Konstantinos Pollux Alexandros "Dino" Stamatopoulos (born December 14, 1964) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He has worked on TV programs such as ''

Mr. Show ''Mr. Show with Bob and David'', also known as ''Mr. Show'', is an American sketch comedy series starring and hosted by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998. Cross and Odenkirk introduced m ...

'', ''

TV Funhouse ''Saturday TV Funhouse'' is a segment on NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' featuring cartoons created by ''SNL'' writer Robert Smigel. 101 "TV Funhouse" segments aired on ''SNL'' between 1996 and 2008, with one further segment airing in 2011. It also ...

'', ''

Mad TV ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentiet ...

'', ''

The Dana Carvey Show ''The Dana Carvey Show'' is an American surreal sketch comedy television show that aired on ABC during the spring of 1996. Dana Carvey was the host and principal player on the show while Louis C.K. served as head writer. The show's cast consists ...

'', ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...

'', and ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

''. He has also created multiple animated TV shows such as ''

Moral Orel ''Moral Orel'' is an American adult stop-motion animated sitcom created by Dino Stamatopoulos which originally aired on Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim from December 13, 2005 to December 18, 2008. The series has been d ...

'', ''

Mary Shelley's Frankenhole ''Mary Shelley's Frankenhole'' is an American adult stop-motion animated television series created by Dino Stamatopoulos. The series premiered on June 27, 2010 on Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. It ended on March 25 ...

'', and '' High School USA!''. As an actor, he is best known for his recurring role as the character Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

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 ...

'', on which he also worked as a producer and consulting writer.

Early life

Stamatopoulos was born into a

Greek-American Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest es ...

family in

Norridge, Illinois Norridge is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,251 at the 2020 census. The village and its neighbor to the east, Harwood Heights, together form an enclave within the city of Chicago (i.e. they are surrounded ...

as Konstantinos Pollux Alexandros Stamatopoulos. He attended Ridgewood High School in Norridge, where he wrote for his school variety show and was astounded that he could get laughs with the material he had written. While attending

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...

, he performed a duo act with comedian

Andy Dick Andrew Roane Dick (born Andrew Thomlinson; December 21, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, musician, and television and film producer. Known professionally as a comic, his first regular television role was on the short-lived but influential ...

, in which Stamatopoulos played a ventriloquist and Dick played a dummy under the influence of sleeping pills.

Career

Stamatopoulos was hired on ''The Ben Stiller Show'' after Andy Dick convinced him to submit a spec script for a ''

Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, a ...

'' episode. There, he met and worked with

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

. After Stiller's show was canceled, he moved to New York City, where he wrote during the 1990s for ''

'', ''

'' (also with Odenkirk), ''

'', and ''

Mr. Show with Bob and David ''Mr. Show with Bob and David'', also known as ''Mr. Show'', is an American sketch comedy series starring and hosted by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998. Cross and Odenkirk introduced m ...

''. In 2000 Stamatopoulos and

Robert Smigel Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his ''Saturday Night Live'' " TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic D ...

pitched Comedy Central a spin-off of Smigel's ''

'' cartoons (which were appearing singly as animated shorts on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' episodes) as a half-hour sketch comedy show. The standalone ''TV Funhouse'' show premiered in 2000 but was canceled after one season. He later joined the writing staff on ''

''. Stamatopoulos worked as a creative consultant and contributing writer on the first season of ''

Tom Goes to the Mayor ''Tom Goes to the Mayor'' is an American adult animated series created by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim for Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. It premiered on November 14, 2004 and ended on September 25, 2006 with a t ...

'', with

Tim & Eric Tim & Eric are an American comedy duo consisting of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. They are the creators and stars of the Adult Swim television series ''Tom Goes to the Mayor'', ''Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'', '' Check It Out! wit ...

and Bob Odenkirk. He also provided the voice of Drinky Crow on ''

The Drinky Crow Show ''The Drinky Crow Show'' is an American adult computer-animated cel-shaded animated television series created by Eric Kaplan and Tony Millionaire, based on the latter's comic strip ''Maakies''. The pilot episode aired on Adult Swim on May 13, 20 ...

'', which aired for one season on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

. His

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated series ''

'' premiered on Adult Swim on Christmas 2005 and aired for three seasons, airing its final episode in December 2008; a follow-up special aired in 2012. Following ''Moral Orel'', Stamatopoulos created ''

'', a

series, for Adult Swim. It ran for two seasons from 2010 to 2012. Stamatopoulos was a writer and producer on the 2009 NBC sitcom ''

''. He also played the recurring role of Alex " Star-Burns" Osbourne, a character whose nickname derived from his large star-shaped

sideburn Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term ''sideburns'' is a 19th-century corruption of the original ''burnsides'', named ...

s and his tendency to define himself by them. Together with ''Community'' creator

Dan Harmon Daniel James Harmon (born January 3, 1973) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC/Yahoo! Screen sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast ''Harmontown ...

, Stamatopoulos started production company Starburns Industries. A long-time fan of radio personality

Steve Dahl Steven Robert Dahl (born November 20, 1954) is an American radio personality. He is the owner and operator of the Steve Dahl Network, a subscription-based podcasting network. Dahl gained a measure of national attention after organizing and hostin ...

, Stamatopoulos hosted a podcast, ''Sorry About Everything'', from May 2012 until June 2013 on Dahl's Steve Dahl Network. Stamatopoulos and friend Andy Dick hosted a weekly podcast, ''Dino and Andy's Skull Juice'', which premiered in late 2016 and was initially produced by Feral Audio. Due to an on-air incident of hostility in mid-2018, Dick was asked to leave the podcast. Stamatopoulos asked friend and recurring guest

Dana Snyder Dana Snyder is an American actor. He is known for his voice roles of Master Shake in ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', Granny Cuyler in ''Squidbillies'', Baby Ball on '' Ballmastrz: 9009'', and other roles in various Adult Swim television shows. His o ...

to replace Dick as co-host, and the podcast was renamed ''Dino & Dana's Safe Space''. Additional co-hosts Laetitia "Tish" Burns and Spencer Crittenden were also given billing in the podcast.Link to SAFE SPACE Podcast site
/ref>

Personal life

Stamatopoulos was married and has one daughter. He is a vocalist and guitarist in a rock band called Sorry About Everything.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* *
TV Squad interview with Dino Stamatopoulos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stamatopoulos, Dino 1964 births American male comedians American male screenwriters American sketch comedians American television writers Television producers from Illinois American male voice actors Primetime Emmy Award winners Living people Male actors from Chicago Writers from Chicago American writers of Greek descent American male television writers People from Norridge, Illinois Screenwriters from Illinois Comedians from Illinois 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers