Tom Kenny

Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the title character in the SpongeBob SquarePants TV series, video games, and films. Kenny has voiced many other characters including Heffer Wolfe in Rocko's Modern Life; the Ice King in Adventure Time; the Narrator and Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls; Carl Chryniszzswics in Johnny Bravo; Dog in CatDog; Hank and Jeremy in Talking Tom and Friends; and Spyro from the Spyro the Dragon video game series. His live-action work includes the comedy variety shows The Edge and Mr. Show. Kenny has won two Daytime Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards for his voice work as SpongeBob SquarePants and the Ice King. He often collaborates with his wife and fellow voice artist Jill Talley, who plays Karen on SpongeBob SquarePants.

Early life and stand-up comedy
Kenny was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, to Theresa Bridget (Donigan) and Paul Austin Kenny.[1] [2]  As a young child, he loved drawing and collecting record albums in the late 1960s and 1970s. He met Bobcat Goldthwait in first grade and they became lifelong friends.[3]  In their mid-teens, they saw an ad for an open-mic night at Skaneateles that featured comedian Barry Crimmins with the moniker "Bear Cat". He and Goldthwait went to the event, and performed under the monikers Tomcat and Bobcat, respectively, as a tribute to Crimmins, after which Goldthwait used Bobcat as his stage name.[4] [5] [6]  Describing Kenny's stand-up routines, Goldthwait said, "Tom would get up there and talk about his therapist and he didn't even have a therapist, he just loved Woody Allen."[7]

Kenny went to Bishop Grimes Junior/Senior High School, a Catholic high school.[8]  After college, Kenny performed stand-up comedy around the country for about eight years before he moved on to other venues.[6]

Television and film career
Kenny has acted in many films and TV shows, debuting in How I Got Into College (1989) and later appeared in films such as Shakes the Clown[9]  (1991) and Comic Book: The Movie (2004). On television, he would host the "Music News" segments of Friday Night Videos in the early 1990s. He appeared in sketch comedy shows The Edge which aired on Fox from 1992–93, and Mr. Show which aired on HBO from 1995 to 1998, both roles in the show were as a regular cast member. He appears in the live-action segments of SpongeBob SquarePants as Patchy the Pirate, appeared on R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour on the season four episode, "Uncle Howee" as Uncle Howee, a high-energy kids' show host with strange powers.