Dan Castellaneta

Daniel Louis Castellaneta (born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and screenwriter. Castellaneta is known for voicing Homer Simpson on the FOX animated series The Simpsons. His multiple other roles on the show include Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Mel, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman, among many others.

Castellaneta is also known for his roles as the Robot Devil in Futurama, Megavolt in Darkwing Duck, Genie in the Aladdin television series, Doc Brown in Back to the Future: The Animated Series, and Grandpa Phil in Hey Arnold!.

Biography
Daniel Louis Castellaneta was born on October 29, 1957 at Roseland Community Hospital on Chicago's south side and was raised in River Forest and Oak Park, Illinois. He is of Italian descent, born to Elsie (née Lagorio) and Louis Castellaneta, an amateur actor who worked for a printing company.

Castellaneta became adept at impressions at a young age and his mother enrolled him in an acting class when he was sixteen years old. He would listen to his father's comedy records and do impressions of the artists. He was a "devotee" of the works of many performers, including Alan Arkin and Barbara Harris and directors Mike Nichols and Elaine May. He attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and upon graduation, started attending Northern Illinois University in the fall of 1975. He studied art education, with the goal of becoming an art teacher. He became a student teacher and would entertain his students with his impressions. Castellaneta was also a regular participant in The Ron Petke & His Dead Uncle Show, a radio show at NIU. The show helped Castellaneta hone his skills as a voice-over actor. He recalled "We did parodies and sketches, we would double up on (characters), so you learned to switch between voices. I got my feet wet doing voiceover. The show was just barely audible, but we didn't care. It was the fact that we got a chance to do it and write our own material." He took a play-writing class and auditioned for an improvisational show. A classmate first thought Castellaneta would "fall on his face with improvisation" but soon "was churning out material faster than [they] could make it work."

Castellaneta started acting after his graduation from Northern Illinois University in 1979. He decided that if his career went nowhere he would still have a chance to try something else. He began taking improvisation classes, where he met his future wife Deb Lacusta. He started to work at The Second City, an improvisational theatre in Chicago, in 1983 and continued to work there until 1987. During this period, he did voice-over work with his wife for various radio stations.

He auditioned for a role in The Tracey Ullman Show and his first meeting underwhelmed Tracey Ullman and the other producers. Ullman decided to fly to Chicago to watch Castellaneta perform. His performance that night was about a blind man who tries to become a comedian and Ullman later recalled that although there were flashier performances that night, Castellaneta made her cry. She was impressed and Castellaneta was hired.

The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family, which would later be spun-off into The Simpsons. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta and fellow cast member Julie Kavner to voice Homer and Marge Simpson rather than hire more actors.

Castellaneta has won several awards for voicing Homer, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance". Castellaneta likes to stay in character during recording sessions, and tries to visualize a scene in his mind so that he can give the proper voice to it. Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, "except, maybe, by a die-hard fan."

Outisde of his work on The Simpsons, Castellaneta has also had roles in several other television shows, including the live-action sitcom Sibs and the animated series Dynamo Duck, Darkwing Duck, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Earthworm Jim, Aladdin and Hey Arnold!. In 1999, he appeared in the Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer and won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman. Castellaneta has also released a comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, and wrote and stars in a one man play titled Where Did Vincent Van Gogh?

He is married to writer Deb Lacusta and lives in Los Angeles where he occasionally performs alongside the branch of The Second City. Unlike Homer, Castellaneta is a vegetarian, does not drink any alcoholic beverages and is a regular exerciser. Castellaneta also practices Tai Chi.

Puppet Shows

 * Turbocharged Thunderbirds (1994-1995) - Gordon Tracy, Alan Tracy, Brains (ep. 7), Slim (ep. 2) , Culp (ep. 5) , Dave (ep. 6) , Host (ep. 7) , Bobby Lukowski (ep. 7) , Additional Voices

Video Game Dubbing

 * Kingdom Hearts (2002) - Genie