Patton Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, voiceover artist and actor.
Oswalt was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, to Carla and Larry J. Oswalt. He is a 1987 graduate of Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia, and attended the College of William and Mary, where he majored in English and was initiated into the Alpha Theta Chapter of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity.
Oswalt married writer Michelle McNamara, on September 24, 2005.
Oswalt first began headlining comedy clubs in 1996. After writing for MADtv and starring in his own 1997 comedy special for HBO, he went on to garner notable roles in films and television shows including Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, Pixar's Ratatouille, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens, on CBS. He has appeared on the television shows Home Movies, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Seinfeld, Human Giant, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, I Love the '80s, Static Shock, The Weird Al Show, Crank Yankers, Reno 911!, The Batman, Comedy Central's Last Laugh '06 and The Fairly OddParents as the writer of the Crimson Chin comics. He lent his voice as in the Playstation 2 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a caller on the WTCR show, "The Tight End Zone," where he states incredibly obvious things about sports, and was the voice of a caller on "Chatterbox" on LCFR in the PlayStation Portable game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. He was also the voice of a reporter on New World Order, a radio show on VCPR in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
Oswalt wrote the comic book JLA: Welcome to the Working Week, a backup story in Batman #600, a story for Dwight T. Albatross's The Goon Noir #01 and a story for Masks: Too Hot for TV. He voiced Rémy, the lead character in the Pixar film Ratatouille (2007). Also in a connection to Disney, he voices Professor Dementor on the hit Disney Channel animated show Kim Possible. Expanding his voice artist repertoire, he will voice a character in the upcoming PBS Kids GO! show The Amazing Colossal Adventures of WordGirl.
In July of 2006, Oswalt's comic script "Fruit Pies!" was turned into a short film available at YouTube and MySpace. He also appeared on the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner. In August 2007 he appeared on the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav. In 2007, he appeared on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, "The Original Fry Cook," as Jim. He also appears as Carl, the Corndog Hut's mascot in American Hi-Fi's music video for "Another Perfect Day". On June 27, 2007, Oswalt was a special guest on the Emeril Live program on the Food Network, where he plugged his new movie, Ratatouille. He is scheduled to voice Prince Dreamer in the Madagascar sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which is planed to be released on November 7, 2008.
Oswalt's style of stand-up comedy is often described as acerbic and sarcastic, and it covers topics ranging from pop culture frivolity such as comic book supervillains and 1980s glam metal to deeper societal issues like American excess, rampant materialism, Mesopotamian cuneiform script, foreign policy and religion (Oswalt is an avowed atheist himself.). Quite a few of his routines are about vice, especially pornography and alcohol. A famous line: "Do you think you have a problem when you refer to all alcohol as 'pain-go-bye-bye-juice'?"
He started doing standup in San Francisco. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he began performing at Un-Cabaret.
In 2004, Oswalt released a comedy album entitled Feelin' Kinda Patton and later that year a longer, unedited version of the same performance entitled 222, both through the United Musicians collective, and a stand-up special "No Reason to Complain." He is also on a split EP called, Patton vs. Alcohol vs. Zach vs. Patton with Zach Galifianakis. On July 10, 2007, Patton released his latest CD Werewolves and Lollipops, on Sub Pop records.
Looking for a way to bring cutting-edge comedy to a different audience, Oswalt put together the Comedians of Comedy tour in 2004, using indie rock venues instead of traditional (and expensive) comedy clubs. The tour featured Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford. The Fall 2004 tour was documented in a 2005 film of the same name; it was followed by a six-episode Comedy Central series based on the Summer 2005 tour. This tour featured special guest appearances from comedians such as Blaine Capatch, Bobby Tisdale and Todd Barry. Subsequent incarnations of the tour have included Eugene Mirman, and Morgan Murphy. Recently, Oswalt has appeared as a "lawyer" in Lewis Black's Root of All Evil.
