Christopher Nash Elliott (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his surreal sense of humor. He was a regular performer on Late Night with David Letterman while working as a writer there (1983–1988), created and starred in the comedy series Get a Life (1990–1992) on Fox, and wrote and starred in the film Cabin Boy (1994) and appeared in multiple sequels in the Scary Movie film series, most notably as the character Hanson. His writing for Letterman won four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards.

His other television appearances include recurring roles on Everybody Loves Raymond (2003–2005) and How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014), as well as spending one season as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1994–1995). Starring roles on television include Chris Monsanto in Adult Swim's Eagleheart (2011–2014) and Roland Schitt in Schitt's Creek (2015–2020). He appeared in many films, including Groundhog Day (1993), There's Something About Mary (1998), Snow Day (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001) and The Rewrite (2014).

Early life

Elliott was born in New York City, and is the youngest of five children of Lee (née Peppers), a model and TV director, and Bob Elliott, who was part of the comedy team Bob and Ray. He grew up on the Upper East Side. He attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center for a semester.

Career

Letterman years (1982–1990)

Elliott was hired as a production assistant on Late Night with David Letterman, and was with the show from its beginning in February 1982. In the middle of 1983, Elliott became a writer on the show and his on-camera appearances became more frequent. Elliott became best friends and writing partners with Matt Wickline, another Letterman crew member who was promoted to the writing staff in 1983. Wickline and Elliott pitched Late Nights first theme show, an Emmy-winning interactive episode called "The Custom-Made Show, leading the program to do a series of ambitious experimental one-off episodes. Along with the rest of the writing staff, he won four Emmys for his work on the show and was nominated for an additional six.

Elliott became known in the mid-1980s for playing an assortment of recurring quirky, oddball characters on Late Night, each of which would usually last for a few weeks to a few months, before being retired amidst much mock-fanfare on the show. Elliott and Wickline co-wrote his early pieces on the show, often about characters who had "Guy" in the name, including The Conspiracy Guy, The Panicky Guy, Terminator parody The Regulator Guy, The Fugitive parody "The Fugitive Guy," and most famously, The Guy Under The Seats, a man who lived under the studio audience seating and would get mad at and threaten Letterman.

In 1987, while still working at Letterman, Elliott starred in two Cinemax Comedy Experiment TV specials called FDR: A One Man Show and Action Family. He co-wrote both specials with Letterman writers Matt Wickline and Sandy Frank. FDR: A One Man Show was a fake play about the life and times of Franklin D. Roosevelt (influenced by Frank Perry's 1984 TV movie J.F.K.: A One-Man Show). Elliott looked and sounded nothing like Roosevelt; he portrayed events from his life that never happened, such as a Japanese bombing of the White House, and his crossing the Potomac in a rowboat. By the end of the show, he had performed Gallagher's shtick of smashing watermelons and other soft fruits on stage.

Following these specials, Elliott and Wickline had a falling out, as Elliott had begun collaborating more with fellow Letterman writer Adam Resnick on his pieces on the show. Elliott and Resnick's character bits found him playing self-involved show business people, both real and fake. These characters include Rip Taylor-esque Las Vegas lounge lizard Skylark, talk show host Chris Elliott Jr. (a la Morton Downey Jr.), and exaggerated surreal impressions of Marlon Brando, Jay Leno, and Marv Albert.

As his career on Late Night blossomed, Elliott auditioned to join the cast of Saturday Night Live when Lorne Michaels returned to the program in 1985. He was offered the job but turned it down to stay at Letterman. He began taking small film roles, often as a supporting actor in films such as Michael Mann's Manhunter and James Cameron's The Abyss. He had a small supporting role in an episode of Miami Vice.

1990s

Elliott left Late Night in early 1990 and moved to Los Angeles, though he would return as a guest interview subject many times on Late Night and Letterman's subsequent talk show Late Show with David Letterman.

In 1990, Elliott starred in his own sitcom, Get a Life, which he co-created with his frequent Letterman collaborator Adam Resnick. The show was about a 30-year-old paperboy named Chris Peterson who lived at home with his parents. Elliott's real-life father, Bob Elliott, appeared in the show as Chris's father. The January 1999 issue of TV Guide called the "Zoo Animals on Wheels" episode the 19th funniest TV moment of all time.

In 1993, Elliott teamed up with producer Brad Hall and directed a series of critically acclaimed short films that Elliott showed when appearing on Late Show with David Letterman. That year he appeared in a prominent supporting role as Bill Murray's cameraman in the Harold Ramis film Groundhog Day.

