
Chris Parnell
3 FOLLOWERS • 96 CREDITS • FEB 5, 1967 • 58
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).
Known For

American Dad!

Family Guy

Late Night with Seth Meyers

The Simpsons

Childrens Hospital

black-ish

The Goldbergs

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Caroline in the City

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

30 Rock

We Bare Bears

Friends

Bob's Burgers

Glee

Seinfeld

Will & Grace

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Ed

Hope and Gloria

Name That Tune

Fallout

Suddenly Susan

Krapopolis

Gravity Falls

Union Square

The $100,000 Pyramid

Drunk History

Eureka

TV Funhouse

Miracle Workers

Murphy Brown

BoJack Horseman

The Life & Times of Tim

Oh My God... Yes! A Series of Extremely Relatable Circumstances

Conrad Bloom

Another Period

Ask the Storybots

My Adventures with Superman

Bad Judge

Marvel's M.O.D.O.K.

SNL Digital Shorts

Close Enough

Great News

The Tom and Jerry Show

Dawn of the Croods

Love, Death & Robots

Saturday Night Live

Turbo

Hotel Transylvania 2

The Dictator

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night

Jingle All the Way

The Ridiculous 6

Sisters

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Elena and the Secret of Avalor

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again

Down with Love

Battle of the Sexes

Life of the Party

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Hotel Transylvania

Our Little Secret

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

The Five-Year Engagement

The Laundromat

Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend

The Dink

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

Home Sweet Home Alone

Archer

grown-ish

Hot Rod

Suburgatory

21 Jump Street

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Austin Found

Finding ʻOhana

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

Slice

Big Lake

Senior Year

The Last Laugh

Happy Together

Dogs in Space

Highston

Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

Rick and Morty

The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show
Production Credits
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