Erik Charles Nielsen (born May 8, 1981) is an American actor and comedian.

Early life

Nielsen was born in West Sayville, New York. He is of

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

descent. Nielsen graduated from

Palm Bay High School Palm Bay Magnet High School is a public high school located in Melbourne, Florida, north of the boundary of Palm Bay, Florida. It is part of the Brevard County School District. History The school originally opened as Southwest Junior High Sc ...

in 1999. While attending

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, he was named the funniest comedian on campus. After continuing to hone his act at The Comedy Studio in

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, Massachusetts, he moved to

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, California to do a Ph.D. program at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, but withdrew before completion. Turning to comedy full-time, he got his first big break at the 2007

U.S. Comedy Arts Festival The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, was a comedy festival that ran from 1995 to 2008. The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component calle ...

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, Colorado.

Career

Nielsen is best known for his recurring role as Garrett Lambert in the television comedy series ''

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

'' from 2009 to 2015. His other acting credits include ''

Bad Milo ''Bad Milo!'' is a 2013 American horror comedy film written by Jacob Vaughan and Benjamin Hayes and directed by Jacob Vaughan. The film stars Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Peter Stormare, Stephen Root, Mary Kay Place, and Patrick Warburton. The f ...

'' (2013) and the pilot episode of IFC's ''

Maron Maron, also called Maroun or Maro ( syr, ܡܪܘܢ, '; ar, مارون; la, Maron; grc-gre, Μάρων), was a 4th-century Syrian Syriac Christian hermit monk in the Taurus Mountains whose followers, after his death, founded a religious Chris ...

''. He also starred in ''Erik the Librarian'', a web series created by

Brent Forrester Brent Forrester is an American writer and producer, who has written for 6 Emmy Award-winning television comedies. He wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom ''The Simpsons'' between 1993 and 1997. He has worked as a writer on ''T ...

. Nielsen has appeared on Just for Laughs, '' Conan'', and on

HBO Canada HBO (previously known as HBO Canada, and still referred to as such on social media) is a Television in Canada, Canadian premium television network from Crave (TV network), Crave (formerly The Movie Network), which is owned by Bell Media. The chan ...

's stand-up series ''Funny as Hell''. On December 10, 2014 he appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor Podcast.

Filmography

References

External links

* Living people American male actors 1981 births Boston University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni People from Islip (town), New York Comedians from New York (state) 21st-century American comedians {{US-comedian-stub