Artist

Michael McKean is a multi-talented actor, writer and director who is associated with some of pop culture’s most iconographic film and television shows of the last three decades. He has appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows, creating a rogues gallery of unusual and durable characters. Michael studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University and at NYU (with Olympia Dukakis) before heading out to L.A., where he joined Harry Shearer and David L. Lander in the satirical squad, The Credibility Gap. In 1976, McKean and Lander became notorious as Lenny & Squiggy, on the TV series “Laverne and Shirley”. This behavior continued for seven years, whereupon Michael segued into films. Steven Spielberg’s 1941, Used Cars, Young Doctors in Love, and Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap, on which McKean shared screenwriting and composing credits. Other films include: Clue, Light of Day, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Coneheads, The Brady Bunch Movie, Jack, True Crime, and about seventy others including Christopher Guest’s The Big Picture (also co-wrote), Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. McKean has also appeared as a regular on “Saturday Night Live”, “Dream On”, “Sessions” and “Tracey Takes On” and acted as bandleader/straight man for Martin Short’s “Primetime Glick” on Comedy Central. Among his many TV guest appearances: “Friends”, “Murphy Brown”, “The Simpsons”, “X Files”, “Law & Order”, as Perry White on “Smallville”, and most recently, in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. In 1999, Michael had the good sense to marry actress Annette O’Toole, with whom he wrote the Oscar-nominated song, “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” for A Mighty Wind. He also collaborated with Guest and Eugene Levy on the title song of that film, which won a Grammy Award. McKean made his Broadway debut in 1990 with Rupert Holmes’ Accomplice which netted him a Theater World Award. After this, McKean made his Broadway Musical debut in Hairspray, followed by Woody Allen’s original stage production, A Secondhand Memory. Next up came his debut at the Williamstown Theatre Festival Mainstage in Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle. McKean then appeared in the successful Broadway revival of The Pajama Game with Harry Connick Jr. before starring on London’s West End in a new play titled, “Love Song”. McKean is currently appearing on Broadway in the 40th anniversary revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. This past summer, appearing as David St Hubbins in the reunited SPINAL TAP appearance at Live Earth on July 7 from Wembley Stadium, he helped raise awareness about Global Warming.