Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has voiced the titular character in SpongeBob SquarePants and associated media since its debut in 1999. His other voice roles include the Ice King in Adventure Time and its spinoff Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Spyro in the Spyro video game series, Heffer Wolfe in Rocko's Modern Life, the Narrator and Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls, Dog in CatDog, Carl Chryniszzswics in Johnny Bravo, Starscream in Transformers: Animated, The Penguin in various animated media based on DC Comics, and Raimundo Pedrosa in Xiaolin Showdown. Kenny's live-action work includes the sketch comedy series The Edge and Mr. Show with Bob and David. Kenny's accolades include two Daytime Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards for his voice work. He is married to Jill Talley, with whom he has two children.
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Biography
Early life and stand-up comedy
Thomas James Kenny was born in Syracuse, New York, on July 13, 1962, and was raised there. His parents were Theresa (née Donigan) and Paul Kenny. As a young child, in the late 1960s and the 1970s, he loved drawing and collecting record albums. Kenny met Bobcat Goldthwait in first grade and they became lifelong friends. 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. 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."
Kenny went to Bishop Grimes Junior/Senior High School, a Catholic high school. After college, he performed stand-up comedy around the country for about eight years before he moved on to other venues.
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 (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 to 1993, 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: The Series on the season four episode, "Uncle Howee" as Uncle Howee, a high-energy kids' show host with strange powers.
Voice acting
Kenny said that he voices "a lot of sweet yellow characters for some reason." He described SpongeBob's voice as in between that of a child and an adult, stating "Think a Stan Laurel, Jerry Lewis kind of child-man. Kind of like a Munchkin but not quite, kind of like a kid, but not in a Charlie Brown child's voice on the TV shows."
Joe Murray auditioned Kenny for voice acting roles for Rocko's Modern Life in a casting call in Los Angeles, California. On one occasion, the producers required Kenny to fill the role of Charlie Adler, who was absent. He voices Cupid for the Nickelodeon show The Fairly OddParents.
Joe Murray chose Kenny for several roles on another of his projects, Camp Lazlo as Scoutmaster Lumpus and Slinkman, because Murray, after seeing Kenny's previous work for Rocko's Modern Life, felt that Kenny "adds writing to his roles" and "brings so much".
He voiced Dog in CatDog, as well as the voice of Cliff. He voices many characters in The Powerpuff Girls, including the Mayor, the Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake and Little Arturo from the Gangreen Gang, Rainbow the Clown, etc. He voiced Eduardo and various other characters in Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Dr. Two-Brains in the PBS Kids show, WordGirl, and the villains Knightbrace, the Common Cold and Mr. Wink in Codename: Kids Next Door.
Kenny is the Penguin in the 2004 TV series The Batman.
He voiced the character Squanchy on Rick and Morty.
He plays a number of roles in the Transformers Animated TV show. A few of the characters he voices in this series are Starscream and his clones, Isaac Sumdac and Waspinator. Kenny also voiced several characters on the animated show Xiaolin Showdown, as well as the Autobots Skids and Wheelie in the live-action Transformers film series. On Dilbert, Kenny voiced Ratbert, Asok, Dilbert's shower, and some minor characters. He played Mr. Hal Gibson in the animated kids show Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!.
In 2009, Kenny became a regular cast voice in the Fox comedy series Sit Down, Shut Up. He voices Muhammad Sabeeh "Happy" Fa-ach Nuabar, the secretive custodian who is plotting a terrorist attack, as well as Happy's interpreter. The series premiered on April 19, 2009. Kenan Thompson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jason Bateman, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Henry Winkler, Will Arnett, and Will Forte are the other main cast members.
Personal life
Kenny first met his wife Jill Talley in 1992 while working on The Edge. The two have collaborated on many productions together, including SpongeBob SquarePants (in which Talley voices Karen Plankton). They also both appeared in the music video for "Tonight, Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins. They have two children, Mack (b. 1997) and Nora (b. 2003). The Kennys live in Studio City, California.
Accolades
Kenny has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy 4 times winning in 2018 and 2020 for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program as SpongeBob SquarePants.
He has been nominated for multiple Annie Awards winning in 2010 for his work on SpongeBob and 2014 for his work on Adventure Time. Kenny hosted the show in 2005 and 2011.
In 2022, Kenny was honored at the Syracuse Area Music Awards (Sammy Awards), headlining the event and being given the lifetime achievement award along with getting inducted into the Sammy's Hall of Fame.
