Dan Finnerty

Dan Finnerty (born January 22, 1970) is an American actor, comedian and singer.

Dan Finnerty
Finnerty in 2009
Born
(1970-01-22) January 22, 1970

Rochester, New York, U.S.
Alma materEmerson College
OccupationActor, singer, comedian
Years active1995–present
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1998)​
Children1

Early life

Finnerty was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in the small town of Bath, New York. He attended Emerson College in Boston. He was a member of the hit off-Broadway show Stomp in New York City.

Career

He is the lead singer of the cult hit comedy group he created called The Dan Band, which Entertainment Weekly dubbed "the hottest ticket in Hollywood." The live show was filmed in Los Angeles as a one-hour concert special Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band: I Am Woman on the Bravo channel, directed by McG and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

Finnerty gained fame for his hilariously foul-mouthed rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as the wedding singer at Will Ferrell's wedding in the movie Old School, directed by Todd Phillips. Phillips continued to feature Dan, as the sleazy bat-mitzvah singer in Starsky & Hutch and again as the irreverent wedding singer in The Hangover After seeing The Dan Band, Steven Spielberg cast him in The Terminal and signed on to executive produce his comedy special.

Finnerty originated the role of Lonny in the world premiere of "Rock of Ages" in Los Angeles along with Kyle Gass from Tenacious D and made a cameo appearance in the film version of "Rock of Ages" as the tour manager for Stacee Jaxx played by Tom Cruise.

He appeared over 15 times as a comedy correspondent on "The Jay Leno Show" and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

"The Dan Band" has released 3 albums:

The Dan Band Live, the full-length CD of his live show released by Side One Dummy Records.

Ho. A Dan Band Xmas, featuring all original holiday songs, with videos for "I Wanna Rock U Hard This Christmas" featuring Florence Henderson from The Brady Bunch making the moves on Santa at a retirement home, as well as the anthemic "Please Don't Bomb Nobody This Holiday," featuring celebrity cameos including Sheryl Crow, Christina Applegate, Nicole Scherzinger, Kyle Gass from Tenacious D, Neil Patrick Harris, Meg Ryan, Donald Faison, Macy Gray, Christopher Guest, Cheri Oteri, Rachael Harris, Kathy Najimy, Nia Vardalos, Ian Gomez, Nathan Fillion, Ricki Lake, Michael Johns, Janeane Garofalo, Lauren Tom, Gia Carides and Matthew Perry.

The Wedding Album, released 2015 through Comedy Dynamics includes collaborations with Nicole Scherzinger, Rob Thomas, Bridget Everett, Nuno Bettencourt and TRAIN.

The Dan Band appeared numerous times on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show, Last Call with Carson Daly' and as the house band on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Pajama Party, and Spike TV's Spike Guys' Choice Awards. Finnerty also wrote and performed the finale song for the final season of Last Comic Standing.

In March 2017, AT&T announced that Finnerty would appear in advertisements for DIRECTV during March Madness, co-starring with Greg Gumbel.[1] The spots feature Finnerty performing the Aerosmith song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", with lyrics tailored to each scene (generally people at work while tournament games are on).[2]

He recently appeared in the Netflix film Dumplin' starring Jennifer Aniston as pageant host Eugene Reed, performing the song "Look At Her" which he co-wrote with American Idol musical director Michael Orland.

Personal life

In August 1998, he married actress Kathy Najimy.[3][4] Gloria Steinem officiated the ceremony.[3] The couple has one daughter, musician Samia, born December 1996.

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1995 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Stomp 2 episodes
1996 Ellen Doorman Episode: "No So Great Expectations"
1997 American Experience Clarence McNeil Episode: "Gold Fever"
1997 Veronica's Closet Pizza Guy Episode: "Veronica's Not Happy About the Book"
1997 Meego Dave Episode: "Fatal Attraction"
1998 Ellen Crew Member Dan / Dan Episode: "Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute (Part 1 & 2)"
1998 Any Day Now Guy Episode: "It's Who You Sleep With"
1998 Cosmo's Tale Purse Snatcher
1998-2000 Rude Awakening Joe the Bartender recurring role; 6 episodes
2000 Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Himself / Musical Guest Episode: "Bridesmaid Revisted"
2000 Pajama Party Dan unknown episode
2000 Lost Souls Technical Director
2000 Leaving Peoria Bob Short film
2001 The Wedding Planner Best Man
2001 Ca$hino Dramatization Johnny Short film
2002 The Princess and the Pea Prince Rollo (singing voice)
2003 Old School Wedding Singer
2003 The Dan Show Dan Kennedy Television Movie

also Executive Producer

2004 Starsky & Hutch Bat Mitzvah Singer based on the television series
2004 The Terminal Discovery Store Manager
2004 My Life as a Teenage Robot Singer (voice role) Episode: "A Robot for All Seasons"
2005 King of the Hill Darryl (voice role) Episode: "It' Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Neighbor Sings"
2005 The Life and Times of Juniper Lee Singer Episode: "Enter Sandman"
2008 Extreme Movie Gigundocock
2009 Random! Cartoons Wallo (voice role) Episode: "The Bravest Warriors"
2009 I Hate Valentine's Day Grouchy Guy
2009 The Hangover Wedding Singer
2011 A Great Catch SWAT Captain Short film
2011 Bench Seat Bartender Short film
2012 Rock of Ages Tour Manager – Stacee
2014 The Mysteries of Laura Sad Sack "Pilot" uncredited
2016 Graves unknown role Episode: "That Dare Not Speak"
2018 Dumplin' Eugene Reed

References
  1. "AT&T Adds Laughs to NCAA March Madness". att.com. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  2. Baar, Aaron. "AT&T Customers Won't 'Miss A Thing' For Tournament". MarketingDaily. MediaPost. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  3. Gordon, Miryam (February 4, 2011). "SWC guest Kathy Najimy funny, fierce, and warm". Seattle Gay News. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  4. Speers, W. (August 13, 1998). "Newsmakers". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved March 24, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
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