe had also performed their signature brand of longform improv (ASSSSCAT) in a special for the Bravo channel in 2005. In 2008, they also released a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 entitled ASSSSCAT!: Renegade Improv Comedy through Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...

, which features an uncensored improv performance by the troupe and special guests, the DVD also includes deleted scenes and along with other bonus features.

In 2008, Besser played the part of "Courtney Frenchip", the hippie roommate of David Cross
David Cross
David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...

 in David's Situation, a pilot made for HBO written by Cross and Bob Odenkirk
Bob Odenkirk
Robert "Bob" Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr...

. As Odenkirk explained on his web site, “It will follow a traditional sitcom feeling, but will also feel like a big sketch, even though the characters will remain the same each week.” The pilot was filmed live on May 9, 2008 but was not picked by HBO as a series.

Besser and the Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

 continue to run comedy theaters on both coasts. The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater currently has two locations, in Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...

 and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Besser and the UCB currently perform several times a week at the Los Angeles theater, most notably in their long-running hit improv show ASSSSCAT 3000 every Sunday night.

Besser's Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 pilot "This Show Will Get You High" aired as a sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

 special on October 27, 2010. The show featured video shorts and sketches from Besser and Upright Citizens Brigade Theater comedians John Gemberling, Brett Gelman
Brett Gelman
Brett Gelman is an American actor and comedian known for his appearances in the HBO comedy programs Funny or Die Presents and The Life & Times of Tim. He currently co-stars alongside Chris Elliott in the Adult Swim series Eagleheart.-Life and career:Gelman was born and raised in Highland Park,...

, Paul Rust
Paul Rust
Paul Robert Rust is an American actor, comedian and writer.-Life and career:Rust was born in Le Mars, Iowa to Jeanne and Bob Rust...

, and Betsy Sodaro.

Besser currently hosts the Earwolf Challenge, a reality-competition podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

 hosted by Scott Aukerman
Scott Aukerman
Scottrick "Scott" Aukerman is an American writer, actor, comedian, television personality, director, producer, and podcast host. In the mid-1990s, Aukerman was a writer and performer on Mr. Show with Bob and David. He currently hosts the weekly comedy podcast Comedy Bang Bang...

's Earwolf
Earwolf
Earwolf is a comedy podcasting network founded by Scott Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich during the summer of 2010. It started with the preexisting show Comedy Death-Ray Radio but has since grown to include several other podcasts, with the intention of adding even more.In 2011, they announced a...

 podcasting network.

Besser's grandfather's cousin was Joe Besser
Joe Besser
Joe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957-59...

 of The Three Stooges. He is the cousin of Mott's
Mott's
Mott's is a company involved in producing apple-based products, particularly juices and sauces. The company was founded in 1842 by Samuel R. Mott in Bouckville, New York, who made apple cider and vinegar. Mott products were exhibited at Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition in 1876 and Chicago's...

 CFO Christopher Palid.

External links

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