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Matt Braunger

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Matt Braunger
Braunger in 2012
Birth nameMatthew Braunger
Born (1974-08-01) August 1, 1974 (age 50)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Medium
Years active1997–present
SpouseMarried
Websitewww.mattbraunger.com Edit this at Wikidata

Matthew Braunger (born August 1, 1974) is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian. His most recent special Finally Live In Portland was launched by Comedy Dynamics in 2019. Outside of performing stand-up, Braunger is noted for being a cast member on MADtv during its final season in 2008–2009, numerous guest star roles (NBC's Up All Night, Marvel's Agent Carter, Netflix' Disjointed), and numerous voice over roles (Amazon's The New VIPs, Netflix' BoJack Horseman).

Early years

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Braunger was born August 1, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois. His family moved to Portland, Oregon, when he was young. After graduating from Portland's Grant High School,[1] Braunger studied theater at Manhattanville College, in Purchase, New York. After earning his bachelor's degree, he moved to Chicago to develop his career in comedy.[2]

Career

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Comedian

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Matt Braunger has three hour comedy specials: Shovel Fighter (Comedy Central, 2012), Big Dumb Animal (Comedy Dynamics for Comedy Central and Netflix, 2015), and Finally Live in Portland (Comedy Dynamics for Amazon Prime, 2019). He also has six comedy albums: Soak Up the Night (Comedy Central, 2009), Shovel Fighter (Comedy Central, 2012), Big Dumb Animal (Comedy Dynamics, 2015), Going Way Back (800lb Gorilla Records, 2019), Finally Live in Portland (Comedy Dynamics, 2019) and "Please Hold Me" (800lb Gorilla Records, 2020). His late night appearances include Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, The Late Late Show, Conan, John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show and Live at Gotham on Comedy Central. He tours regularly.[3]

Braunger has been featured at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal 2007, The Las Vegas Comedy Festival 2007, South By Southwest, and won "Best Of The Fest" at the inaugural Rooftop Comedy Festival in Aspen.[4] He co-founded the popular Bridgetown Comedy Festival that takes place annually in Portland. His debut stand-up comedy album 'Soak up The Night' was released digitally on July 14, 2009, on Comedy Central Records. In 2009, he was named to Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch and Comedy Central's Hot 9 in '09 list. 'Soak up the Night' was named to the iTunes REWIND Top 20 Albums of 2009. In 2010, he recorded his half-hour Comedy Central Presents special, and in 2012 his hour-long special, Shovel Fighter, aired on Comedy Central.[5] He released his third comedy album Big Dumb Animal in 2015 along with a special aired on Netflix. Matt released a fourth album and third hour long special Finally Live in Portland in 2019,[6] the special now streaming on Amazon Prime.

His television credits include Mad TV, Up All Night, Agent Carter, The Michael J. Fox Show, BoJack Horseman, Happy Endings, Blue Mountain State, Maron, The New VIPs, Disjointed, Take My Wife, Man with a Plan, Fuller House, Superstore; and various roles on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, the Late Show with David Letterman, United States of Tara, Pushing Daisies, Carpoolers, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Acceptable TV, and Live at Gotham. He also was regular guest on the Chelsea Lately roundtable.

MADtv Braunger joined the cast of MADtv in 2008 as a feature performer, during the show's final season on FOX (14th season; 2008–2009).[7] Despite the short tenure (often not appearing in episodes), Braunger had a recurring character (Careco, one of Coach Hines' troublemaking students), a sizeable number of celebrity impressions, his most popular including Nick Jonas (with Eric Price and Johnny A. Sanchez as the other two Jonas brothers), Charlie Sheen, Jimmy Kimmel, William Shatner, William Frawley (as Fred Mertz in an I Love Lucy parody), and J.D. Power of J.D. Power and Associates.

Characters and impersonations

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Celebrity Sketch Season of first appearance Notes
Careco Coach Hines 14 Another student in Coach Hines' class
Roger Stuart "Drunk Newsman" 14 Newsman
Tom Bergeron Various 14 Game show host
William Frawley Various 14 As his character Fred Mertz from I Love Lucy.
Andy Griffith Various 14 As his character Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show.
Nick Jonas Various 14 Musician; member of the Jonas Brothers
Jimmy Kimmel Various 14 Comedian and late night talk show host.
John Mayer Various 14 Musician.
Al Michaels Various 14 Television sportscaster
J.D. Power III Various 14 Founder of the J.D. Power and Associates Marketing firm.
William Shatner Various 14 Actor
Charlie Sheen Various 14 Actor

Other projects

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Braunger and comedian Matt Dwyer hosted a weekly comedy podcast called MATTs Radio on mattsradio.com, they taped their final episode on September 30, 2010.

In 2012, Braunger starred in a pilot he created for Comedy Central titled Braunger, which he co-wrote with The Office writer Brent Forrester. The pilot was not picked up to series.

Since 2013, Braunger has hosted Ding-Donger with Matt Braunger, a podcast on the Nerdist Podcast Network which ended in 2018. He is now running Advice From A Dipshit with Matt Braunger, a podcast independently produced by Matt with his podcasting partner Amanda Rosenberg.[8]

In 2014 he starred in Steel Panther's video for the song "The Burden of Being Wonderful". He has also appeared in Episodes 11 and 12 of Steel Panther TV's internet smash Demolicious!.

Braunger is a podcast guest favorite, and has been featured on Never Not Funny w/ Jimmy Pardo, Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Nerdist Podcast, You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes, The Bertcast with Bert Kreischer,[9] All Fantasy Everything,[10] Your Mom's House with Tom Segura and Christina Pazitski,[11] Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, and Ryan Sickler's The Honeydew, among others.[12]

Filmography

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Television

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Year Title Role Total episodes Notes
2007 Carpoolers Patient 1
2007 iCarly Gary 1
2007 Pushing Daisies Rick 1
2008–2009 MADtv Various Characters 12
2008 Late Show with David Letterman Himself 1
2010 Blue Mountain State Darrell 1
2010 John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show Himself 2
2010 United States of Tara Jarrett 2
2010 Nick Swardson's Pretend Time Various 1
2011 Mash Up Himself 1 Standup and sketch comedy
2011–2012 Up All Night Gene Martin 19
2013 Happy Endings Kevin 1
2013 @midnight Himself 4
2014 Garfunkel & Oates Jesse 1
2016 Agent Carter Aloysius Samberly 5
2016 Take My Wife Bob 3
2018 My Dead Ex Officer Mitch Maloof 3
2018 Man with a Plan Reggie 1
2018 I'm Dying Up Here Reuben
2018 Stan Against Evil Dr. Barlow
2018 Fuller House Ralph 1
2019 Superstore Terry 1
2019 Carol's Second Act Gary 1
2020 Upload Brad

References

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  1. ^ Hallett, Alison. "Happening This Weekend: EVERYTHING". Portland Mercury. October 13, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
  2. ^ "[MADtv] Matt Braunger – Planet MADtv". www.planetmadtv.com. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  3. ^ "Tour". Matt Braunger. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  4. ^ see "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 5, 2006. Retrieved March 1, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Tedder, Michael. "Matt Braunger Shovel Fighter special review". The Spit Take. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  6. ^ "Matt Braunger Returns with Third Stand-Up Special, Finally Live In Portland". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  7. ^ MADtv (TV Series 1995–2016) – IMDb, retrieved May 20, 2019
  8. ^ "Advice From a Dipshit with Matt Braunger on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  9. ^ Kreischer, Bert (September 11, 2018), Bertcast # 305 – Matt Braunger & ME, archived from the original on December 21, 2021, retrieved May 20, 2019
  10. ^ All Fantasy Everything Podcast (April 27, 2017), All Fantasy Everything Podcast – Episode #4 90s Rap Albums, archived from the original on December 21, 2021, retrieved May 20, 2019
  11. ^ YourMomsHousePodcast (August 7, 2018), Your Mom's House Podcast – Ep. 460 w/ Matt Braunger, archived from the original on December 21, 2021, retrieved May 20, 2019
  12. ^ YourMomsHousePodcast (April 30, 2019), HoneyDew Podcast #18 | Matt Braunger, retrieved May 20, 2019
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