Brian Stack

Early life

Stack was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Catholic schools from grades 5-12, graduating from St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He earned an undergraduate degree from Indiana University, where he had worked at their radio station. He began doing improvisational comedy, or improv, in 1987 at the Ark Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, while attending graduate school at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned his Master's degree.

Career

Stack got his start in comedy with the improv comedy troupe The Second City.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Stack became a sketch writer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1997, and served as a writer, actor and editor on the show. He first appeared onscreen when one of the writers asked him to play a doctor in a sketch in which he had no dialogue. One of the first characters he did on the show was Bathtime Bob the Hygiene Cowboy, who sang about bath time, but like many of Stack's characters he had a very dark, tragic underbelly to his upbeat nature. Stack had previously tried to develop this character at Second City, but it never appeared in any shows.

Stack remained with O'Brien after O'Brien's move to The Tonight Show in 2009. Stack played many recurring characters on the show, most notably those clad in anachronistic or elaborate outfits, and was known for playing many characters with long beards and mustaches, such as God, Zeus, Socrates, Gandalf, Dumbledore, and The Interrupter. Jeff Loveness of Jimmy Kimmel Live has observed of Stack's characters that there was "such a sadness to each character, but they would not acknowledge their sadness", an assessment that Stack agrees with. Stack has further explained that, "My favorite kind of comedy on late night has always been the non-topical silly stuff where it's not really at anybody's expense. My least favorite kind of joke is a celebrity joke, because it tends to be very familiar or sometimes very mean, and if it's not mean it doesn't even work, usually...But my favorite kind of comedy on late night is at no one's expense but the character that's involved in the sketch where you're not really going after anybody." Stack made occasional appearances on The Tonight Show, such as when he played an NRA spokesman who intimates violence to accomplish his agenda.

Among the characters he has portrayed:

Stack also provided the voices of numerous celebrities parodied in the Syncro-Vox faux interviews conducted by O'Brien, including Dick Cheney, Mike Tyson, and Martha Stewart.

Among the other characters Stack has created on the show are Stacy Richter, Andy Richter's Conan-obsessed little sister, who was portrayed by Stacks’ fellow Upright Citizens Brigade alumna, Amy Poehler. Stack also created the recurring segment "Pierre Bernard’s Recliner of Rage".

Conan recurring characters

Stack continued his work on O'Brien's TBS series, Conan. His last episode aired on April 2, 2015. In the episode, he appeared as The Interrupter, one of his recurring characters, in a sketch in which he and his character bade farewell to the series.

Among his recurring characters:

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stack left Conan to take a job on the writing staff of the CBS series Late Show following fellow Second City alumnus Stephen Colbert's assumption of that show's hosting duties following the departure of David Letterman. The job would have Stack moving back to New York, where Stack had previously worked on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He voices both the characters of "Cartoon Donald Trump" and "God" on the show.

Other work

Personal life

Stack is married to actress Miriam Tolan.

Awards