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).
Filmography
all 158
TV Shows 83
Movies 75
Voice 30
self 8
Narrator 5
Fallout (2024)
The Overlook (2023)
As We Know It (2023)
Krapopolis (2023)
Millennial Hunter (2023)
My Adventures with Superman (2023)
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (2022)
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
Senior Year (2022)
Hot Mess Holiday (2021)
Dogs in Space (2021)
Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
Yung Punx: A Punk Parable (2021)
Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. (2021)
Alpha Betas (2021)
Finding ʻOhana (2021)
Name That Tune (2021)
I Am Woman (2020)
Close Enough (2020)
Freeze (2020)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020)
Dummy (2020)
Nature Cat: A Nature Carol (2019)
The Laundromat (2019)
Love, Death & Robots (2019)
A Name Without a Place (2019)
Alien News Desk (2019)
Miracle Workers (2019)
The Meet Arnold Show (2019)
The Last Laugh (2019)
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)
Happy Together (2018)
Slice (2018)
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)
Life of the Party (2018)
grown-ish (2018)
Will & Grace (2017)
Battle of the Sexes (2017)
Austin Found (2017)
Nature Cat: Ocean Commotion (2017)
Great News (2017)
Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special (2017)
Elena and the Secret of Avalor (2016)
Ask the Storybots (2016)
Elena of Avalor (2016)
The $100,000 Pyramid (2016)
Match Game (2016)
Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ (2016)
Electric City (2016)
Dawn of the Croods (2015)
Sisters (2015)
The Better Half (2015)
The Ridiculous 6 (2015)
Nature Cat (2015)
Highston (2015)
The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show (2015)
Adam Ruins Everything (2015)
Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)
Jeff Dunham: Unhinged in Hollywood (2015)
We Bare Bears (2015)
The Spoils Before Dying (2015)
Another Period (2015)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015)
The Adventures of OG Sherlock Kush (2015)
Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero (2014)
Benched (2014)
black-ish (2014)
BoJack Horseman (2014)
Garfunkel and Oates (2014)
The Maya Rudolph Show (2014)
AJ's Infinite Summer (2014)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014)
The Tom and Jerry Show (2014)
Break Point (2014)
Late Night with Seth Meyers (2014)
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
Rick and Morty (2013)
The Goldbergs (2013)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013)
Turbo (2013)
Drunk History (2013)
Escape from Planet Earth (2013)
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Electric City (2012)
Gravity Falls (2012)
Comedy Bang! Bang! (2012)
The Dictator (2012)
The Five-Year Engagement (2012)
21 Jump Street (2012)
WordGirl: The Rise of Ms. Power (2012)
Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011)
Answer This! (2011)
Suburgatory (2011)
I Just Want My Pants Back (2011)
Hollywood & Wine (2011)
Mad Love (2011)
Bob's Burgers (2011)
Conan (2010)
The Women of SNL (2010)
T.U.F.F. Puppy (2010)
Fish Hooks (2010)
Big Lake (2010)
Kung Fu Magoo (2010)
The Dogfather (2010)
Archer (2009)
Glenn Martin, DDS (2009)
Labor Pains (2009)
Paper Man (2009)
Glee (2009)
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Amy Poehler (2009)
Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire (2009)
Better Off Ted (2009)
Childrens Hospital (2008)
Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday (2008)
The Life & Times of Tim (2008)
Eavesdrop (2008)
Harold (2008)
Miss Guided (2008)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
WordGirl (2007)
Hot Rod (2007)
Kabluey (2007)
The Grand (2007)
I'm Reed Fish (2007)
Sunny and Share Love You (2007)
30 Rock (2006)
Eureka (2006)
Ira & Abby (2006)
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Commercial Parodies (2006)
American Dad! (2005)
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Looking for Kitty (2004)
Evil Alien Conquerors (2003)
Barely Legal (2003)
Down with Love (2003)
Farm Sluts (2003)
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell (2002)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)
The Ladies Man (2000)
Ed (2000)
Family Guy (1999)
Conrad Bloom (1998)
A Freezerburnt Christmas (1997)
Union Square (1997)
Jingle All the Way (1996)
Suddenly Susan (1996)
The Jamie Foxx Show (1996)
Hope and Gloria (1995)
Friends (1994)
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993)
The Simpsons (1989)
Seinfeld (1989)
Murphy Brown (1988)
Saturday Night Live (1975)
The Big D
The Rise of Miss Power
Our Little Secret
Ratings
Gallery
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1967-02-05 (57 years old)
Birth NameThomas Christopher Parnell
Birth PlaceMemphis, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known As크리스 파넬, Thomas Christopher Parnell
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