Thomas Steven Middleditch (born March 10, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is known for his role as Richard Hendricks in the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
series ''
Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019), earning a nomination for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He has voiced Penn Zero in the
Disney XD animated series ''
Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero'' (2014–2017), Harold Hutchins in ''
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie'' (2017), Sam Coleman in ''
Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' (2019) and Terry in the
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
adult animated sci-fi series ''
Solar Opposites''. Middleditch also appears in ads for
Verizon Wireless.
Early life
Middleditch was born on March 10, 1982, in
Nelson, British Columbia
Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the British Columbia Interior, Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of resto ...
, Canada.
His parents are
British. He was cast in a play in eighth grade which he said "changed everything" for him. He discovered
improv in grade school from performing with
Theatresports.
His first job was acting in Canadian Heritage Plays for his hometown.
He studied theatre at the
University of Victoria before moving to
Toronto, where he auditioned for and enrolled in
George Brown Theatre School, but never began his course. He instead opted to make sketches on his own and worked at a
New Balance store for an income.
He relocated to
Chicago, where he took classes at
The Second City and
iO Theater, while also performing regularly.
He was a founding member in 2005 of The Improvised Shakespeare Company. Due to immigration issues, he worked various cash jobs until
Charna Halpern sponsored him to get his
work visa.
While performing on a Second City cruise, he got an audition for ''
Saturday Night Live''.
Though he did not get cast, the routine he used in his audition landed him a network
holding deal and he moved to
New York City.
Career
While living in New York City, Middleditch began acting in commercials. In 2007 a sketch video for
Chicken McNuggets he made with Fernando Sosa in Chicago was purchased by
McDonald's and used as a commercial.
He appeared in the 2009 romantic comedy ''
Splinterheads
''Splinterheads'' is a 2009 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Brant Sersen and starring Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor, Christopher McDonald and Lea Thompson. The film opened in limited release in the United States on Novemb ...
'', portraying the lead role of Justin Frost.
On March 25, 2010, he joined a
CBS pilot, ''Hitched'', written by
Josh Schwartz and directed by
Rob Greenberg. On May 5, 2011, Middleditch made his first appearance in ''
Jake and Amir
Jake and Amir is an American comedy duo made up of podcasters and former CollegeHumor writers Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld. The duo came into prominence in 2007 when they began writing and starring in the web series ''Jake and Amir.'' Th ...
'', in the episode "Jake and Amir: Doobs".
On May 31, 2011, Middleditch joined the cast of the
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
' comedy film ''
Fun Size'', directed by Josh Schwartz. On August 8, 2011, he joined ''Road to Nardo'', a film that would have been
Scot Armstrong's directorial debut. On December 12, 2011, he joined
Jay Roach's ''
The Campaign'', starring
Will Ferrell and
Zach Galifianakis.
On July 23, 2012, Middleditch joined the cast of the comedy film ''
Someone Marry Barry'', directed and written by
Rob Pearlstein and produced by
Barry Josephson
Barry Josephson (born April 2, 1956) is an American film producer and former music manager.
Life and career
After attending the McBurney School in New York City, Josephson graduated from American University, Washington DC in 1978, and was an ac ...
. On August 23, 2012, he appeared in ''
The Office''s final season episode "
The Farm". He had a role in the 2013 comedy fantasy film ''
The Brass Teapot
''The Brass Teapot'' is a 2012 American fantasy film directed by Ramaa Mosley. The movie's script was written by Tim Macy, who also wrote the short story on which the movie is based. The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival o ...
'', directed by
Ramaa Mosley
Ramaa Devi Mosley (born October 29, 1981) is an American filmmaker, director, and writer based in Los Angeles. She began directing commercials, music videos, and documentaries at 16-years-old. She is also an activist, known for raising national ...
, and played a police officer in the 2013
CBS Films coming-of-age comedy film ''
The Kings of Summer''.
