Michael McDonald Biography

Michael James McDonald (born December 31, 1964) is an American actor, director, writer, and comedian. He is best known for starring in the sketch comedy show MADtv. McDonald joined the show during the fourth season (1998) and remained in the cast until the end of the thirteenth and penultimate season, having become the longest-tenured cast member. While on the show, he developed many memorable characters. He was a contributing writer and director on MADtv.

McDonald also directed several episodes of the comedy-drama series Scrubs, on which he guest-starred 6 times.

McDonald currently divides his time between writing, directing, and acting on various film and television projects, as well as performing live on stage across the country.

Early life

McDonald was born in Fullerton, California. He graduated from St. Juliana Catholic Elementary School in Fullerton, and later went to Servite High School in Anaheim, California, and graduated from the University of Southern California with a business degree. While at USC, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He worked as a loan officer at a bank in Los Angeles.

After college, a friend took McDonald to see an improv comedy show at Groundling Theater. McDonald quit his job at the bank and enrolled in Groundling's improv program. He was a member of the troupe from 1992 to 1997. During that time, he was also involved in writing and directing films for Roger Corman.

Later on, McDonald would guest star in such shows as Seinfeld (in two episodes playing two different parts), Just Shoot Me!, Family Matters, Scrubs and NewsRadio. He also made brief appearances in all three Austin Powers movies. McDonald had a starring role with Will Forte and Nicole Sullivan on the short-lived MTV show Clone High as the voice of Gandhi.

Career

Stand-up comedy

Michael is currently touring at stand up comedy clubs across the country. His stand-up comedy special Michael McDonald: Model Citizen premiered on Showtime on October 9, 2010. Filmed in Orange County at the OC Pavilion, it has been described as "Part stand-up comedy, part one man show, this special is for anyone who - like Michael - finds humor in the strange world all around us."

Cougar Town

McDonald was also a writer, director, and producer of the ABC TV series Cougar Town. He directed a number of episodes of the show, including "Letting You Go", "Everything Man", "When a Kid Goes Bad", "Stop Dragging My Heart Around", and "Don't Come Around Here No More". McDonald also wrote the episode "Wake Up Time".

MADtv

McDonald joined the cast of MADtv in 1998, eventually becoming the longest-standing cast member in the show's history (10 seasons). He performed several recurring characters, including Stuart, Rusty Miller, Marvin Tikvah, Sean Gidcomb, Bible Dude, the Depressed Persian Tow Truck Man, and F. Michael McKrofsky of "Real M*********ing Talk" (replacing Andrew Daly's token white commentator on that sketch).

Much like Darrell Hammond, Phil Hartman, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Hader on Saturday Night Live, McDonald was the go-to cast member for a litany of impressions, ranging from past and present movie and TV stars to world leaders and American political figures. Some memorable impressions he's done include Bob Barker, John Kerry, Dr. Phil, Bill O'Reilly, Maury Povich, Chris Martin from the band Coldplay, Steve Jobs, Mel Gibson, Chris Hansen, Terry O'Quinn (as John Locke), Ozzy Osbourne, Jean-Benet Ramsey's father John, J. K. Simmons (as Mac McGuff, Juno's father and from his role in Oz), Hugh Laurie (as Gregory House), Hugh Beaumont (as Ward Cleaver), Sarah Jessica Parker (as Carrie Bradshaw), Dr. Drew, Howie Mandel, Simon Cowell, JC Chasez, Caitlyn Jenner (then Bruce),</ref> }} Michael Richards, Chris Burke, Charlie Sheen (as Charlie Harper), David Schwimmer (as Ross Geller), Jeff Probst, Tim Gunn (Project Runway), Howard K. Stern, Tommy Lee, Criss Angel, Jeff Foxworthy, Saddam Hussein, Larry David, Barry Gibb, Eddie Vedder, and Brad Garrett.

After 10 years on MADtv, McDonald left the cast, but was a contributing writer and director for the show's final season. McDonald was the last member of the cast to be hired in the 1990s, and the last cast member to have been born in the 1960s, and is the only cast member to have a "best of" clip show special dedicated to him.

