Greg Proops

Gregory Everett Proops (born October 3, 1959) in series 10 to 14.

Early life Proops was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in San Carlos, California, a suburb south of San Francisco, attending San Carlos High School. He attended the College of San Mateo and spearheaded the comedy duo "Proops & Brakeman". Later, he took courses in improvisation and acting at San Francisco State University, though he never finished college.

Career

Improv comedy After college, he joined an improv group with Mike McShane. Both Proops and McShane impressed producers Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, who put them on their show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He frequently instigated jokes concerning various idiosyncrasies and differences between British English and American English, and would frequently banter with Clive Anderson on these matters (among others). He lived in London for four years when he was doing the show and lists McShane, Richard Vranch and Colin Mochrie among his best friends. After the show ended, he was recalled for the American version and has been a frequent "fourth contestant". Through 2020, he has appeared in 74 American Whose Line episodes, more than any other non-regular cast member.

Proops also appeared in every episode of the short-lived Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, where the performers would play improv games (some of which were taken from the show's main influence Whose Line Is It Anyway?) in front of a massive green screen. Later, animators would draw on the background and other props. In April 2011, Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza premiered on GSN featuring Proops along with other frequent guests from Whose Line is it Anyway? In July 2012, Proops appeared in ABC's improvisation show, Trust Us with Your Life.

In November 2011, Proops did a week on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas with the Lewis Black Comedy Cruise Tour. He performed the entire week of stand-up with other artists, which included a live, one-hour podcast in front of his entire audience.

Film and television Proops has performed his stand-up act across Britain, mainland Europe, Australia and New Zealand. His other credits include hosting Space Cadets, a mid-1990s science-fiction comedy game show on Channel 4 in the UK, which also featured Craig Charles (Dave Lister from Red Dwarf) and Bill Bailey, and appearances on BBC2's Mock the Week. He appeared as a panelist on the 2000 revival of To Tell the Truth. Proops has also hosted game shows, including VS. in 1999, Rendez-View in 2001, and Head Games, a Science Channel game show which ran for one season in 2009. Proops also competed on the November 8th, 1984 episode of Jeopardy!, losing to eventual five day champion John Genova. He would later record video clues for two Jeopardy! episodes in 2000 and 2001.

In addition to his stand-up and improv acts, Proops has done voice work in various films and TV shows, including Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the miniseries Stripperella with Pamela Anderson. Proops provided the voice of Bob in the US version of the TV series Bob the Builder for the five seasons of Project Build It. He has also featured in 2003 film Brother Bear as the voice of one of the Love Bears and provided the voice as Cryptograf in 2006 film Asterix and the Vikings.

Proops has been involved with Turner Classic Movies since 2013, appearing on several of the network's podcasts and in person at public events. In 2016, he appeared as a television presenter for TCM, introducing comedy films by the Marx Brothers and Wheeler & Woolsey.

Proops has been involved with the Star Wars franchise as well. He played the role of Fode in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He would later work with the Expanded Universe, reprising his role as Fode in the video game Star Wars Episode I: Racer and the video game adaptation of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and he guest-starred on two episodes of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars ("The Mandalore Plot" and "Voyage of Temptation") as Tal Merrick. In 2018, Proops voiced Jak Sivrak in Star Wars Resistance.

Proops appeared as a guest on The George Lucas Talk Show during their May the AR Be LI$$ You Arli$$ marathon fundraiser.

Radio and podcast

Since 2010, Proops has hosted a podcast called The Smartest Man In The World, often together with his wife Jennifer Canaga, in which he talks about current events, celebrity culture, and his personal life, usually in front of a live audience. Before Smartest Man, Proops hosted a podcast called The Greg Proops Experiment.

In 2010, Proops hosted Odd News on yahoo!.com for several years. It was a weekly program where he told weird and funny stories from around the world. The series seems to have continued in text format and on Twitter for several years after Proops was no longer a part of it.

From 1995 to 1996, Proops presented Bits from Last Week's Radio on BBC Radio 1. He did voice work for the BBC Radio 2 series Flight of the Conchords, first broadcast in September 2005. Proops also played the title role in BBC Radio 4's sci-fi comedy series Seymour the Fractal Cat.

Proops provided the voices for the Harlequin Demon, the Devil, and the Sax Player in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack and movie.

Video games Proops provides voice-over work as Howard "Buckshot" Holmes, a game show announcer along with John DiMaggio for the Nintendo Wii game MadWorld. DiMaggio and Proops play as comical announcers on a brutal game show set in the future.

Proops provided the voice of Matthew Black, a reporter in the Psygnosis game, ZombieVille (1997).

Proops also provided the voice of Fargus, a pyromantic court jester for the PlayStation Pandemonium game series.

