- Born
- Birth nameThomas Christopher Parnell
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Chris Parnell enrolled at Germantown High School where he took drama and auditioned for every play. In 1985, when he was a senior at Germantown, he was voted "Most Talented" by his classmates. Right after graduating high school, Chris attended North Carolina School of Arts in Winston-Salem, where he received his BFA in Drama. He later performed with the Berkshire Theatre in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. Afterwards Chris moved back to Tennessee and taught acting, film, and video at his own Germantown High School. He became bored, however, with teaching and moved to Los Angeles. Once in LA, he got a job at FAO Schwartz in Beverly Center, where he eventually became Operations Manager. During that time, Chris began taking classes at The Groundlings Main Company, where many Saturday Night Live (1975) cast members are discovered. Fate would have it that talent scouts from Saturday Night Live (1975) saw him and asked him to fly to New York for an audition. Completely surprised by his chances, he took the offer. To his amazement soon after he joined Saturday Night Live (1975) and became a featured player in the 1998-99 season. Parnell has since performed many impressions as NBC News' Tom Brokaw, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Tom Hanks, Senator John McCain, and Eminem. Parnell has also appeared as a member of Saturday Night Live (1975)'s resident boy band "Seven Degrees Celsius," but his biggest claim to fame on the show was when he performed an unforgettable hardcore gansta rap fantasizing about a dream date with Britney Spears on Weekend Update. He spends most of his summers in L.A. where he owns his own car and apartment.- IMDb mini biography by: Rod Reece
- RelativesSibling(Sibling)August Carl Rauchle(Grandparent)Clara Bessire(Grandparent)
- Often works with Andy Samberg
- Often plays eccentric characters
- Unflappable confidence
- Ability to say bizarre and silly dialogue with absolute seriousness
- Has impersonated Saturday Night Live (1975) announcer Don Pardo on at least one occasion when Pardo was too ill to announce the opening credits.
- His dad, Jack Parnell, who passed away in April of 2023, was in the voice-over industry for 40+ years, and worked as the "image voice" for local Memphis businesses (Kroger, Federal Express) and a local TV station, and voiced countless TV/radio commercials and instructional video presentations throughout the US and internationally.
- Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan tried to get him his job back shortly after he had been fired, but to no avail. It would later take Ferrell being off filming Old School (2003) and Darrell Hammond in rehab to get Lorne Michaels to change his mind.
- An expert at stage-fighting, so he has frequently been beaten up and killed in Saturday Night Live (1975) sketches. He has been beaten up by Dwayne Johnson, Paul Levesque, Mick Foley, Mick Foley, and Jackie Chan. He has been killed by Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro, and Will Ferrell, among others.
- Auditioned for every play in high school and was voted most talented in his class.
- On staying in character: "Sometimes it's very hard, but hopefully you are in the moment as an actor and you are just trying to react as the character in the scene would."
- What he learned from doing impressions on Saturday Night Live (1975): "The main thing is to be funny, whether people know (the impersonation) or not. You have to let go of the fact no one knows this person and just try to be funny, ultimately." On watching Saturday Night Live (1975): "When I was very little ... we'd go up to my grandmother's in Milan, Tennessee, and because we were there, we didn't go to church the next day. So me and my dad would stay up late and catch Saturday Night Live (1975) on her small black-and-white set."
- When asked what project didn't live up to what he envisioned: "SNL, but only in the respect that I didn't envision getting fired."
- When asked at an Saturday Night Live (1975) pitch meeting if he had any ideas for host Jude Law: "A scene where we play half-brothers, because, let's face it, that's all anybody would believe."
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