Film and television appearances

Year	Title	Role	Remarks
1987	Stand Up America	Himself
1991	Dance with Death	Henry
	Uncaged	Clean Cut John
1992	Final Judgement	Rainy
	In the Heat of Passion	Nick
	Body Waves	Squirrely
	Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation	Disc Jockey
1993	Full Contact	Uncredited Role
	The John Larroquette Show	Phil
	Family Matters Season 4 Episode 24 "Buds 'n' Buns"	Manager of the Mighty Weenie
1994	In the Heat of Passion II: Unfaithful	Bartender
	Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love	Party Guest
	Revenge of the Red Baron	Psychiatrist
	No Dessert, Dad, Till You Mow the Lawn	Evil Hypnotist
	The Unborn II	Welfare Worker #1
	Leprechaun 2	Bar owner who was comically killed by Leprechaun with an overheated espresso machine.
1995	The Crazysitter	Mr. Smith
	Criminal Hearts	Tierney
	A Bucket of Blood	Dancer
	Virtual Seduction	Disoriented Man
	Baby Face Nelson	Reporter
	Bloodfist VI: Ground Zero	Corey
	Carnosaur 2	Evac. Team Pilot
	Hideaway	Young Cop
	Sawbones	Prostitute
	Twisted Love	Stoned Kid
	Bloodfist VII: Manhunt	Running Officer
	Seinfeld	Player #2
1996	Carnosaur 3: Primal Species	Police Officer Wilson
	Seinfeld	Jesse
1997	Ellen	The Guy
	NewsRadio	Lee
	Casper: A Spirited Beginning	Sarcastic Protester
	Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery	Security guard crushed by a steam roller
1998	The Drew Carey Show	Parking attendant
	Casper Meets Wendy	The Human Stretch
	Richie Rich's Christmas Wish	Montgomery
1999	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	NATO Soldier
	Banned in America: The World's Sexiest Commercials	Host
	Futurama	Various
2000	Chump Change	Dack
2001	Passions	The face in the pool
	Scrubs Season 1 Episode 9 "My Day Off"	Mike Davis
	Invader Zim	Voices: Robo-dad, Irken crew member, electronic voice and various minor characters.	Voiced two 2001 episodes and two 2006 episodes
2002	Slackers	Economics professor
	Greg the Bunny	Leo
	Austin Powers in Goldmember	Royal Guard
	Scrubs Season 1 Episode 12 "My Blind Date" & Season 2 Episode 3 "My Case Study"	Mike Davis
2003	Clone High	Gandhi
	Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star	Maitre d'
2004	Outing Riley	Andy
2005	Fat Actress	Sam Rascal	Played agent of titular character
	Desperate Housewives	Steven	'Silly People' episode
	All Grown Up	Jason Matheny
2006	Talkshow with Spike Feresten	Himself	Guest-starred
	7th Heaven	Edward Jameson	Guest-starred: (2005-2007)
	Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List	Himself	Guest starred for two episodes in Iraq
2007	Scrubs Season 6 Episode 20 "My Conventional Wisdom"	Voice of Dr. Toilet	Also directed this episode.
	Moonpie	Mitch Henderson	Main role
2008	MADtv (1998-2008)	Various	Has appeared in 239 episodes (Season 4-13)
	Scrubs Season 7 Episode 8 "My Manhood"	Patient's Husband	Also directed this episode.
	Hannah Montana	Chef Duncan Keats	guest
	MADtv	Director	Has directed in 4 episodes
2009	Kath & Kim	Judge from Parade of Homes	guest
	MADtv	Himself	First cast member to have his own "Best of" Special.
	Scrubs Season 8 Episode 18 "My Finale"	Mr. Cropper
	Reaper Season 2 Episode 11 "To Sprong, With Love"	Mr. Elliott Sprong
	Pushing Daisies Season 2 Episode 13 "Kerplunk"	Galveston Gus
	Rita Rocks	Rob Boone	4 episodes
2010	Michael McDonald: Model.Citizen	Himself	One hour stand up comedy special on Showtime
	Web Therapy Season 3 Episode 2 "Staff Infection"	Ben Tomlund
	Web Therapy Season 3 Episode 13 "I Love You, Man"	Ben Tomlund
	Web Therapy Season 3 Episode 15 "Can You Get Up?"	Ben Tomlund
	2011	Cougar Town Season 2 Episode 16 "Baby's a Rock 'N' Roller"	Wayne Gibbons
Cougar Town Season 2 Episode 17 "You're Gonna Get It"		Wayne Gibbons
2012	Web Therapy Season 2 Episode 3 "Campaign Reform"	Ben Tomlund
	Web Therapy Season 2, Episode 7 "Infanticipation"	Ben Tomlund
2013	House of Lies Season 2, Episode 5 "Sincerity Is an Easy Disguise in This Business"	Carl Criswell
	House of Lies Season 2, Episode 7 "The Runner Stumbles"	Carl Criswell
	The Heat	Julian
2014	Community Season 5 Episode 12 "Basic Story"	Ronald Mohammed
2015	Spy	Patrick
2016	MADtv	Himself	Appeared on the 20th Anniversary Reunion Special
2016	The Boss	Bryce Crean
2016	Ghostbusters	Jonathan The Theater Manager

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List

Episode Number	Episode Title	Airdate	Notes
01 (Season 1)	Hot to Tot	August 10, 2005
02 (Season 2)	Red State, Blue State	June 13, 2006
03 (Season 2)	Iraq	June 20, 2006
04 (Season 2)	Rocket Attack	June 27, 2006
05 (Season 4)	No Time for Siestas	July 17, 2008
06 (Season 4)	What's Woz's Love Got to Do with It	August 7, 2008
09 (Season 4)	Red, White and Don't Be Blue	August 14, 2008
07 (Season 5)	Grammy Shmammy	June 22, 2009
08 (Season 5)	Paris Is My New BFF	June 29, 2009
09 (Season 5)	Maggie's Bucket List	July 6, 2009