Wayne Knight (born August 7, 1955) is an American comedic actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Newman in the TV sitcom Seinfeld and Officer Don Orville in 3rd Rock from the Sun. His other prominent roles include Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park, Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2, Tantor in Tarzan, and Stan Podolak in Space Jam with Michael Jordan.
Knight was born in New York City, the son of Bill Knight, a textile factory supervisor,who soon moved the family to Cartersville, Georgia, where Knight grew up. Knight was an undergraduate at the University of Georgia. He left the college as an honor student but one credit shy of a degree to pursue his career at the Barter Theatre in Virginia. After an internship there, he joined the company and left with Equity card in hand to take on New York City. Two years later he had his first role on Broadway.
Knight has had prominent film roles, such as in JFK by Oliver Stone and in the infamous interrogation scene in Basic Instinct. Also, due to the latter, he was the first person to be cast in Jurassic Park after director Steven Spielberg saw him in the scene. Knight was cast as the bumbling overweight InGen Corporation's chief programmer for the park and spy for Biosyn, Dennis Nedry. He also appeared in Dead Again, To Die For, Space Jam and Dirty Dancing.
During the mid-to-late 1990s he simultaneously played prominent supporting roles on three different TV series on NBC playing the part of the obese mail man Newman in Seinfeld (where he participated in a scene spoofing Kevin Costner's "back and to the left" speech from JFK), Officer Don Orville, Sally's love interest in 3rd Rock from the Sun and Against the Grain, featuring the then unknown Ben Affleck), an unusual hat trick for television. He also appeared as a regular on two sketch comedy series, The Edge for Fox and Assaulted Nuts for Cinemax and Channel 4 in the UK.
Knight has appeared on Broadway in the plays Gemini, Mastergate, Art and most recently in Sweet Charity with Christina Applegate. During filming of an episode of Seinfeld, Knight felt what he thought to be angina pains and sought the help of a cardiologist who told him that he was morbidly obese, had high blood pressure and was near diabetic. The actor then took on a serious program involving diet, exercise and outside support. He eventually lost 117 lb (53 kg). Currently, he maintains about 75-80 lb (about 35 kg) of that loss.
In Cheaper by the Dozen, he made his first film appearance in his new, slim self. Knight is currently voicing the black cat Mister Blik on the Nickelodeon cartoon Catscratch. He also voices the dragon Dojo Kanojo Cho in the Kids' WB! animated series Xiaolin Showdown. He also voiced Evil Emperor Zurg on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command on Toon Disney and Disney Channel, Al McWhiggin, the toy store manager of Al's Toy Barn, in Toy Story 2. Tantor the elephant in Tarzan and Demetrius the shopkeeper in Hercules and also made guest appearances on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as the Jack-O-Lantern and Brandy and Mr. Whiskers as Mr. Cantarious the snail. He recently voiced the bug Juju on Tak and The Power of Juju.
Knight appeared on the Pilot episode of the U.S. version of Thank God You're Here. He made a second appearance on the last episode of the first season. There, he won the Thank God You're Here blue door award.
In 2008, Knight will do the voice of Max, a cat in Cat Tale. He has been signed on to play the Punisher's techno sidekick Microchip in the upcoming Punisher: War Zone.
