Patton Oswalt

Comedian Patton Oswalt channeled his sharp, unapologetically surreal outlook into unexpected commercial breakthroughs, sustaining a robust presence in both television and film while preserving his distinctive bite. Born on January 27, 1969, in Portsmouth, Virginia, he first aimed at a writing path and spent time as a paralegal before stepping onto the stage for his initial open-mike set at Garvin’s club in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1988. His paid standup work began the next year; by 1992 he had moved to San Francisco to refine his material in local clubs. After teaming with comedian Blaine Capatch to create the short-film series Food for Thought for Comedy Central, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1995, where he contributed scripts to the Fox sketch show Mad TV and performed on HBO Comedy Showcase. His first screen appearance came in 1996 with a small part in the box-office disappointment Down Periscope.

Landing the role of the awkward Spence Olchin on the long-running CBS series The King of Queens in 1998 placed him alongside fellow standups Kevin James and Jerry Stiller; additional supporting turns in Magnolia, Man on the Moon, and Zoolander further raised his profile. In 2003 he ventured into comics, authoring the DC one-shot JLA: Welcome to the Working Week. His first standup album, Feelin’ Kinda Patton, surfaced in 2004 on the United Musicians label run by Michael Penn and Aimee Mann. The same performance received an uncensored two-disc treatment from the fanzine Chunklet, issued under the title 222.

That autumn Oswalt joined Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford to form the Comedians of Comedy, deliberately booking indie-rock rooms instead of conventional comedy clubs. A documentary film of their tour appeared in 2005, followed by a six-episode Comedy Central series. Voice work in 2007 included the part of Jim on SpongeBob SquarePants and the lead role of Rémy in Pixar’s Ratatouille. Werewolves and Lollipops arrived the same year, succeeded by My Weakness Is Strong in 2009. Finest Hour reached listeners in 2011 and featured the bit “The Miracle of Sweatpants.” Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time, released in 2014, explored parenthood through routines such as “I Am a Great Dad” and “I Am an Awful Dad.”

Oswalt unveiled the special Talking for Clapping in April 2016, its title drawn from a well-known late-1960s recording of an inebriated John Wayne addressing an ROTC event. The program premiered only days before the unexpected death of his wife, writer Michelle McNamara, at age 46. It later earned an Emmy for Best Writing for a Variety Special and appeared as an album on A Special Thing Records in September 2016. The following year he delivered Patton Oswalt: Annihilation exclusively on Netflix.