In the early 1990s, director Tim Burton became a fan of Get a Life, and, in an attempt to re-create the success of his film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, hired Elliott and Resnick to write a movie for Elliott to star in. The two scripted Cabin Boy, which Burton was set to direct. Burton bowed out of his role as director so he could make Ed Wood, and Resnick became Cabin Boys director. Although it has since garnered a cult following, Cabin Boy, which featured a short appearance by Elliott's old boss, David Letterman, opened in 1994 to bad reviews and scant box office returns, and netted Elliott a Razzie Award for Worst New Star.

Following Cabin Boys dismal reception, Elliott accepted an offer to join the cast of Saturday Night Live for the 1994 season and moved back to New York City. He had a "terrible time" on the show, finding himself to be "too old," and disliking the toxic environment and late hours. The season was critically reviled, and a New York magazine reporter who embedded with the show for four weeks wrote a scathing piece called "Comedy Isn't Funny", in which Elliott was quoted expressing his unhappiness at the show. At the end of 94–95 season, Elliott left the show amidst a major overhaul in the cast and writing team.

Following his departure from SNL, Elliott continued to appear in supporting parts in films and TV shows. He joined the ensemble cast of the NBC sitcom The Naked Truth for its third season. The show was subsequently canceled. He played Ben Stiller's best friend in the Farrelly Brothers hit comedy There's Something About Mary, reinvigorating his film career.

2000s

Elliott began the decade with a major role as the villain in the Nickelodeon movie Snow Day. In the fall of 2000, he returned to a series regular role on television, starring alongside Steven Weber in the NBC sitcom Cursed. Cursed was given the coveted Must See TV timeslot post-Friends, but after being retooled and retitled The Weber Show, the program was canceled.

Next, Elliott played prominent supporting parts in Scary Movie 2 and Osmosis Jones, which reunited him with Bill Murray and frequent collaborators The Farrelly Brothers. From 2003 to 2005, he had a recurring role as Robert's strange brother-in-law Peter MacDougall in the last three seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond.

Elliott spent much of the decade attempting to create another show for himself, selling a family sitcom to Fox in 2004 and one to CBS in 2006. Neither made it to air. In 2007, he starred in Chrissy: Plain & Simple, a pilot for his own sketch show for Comedy Central. Elliott had a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother, playing the estranged father of character Lily Aldrin from 2009 to 2014.

2010s–present

In 2011, Elliott returned to a leading role on TV for the first time since Get a Life, starring in the Adult Swim series Eagleheart. Created by Michael Koman and Andrew Weinberg and produced by Conan O'Brien, Eagleheart found Chris Elliott starring as U.S. Marshal Chris Monsanto in an exaggerated, dark version of a fake Walker, Texas Ranger-esque TV procedural. The show aired for three seasons and became a cult hit.

In 2015, Elliott became part of the ensemble cast of Schitt's Creek, starring alongside Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as town mayor Roland Schitt. The series ran for six seasons, winning nine Emmys, and netting Elliott a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2022, he was part of the cast of the short-lived Hulu series Maggie.

Personal life

Elliott has been married to Paula Niedert since 1986. Niedert worked as a talent coordinator on Late Night with David Letterman when they met. They have two daughters: Abby and Bridey. Abby was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 2008 until 2012, making her the first SNL cast member to be the child of a previous cast member. His father Bob Elliott, of the comedy duo Bob & Ray, co-starred on an SNL Christmas episode in the 1978–1979 season. He and his family live in Old Lyme, Connecticut and maintain a house in Harpswell, Maine.

Filmography

Film

Television

Bibliography

Elliott has written four books spoofing history or pseudo-history. Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father is a comedic fictionalized biography about growing up with his famous father, spoofing Christina Crawford's Mommie Dearest. The Shroud of the Thwacker is a historical novel about Elliott's investigation of a serial killer in 1882 New York City, spoofing London's Jack the Ripper case. Into Hot Air tells the story of Chris climbing Mount Everest with a group of celebrities tagging along to underwrite the trek as he investigates his Uncle Percy's failed Everest expedition. And The Guy Under The Sheets is an "unauthorized autobiography" that tells a comedically fictional version of Elliott's life in which Elliott "reveals" that he is the son not of comedian Bob Elliott, but, rather, of playwright Sam Elliott and actress Bette Davis.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy AwardsPrimetime Emmy Awards

Screen Actors Guild AwardsScreen Actors Guild Awards

American Comedy AwardsAmerican Comedy Awards

Canadian Screen AwardsCanadian Screen Awards

References

External links

• Boilerplate meets Chris Elliott