Robert A. "Rob" Riggle, Jr., (born April 21, 1970) is an American actor/comedian best known for his time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, his supporting role in the film Step Brothers, and for his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show from 2006-2008.
Riggle was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was raised in Overland Park, Kansas and regards Overland Park as his hometown, where he attended Shawnee Mission South High School. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and also a member of the fratnernity Phi Gamma Delta. with a bachelors degree in Theater and Film. He later went on to get his masters degree in Public Administration from Webster University.
Military career
Riggle is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and served in Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. He is currently a public affairs officer with the New York City Public Affairs unit and is a recipient of the Combat Action Ribbon. He has referred to his military e...
Robert A. "Rob" Riggle, Jr., (born April 21, 1970) is an American actor/comedian best known for his time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, his supporting role in the film Step Brothers, and for his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show from 2006-2008.
Riggle was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was raised in Overland Park, Kansas and regards Overland Park as his hometown, where he attended Shawnee Mission South High School. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and also a member of the fratnernity Phi Gamma Delta. with a bachelors degree in Theater and Film. He later went on to get his masters degree in Public Administration from Webster University.
Military career
Riggle is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and served in Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. He is currently a public affairs officer with the New York City Public Affairs unit and is a recipient of the Combat Action Ribbon. He has referred to his military experiences on The Daily Show, often when acting as the show's "Military Analyst", sometimes stating he could kill any other member of the show. He is the only Daily Show cast member to have been in the U.S. military.
In August 2007, Riggle went to Iraq to report for The Daily Show as well as entertain the troops under the purview of the United Service Organizations.
On April 15, 2009, The Daily Show announced that Riggle had been promoted from Major to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. This promotion took effect on July 1, 2009.
Comedy career
Comedy Partnership with Rob Huebel
He has a long-standing comedic partnership with comedian Rob Huebel with whom he frequently works at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and in their former improvisational sketch comedy troupe Respecto Montalban. Perhaps the duo's best known creation was their long running two-man show Kung Fu Grip which they often performed at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and other comedy venues for several years. The show gained so much popularity it was one of the featured acts in the 2004 HBO Comedy Arts Festival. Around this time the duo also began appearing together on a number of Comedy Central and VH1 programs. They appeared together on numerous talking head commentary programs such as VH1's Best Week Ever and A2Z. They also appeared on Bravo network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments special. These appearances got the duo their first mainstream exposure to television viewers. The two were instant fan favorites among regular viewers of the VH1 commentary programs.
The duo's growing popularity in the New York comedy scene landed them an audition on Saturday Night Live in the summer of 2004. The two auditioned together, getting called back a number of times before the SNL producers finally made their choice. Only Riggle ended up making the cut. After spending one season on SNL from 2004-2005, Riggle soon joined Huebel and many of his other Respecto partners in LA to work on new projects. It was announced soon after that the two were hired by NBC in early 2006 to help develop ideas for a possible new half-hour comedy program for the network.
In September 2006, Riggle ended up joining The Daily Show as a regular correspondent. Around the same time Huebel (along with Respecto member Paul Scheer and stand-up comic Aziz Ansari) started developing Human Giant, a sketch show for MTV. Riggle often appeared in the program's various sketches, as well as the group's 24-hour live marathon which aired on MTV in May 2007. One of Riggle's most memorable guest appearances was as hired muscle, Ham-Bone, who appeared alongside Aziz Ansari in the season one sketch "Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru".
Saturday Night Live
Before Riggle was hired as a cast member, he appeared in a pre-taped season 29 sketch called "Fear Factor, Jr.", playing the father during the "Breakfast in Bed" challenge in which a child must eat the maggots off a plate of Eggs Benedict or his parents will divorce.
A featured player during the 2004-2005 season, his first appearance as a cast member was on the show's thirtieth season premiere on October 2, 2004. He has portrayed Larry the Cable Guy, Howard Dean, Rick Sanchez, Mark McGwire, and Toby Keith.
The Daily Show
In September 2006, he joined the cast of The Daily Show to replace the departing Rob Corddry. Riggle made his debut on The Daily Show on September 20, 2006.
During the 2008 Olympics, Riggle traveled to China to tape sketches for the The Daily Show, producing a four-part special feature titled "Rob Riggle: Chasing the Dragon."
Riggle left The Daily Show on December 10, 2008, in his words "to go fight crime"; however, he will be appearing at Bonnaroo 2009 - along with John Oliver and Rory Albanese, one of the show's executive producers - in a show entitled An Evening (or Afternoon) with the Daily Show featuring John Oliver, Rob Riggle Rory Albanese.
Other work
Riggle played the character of Eddie Reynolds in Blackballed, a 2004 film starring Rob Corddry as the lead character. Later that year Riggle was one of the "Flab Four" on the Comedy Central mini-series Straight Plan for the Gay Man, a parody of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that ran for three episodes.
In 2006, Riggle guest-starred as a boat captain named Captain Jack on the "Booze Cruise" episode of The Office, and as an anti-euthanasia activist on Arrested Development. He was also seen as a NASCAR announcer in Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell.
In late 2007, Riggle began appearing as a spokesman in a series of Budweiser commercials. 2008 saw Riggle sign a talent holding contract with CBS and CBS Paramount Network TV, which includes a development deal to create and star in a half-hour comedy series. In addition he gained a supporting role as Randy in Step Brothers. In the film, his character "Randy" was a rude co-worker of Brennan (Will Ferrell). Randy was Brennan's brother Derek's best friend and they picked on Brennan a lot. He made a cameo appearance in the 2009 film The Hangover.
As Mr. O'hare
As Mr. Walters
As James Malone Sr.
Actor
As Ron
As Martin