He later worked as a voice actor in Skylanders: Imaginators, where he voiced a Brain that was freed by Kaos in order to help perfect his Doomlanders project.

Comedy albums Live (1994) Back in the UK (1997) Joke Book (2006) Houston, We Have a Problem (2007) Elsewhere (2009) Greg Proops Digs In! (2010) In the Ball Park (2015) The Resistance (2018) In The City (2022) French Drug Deal (2023)

Comedy specials Greg Proops: Live At Musso & Frank (2013)

The Smartest Book in the World On May 5, 2015, Proops released nonfiction book The Smartest Book in the World through publisher Touchstone. The book is based in part on Proops's weekly podcast The Smartest Man in the World, detailing the author's movie and poetry recommendations, baseball facts, powerful women, and misconstrued history. The paperback version of the book was released from Touchstone on February 21, 2017.

Filmography Film + Year Title Role Notes 1993 The Nightmare Before Christmas Harlequin Demon, Devil, Sax Player (voices) 1999 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace Fode (voice) 2003 Kaena: The Prophecy Gommy (voice) English dub 2003 Brother Bear Male Lover Bear (voice) 2005Bob the Builder: When Bob Became a Builder Bob and Mr. Beasley (voice) US Dub 2006 Asterix and the Vikings Cryptograf (voice) English dub 2006 Bob the Builder: Built to be Wild Bob (voice)US Dub 2007 Super High Me Himself Documentary 2009 Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts Poodle (voice) Direct-to-video 2011 Bad Actress Barry 2015 Hell and Back Asmoday the Demon (voice) 2018 Duck Duck Goose Banzou (voice)

Television + Year Title Role Notes 1989–98 Whose Line Is It Anyway? Himself British version 67 episodes 1990 Midnight Caller Cab Driver Episode: "Old Friends" 1994 Anna Lee Martin Mayhew Episode: "Requiem" 1996 Family Matters Café Manager Episode: "Tips for a Better Life" 1996 Dennis the Menace Quentin Hitchberg (voice) Episode: "The Secret Diary" 1997 Space Cadets Himself 10 episodes 1997 Men Behaving Badly Billy Episode: "The Party Favor" 1997 3rd Rock from the Sun Yasmine Episode: "Sensitive Dick" 1998 Mike Hammer, Private Eye Deke Gerard Episode: "The Life You Save" 1998–2007,2014–present Whose Line Is It Anyway? Himself American version 78 episodes 1999 The Jamie Foxx Show Jon Marc Episode: "Bro-Jack" 2000 Veronica's Closet Richard Small Episode: "Veronica's Tattooed Man" 2000–03 The Drew Carey Show Greg, Derek 3 episodes 2001 Hollywood Squares Himself 12 episodes 2001 Mike, Lu & Og Additional Voices Episode: "A Learning Experience/We the People" 2001, 2003 Lloyd in Space 2 episodes 2002 Just Shoot Me! Turtleneck Guy Episode: "Educating Finch" 2003 10-8: Officers on Duty Jewelry Store Owner Episode: "Late for School" 2003–04 Stripperella Bernard (voice) 7 episodes 2005–07 Bob the Builder Bob, Mr. Beastley (voice) U.S. dub70 episodes 2006 Ugly Betty TV Fashion Reporter Episode: "Queens for a Day" 2007–16 Red Eye Himself 9 episodes 2008–11 True Jackson, VP Max Madigan 47 episodes 2009 Flight of the Conchords Martin Clark Episode: "A Good Opportunity" 2010 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Himself 5 episodes 2010 Star Wars: The Clone Wars Tal Merrick (voice) 2 episodes 2011 Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza Himself 20 episodes 2012 QI Episode: "Jungles" 2014–17 @midnight 9 episodes 2016 Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Fode (voice) Episode: "Race on Tatooine" 2016 Uncle Grandpa Cupid (voice) Episode: "Uncle Cupid" 2017–18 The Powerpuff Girls Isosceles, Additional Voices 2 episodes 2018–19 Star Wars Resistance Jak Sivrak, Garma, Stormtrooper (voices) 6 episodes 2019 Schooled Mr. Granger 4 episodes Damsels Greg Proops Post-production

Video games + Year Title Role 1996 Pandemonium! Additional Voices 1997 Zombieville Matthew Black 1999 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace Fode 1999 Star Wars Episode I: Racer 2001 Driven David Doyle 2009 MadWorld Howard "Buckshot" Holmes 2012 Kinect Star Wars Fode 2016 Skylanders: Imaginators Brain, Baron von Shellshock, Imaginators, Brawler Doomlander 2022 Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Fode

Web series + Year Title Role Notes 2008–12 Easy to Assemble Ben Rand 8 episodes