Chris Kattan

Chris Kattan
Kattan at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York City at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Christopher Lee Kattan (1970-10-19) October 19, 1970 (age 53) Culver City, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian
Years active	1993–present
Television	Bollywood Hero Saturday Night Live
Spouse	Sunshine Deia Tutt ​ ​ (m. 2008; div. 2009)​
Parent	Kip King (father)

Christopher Lee Kattan (/kəˈtæn/ kə-TAN; born October 19, 1970)^[1] is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Kattan found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003. He also played Doug Butabi in A Night at the Roxbury, Bob on the first five seasons of The Middle, and Bunnicula in Bunnicula. He's also known for playing the main antagonist Mr. Feather in Undercover Brother (2002).

Early life[edit]

Kattan was born in Culver City, California.^[2] His father, Kip King (né Jerome Kattan; 1937–2010), was born to Jewish parents from Iraq and Poland and worked as an actor and voice artist. His mother, Hajnalka Biro (born 1944), was once photographed for Playboy and worked as a model in London. She is a native of Budapest, Hungary and is a Buddhist.^[3][4] His stepfather was a Buddhist therapist and monk.^[5] His half-brother, Andrew Joslyn, is a professional musician and composer.^[6]

Kattan was raised on a Zen retreat on Mount San Antonio, outside Los Angeles.^[5] He and his mother moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he attended Bainbridge High School, graduating in 1989.^{[citation needed]}

Career[edit]

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Kattan was a member of several improvisational comedy (improv) and sketch comedy troupes, one of them being The Groundlings in Los Angeles. His father was an original member of the troupe.^[7] Kattan also did some minor roles on TV, including the second episode of the second season of NewsRadio, "No, This Is Not Based Entirely on Julie's Life", as a photo shop employee.

He moved to New York City to work on Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003. His recurring characters included Mr. Peepers, Mango, Azrael Abyss, Kyle DeMarco from The DeMarco Brothers, Gay Hitler, and, most notably, one half of the Butabi Brothers with fellow SNL (and Groundlings) cast member Will Ferrell, known for their trademark head-bobbing. Kattan and Ferrell continued the characters in the 1998 film, A Night at the Roxbury.

SNL celebrity impersonations[edit]

2007–2017: Post-SNL work[edit]

Kattan appeared in a Diet Pepsi Max commercial during Super Bowl XLII in 2008 that featured the song What Is Love and had many actors in the commercial performing the head bob from A Night at the Roxbury.

In August 2009, Kattan starred in the Independent Film Channel (IFC) miniseries Bollywood Hero, where he portrays himself and the difficulties he faces after a career as a comic actor, trying to attain leading man status.^[8] Starting in late 2009, Kattan appeared in a supporting role in The Middle. Kattan played Bob, a colleague of Frankie Heck's at Mr. Ehlert's car dealership. Kattan appeared in an episode of How I Met Your Mother as a star in "The Wedding Bride", a fictional movie within the show. He played himself portraying Jed Mosely, the film's villain, which the screenwriter bases on his girlfriend's ex-fiancé, series protagonist, Ted Mosby. He reappeared as the character in the fictional film's sequel, Wedding Bride 2.^[9] On December 17, 2011, Kattan made a guest appearance on the Saturday Night Live Christmas show, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, and again briefly on the final episode of SNL's 37th season.

In June 2014, Kattan reprised his role as former SNL character Mango in a preview of the music video for Sharaya J's "Shut It Down", featured in a fashion campaign by Alexander Wang.^[10]

In 2017, Kattan was a contestant on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars paired with professional dancer Witney Carson. He was the first celebrity dancer eliminated.^[11]

Kattan reunited with fellow SNL alumni Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, and Tracy Morgan during the December 18, 2018 cold open of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which also featured Ariana Grande, in a reprisal of their performance of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today".^[12] It was the first time since 2011 that Fallon, Sanz, Kattan, and Morgan were all present for a performance of the song.

In 2022, Kattan was announced as a HouseGuest competing on the third season of Celebrity Big Brother.^[13]

In 2023, Kattan did voice work in the film Leo as Alligator #1.^[14]

Personal life[edit]

Kattan married model Sunshine Deia Tutt on June 28, 2008, in Oakhurst, California, after proposing to her on Christmas Eve 2006.^[15] The couple separated 44 days later on August 10, 2008, and divorced in February 2009.^[16]

On March 25, 2023, Kattan proposed to his girlfriend, Maria Libri, a writer and former on-air personality, and a Springfield, Illinois, native, in front of the stage at a Wilco concert held at the Riviera Theatre, while the Chicago band played “I’m the Man Who Loves You.” The band members knew about the proposal. Kattan and Libri met 18 months before the proposal when Kattan was performing a stand-up comedy show at Boondocks Pub in Springfield. They have since collaborated on writing projects, including a romantic comedy, and have also appeared together on the YouTube channel, Hey Kattan!^[17]

Neck injury[edit]

Kattan competed in Dancing with the Stars in 2017, and was criticized for his stiff upper body movement by the Dancing judges. Afterward, Kattan revealed that he had broken his neck doing a stunt 14 years prior and that the injury and subsequent surgeries were the reasons for his lack of mobility. Kattan also revealed that the pain medication he began taking following his fourth surgery led to a 2014 DUI arrest.^[18] Kattan revealed more details of the injury in his memoir claiming that it was the result of a SNL sketch, in which he threw himself backwards on a chair while doing a Golden Girls parody, adding that NBC paid for two of five surgeries to repair the spinal injuries.^[19]

Memoir[edit]

In 2019, Kattan published a memoir, entitled Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live, that included the accident on SNL.^[20]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Kattan.

• Chris Kattan at IMDb
• Chris Kattan at the Internet Broadway Database