Chris Parnell

Acting · 2.7 popularity

Age

Movies

Born: February 5, 1967
From: Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Biography

Thomas Christopher "Chris" Parnell (born February 5, 1967) is an American comic actor best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998–2006 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Leo Spaceman on NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series 30 Rock. Parnell is currently one of the lead voices on the FX animated comedy Archer. In 2010, Parnell starred alongside his former SNL castmate Horatio Sanz in the Comedy Central series Big Lake. After performing as a company player with The Groundlings for a number of years, Parnell was hired to join the cast of Saturday Night Live as a featured player on September 26, 1998, and was promoted to repertory player the following season. In the summer of 2001, budget cuts and hiring four new cast members required Lorne Michaels to dismiss two cast members; he chose to lay off Parnell and Jerry Minor over Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, and Maya Rudolph. While on SNL, Parnell appeared in numerous sketches, and commercial parodies, and performed memorable impressions of various celebrities. One of his most popular sketches is Lazy Sunday, a rap video he shot with Andy Samberg about buying cupcakes and going to see The Chronicles of Narnia. He has also performed raps about hosts Jennifer Garner, Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst and Ashton Kutcher. In the summer of 2006, Lorne Michaels announced that four cast members would be fired due to budget cuts, but he did not say who. On September 22, 2006 it was announced that three cast members had been fired: Parnell, Horatio Sanz, and Finesse Mitchell. This effectively made him the only SNL performer to have been fired twice by Lorne Michaels, though Parnell did say in a 2008 interview with The Sound of Young America podcast that he was okay with being let go this time, because he was considering leaving after that season anyway, but added that he probably would have stayed one last season if he was asked back. He had been with SNL for eight seasons; at the time only four people (Darrell Hammond, Tim Meadows, Kevin Nealon, and Al Franken) have been cast members longer. He has since made uncredited cameo appearances on the show, most recently in 2008 parodying newscasters Tom Brokaw, Jim Lehrer, and Bob Schieffer. Parnell and his former SNL castmate Horatio Sanz recently starred together in Big Lake, a 2010 sitcom on Comedy Central from executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. He also recently appeared as Dr. Drummer/Santa in the SyFy Holiday Special episode from the television show Eureka, which aired on December 7, 2010 (Season 4 Episode 10).

Works

84 films

The Dink

20266.3

Stop! That! Train!

20265.2

Hotel Transylvania

20127.0

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

20186.8

The Dictator

20126.2

Hotel Transylvania 2

20156.8

21 Jump Street

20126.9

Turbo

20136.3

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

20186.1

Home Sweet Home Alone

20214.8

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

20046.7

Jingle All the Way

19966.1

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

20227.0

Hot Rod

20076.4

Senior Year

20225.9

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again

20226.3

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

20136.1

The Five-Year Engagement

20125.8

Escape from Planet Earth

20135.8

Sisters

20156.0

The Laundromat

20196.0

Barely Legal

20035.9

The Ridiculous 6

20155.2

Lorne

20266.8

Life of the Party

20186.1

Paper Man

20096.3

Battle of the Sexes

20176.8

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

20076.6

Elena and the Secret of Avalor

20167.3

Down with Love

20036.1

Finding ʻOhana

20216.2

Labor Pains

20095.4

Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie

20046.0

I Am Woman

20206.2

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

20256.4

Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special

20176.1

A Loud House Christmas Movie: Naughty or Nice

20257.2

The Ladies Man

20005.4

Wake

2026

The Grand

20075.8

I'm Reed Fish

20075.6

Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

20117.0

Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music

20257.8

Harold

20085.6

Our Little Secret

20246.2

WordGirl: The Rise of Miss Power

2012

Kung Fu Magoo

20104.9

The Women of SNL

20105.2

The Last Laugh

20195.4

Kabluey

20076.1

Eavesdrop

20084.6

Ira & Abby

20065.6

Break Point

20145.8

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend

20206.4

Saturday Night Live in the 2000s: Time and Again

2010

Evil Alien Conquerors

20035.6

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Amy Poehler

20097.7

Crohnie

2026

Mimics

20265.5

Hot Mess Holiday

20216.0

Answer This!

20114.3

Slice

20184.4

Austin Found

20175.5

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell

20027.8

Shadows on the Wall

19869.0

Jeff Dunham: Unhinged in Hollywood

20156.4

Hollywood & Wine

20113.7

Sunny and Share Love You

2007

Harry and the Mutant Mid-Century Furniture

2026

AJ's Infinite Summer

20146.7

The Maya Rudolph Show

20145.0

Elena of Avalor: Realm of the Jaquins

2017

Micro Budget

2026

The Better Half

20152.8

Looking for Kitty

20044.8

In Fidelity

20245.2

Farm Sluts

20034.4

A Freezerburnt Christmas

2002

The Dogfather

20103.2

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Commercial Parodies

20066.8

Millennial Hunter

20234.8

As We Know It

20236.4

Yung Punx: A Punk Parable

2021

The Religetables

2002