| Dana
Carvey, Emmy-award winning comedian,
has maintained a tremendous career.
Carvey was born June 2, 1955, in
Missoula, Montana. Dana went on to
college at the San Francisco State
University where he won the San
Francisco Standup Comedy Competition.
After his graduation (with a degree in
communication arts), Dana Carvey played
at numerous clubs in the Bay Area and
then moved to Los Angeles to pursue his
career.
A repertory member of SATURDAY NIGHT
LIVE since the 1986-87 season, Dana
Carvey left in 1992 after seven seasons.
Carvey is best known for his characters
the Church Lady; Hans, of the Hans and
Franz bodybuilding duo; Garth, Wayne
Campbell's (Mike Myers) "Excellent
Cohost " on the immensely popular sketch
"Wayne's World," and Weekend Update's
Grumpy Old Man.
In addition to these characters, Dana
Carvey has received widespread praise
for his uncanny and exaggerated comedic
impersonations of such political figures
as Ex-President George Bush, H. Ross
Perot, Jerry Brown, David Duke and Bob
Dole. He also does impersonations of
George Burns, Johnny Carson, Jimmy
Stewart, John McLaughlin, Mickey Rooney,
Casey Casem and Regis Philbin .
On television, Dana Carvey hosted the
1992 presentation of the MTV Music
Awards, costarred in two pilots and was
a member of the Showtime special SALUTE
TO THE IMPROVISATION, with Billy
Crystal, Robin Williams and Robert
Klein. In 1995, Carvey performed standup
in his own one-hour comedy special on
HBO aptly named CRITICS' CHOICE.
In 1992, Dana Carvey appeared in the
blockbuster film WAYNE'S WORLD, based on
the hit SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch. The
film grossed over $160 million and was
produced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
The public demanded a sequel, and in
1993, Carvey appeared in WAYNE'S WORLD
2, recreating his role of Garth,
alongside Mike Myers' Wayne. The film
was hugely successful.
Dana Carvey's transfer from the small
screen to the large screen included
roles in Alan Parker's THE ROAD TO
WELLVILLE, for Columbia Pictures,
Richard and Lili Zanuck's CLEAN SLATE
for MGM, and Twentieth Century Fox's
TRAPPED IN PARADISE. His early film work
includes his debut in THIS IS SPINAL
TAP, RACING WITH THE MOON, ONE OF THE
GROUP, where he portrayed Mickey
Rooney's grandson, BLUE THUNDER with
James Farentino , TOUGH GUYS, with Burt
Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and starring
in the comedy OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS.
Dana Carvey won an Emmy Award in 1993
for Outstanding Individual Performance
in a Variety or Music Program. He has
received a total of six Emmy
nominations, one of which was for a
guest appearance on HBO's highly
acclaimed LARRY SANDERS SHOW. Also, he
was honored with the American Comedy
Award as Television's Funniest
Supporting Male in 1990 and 1991.
(Side note: Dana Carvey's brother
Brad is an engineer and a pioneer in the
video production field. He developed
"Video Toaster", an inexpensive setup
for Hollywood quality video making. The
character "Garth" from Wayne's World is
based on Dana's brother.) |