On January 30, 2013, Middleditch joined
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
's comedy pilot ''
Silicon Valley'' playing Richard Hendricks. He has said that the pilot was written with him specifically in mind as the lead (the character was originally named Thomas Pickering; the latter being his mother's maiden name).
This was a result of a "random" audio sketch he once made for a
stand-up routine which he would later animate himself and pitched to several people, including
Mike Judge
Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director and musician. He is the creator of the animated television series ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present), and the co-cre ...
's production partners
John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who would later create the show.
For his work on the show, Middleditch has garnered four
Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take place ...
nominations and a win in 2019, and two
Critics' Choice Television Award nominations. In 2016, Middleditch earned his first
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
nomination for
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in the show.
On April 23, 2013, he was added to the cast of the comedy film ''
Search Party'', playing Nardo, who travels to Mexico to win his fiancé back, starring alongside one of his ''Silicon Valley'' alumni,
T.J. Miller. Middleditch made a small cameo appearance in the 2013 film ''
The Wolf of Wall Street'' as a broker who is fired for cleaning his fish bowl during office hours.
He has played as a hipster thief in the ''
You're The Worst'' episode "Sunday Funday". On ''
The Pete Holmes Show'', he played
Nightcrawler and
Gambit from the ''
X-Men'' and
Vega and
Ken from ''
Street Fighter II
is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...
''. On October 16, 2013, it was announced that the
Disney XD-produced animated series ''
Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero'' would star Middleditch as the titular multiverse-hopping hero. The series premiered in late 2014. In 2015, he co-starred in the films ''
The Final Girls'' and ''
The Bronze''. Also in 2015, he began streaming himself playing video games on the website
Twitch.
In 2014 he joined a
CollegeHumor series on YouTube called ''CAMP''.
Middleditch voiced Harold Hutchins in
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...
's animated feature ''
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie'' (2017), based on
Dav Pilkey's book ''
Captain Underpants''. As of 2017, Middleditch has appeared in
Verizon commercials as their spokesperson. In 2019, he appeared in the
MonsterVerse film ''
Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' and the basketball video game ''
NBA 2K20''.
In April 2020, Middleditch and fellow improviser
Ben Schwartz
Benjamin Schwartz (born September 15, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. He has guest starred as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'' and Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series ''House of Lies''; voiced Randy C ...
starred in
Netflix's first long-form improv special, ''
Middleditch and Schwartz
''Middleditch and Schwartz'' is an American improvisational comedy streaming television series created by and starring Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz. The series of three hour-long performances was filmed at New York University's Skirball Ce ...
'', a series of three-hourlong performances filmed at
New York University's
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
In October 2020, Middleditch began playing the lead role of Drew Dunbar in the
CBS comedy series ''
B Positive'' which was written by
Chuck Lorre. The series was originally supposed to air in March 2020, but production was halted due to the
COVID-19 pandemic; however, filming of the pilot had already taken place and so the show was moved to be CBS' only fall debut.
Personal life
Middleditch became engaged to costume designer Mollie Gates in June 2015.
They were married on August 22, 2015, in Middleditch's hometown. In a 2019 ''
Playboy'' interview, he revealed that the pair had an
open relationship and said that "
swinging
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
has saved our marriage." In May 2020, Gates filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was reportedly finalized in April 2021.
In March 2021, the ''
Los Angeles Times'' published allegations that Middleditch sexually harassed women at Cloak & Dagger, a Los Angeles-based
goth club, including one incident where he groped a woman's breast. The woman revealed several messages she received from Middleditch in which he apologized for the incident.
Filmography
Film
Television
Web
Video games
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleditch, Thomas
1982 births
Living people
21st-century Canadian male actors
21st-century Canadian screenwriters
Canadian male comedians
Canadian male film actors
Canadian male television actors
Canadian male television writers
Canadian male voice actors
Canadian people of English descent
Canadian sketch comedians
Canadian television writers
Male actors from British Columbia
People from Nelson, British Columbia
Twitch (service) streamers
Upright Citizens Brigade Theater performers
Writers from British Columbia