Craig Gass
Craig Gass
Early life
“Neither of my parents could hear, so I couldn’t learn how to talk by listening to them.
I learned words and sentences and sounds by copying the voices I heard on television.”
Raised in a household of silence and gesticulation, Craig’s childhood was profoundly marked by his media consumption of 70’s and 80’s Zeitgeist.
That unique upbringing held him in good stead as he tested his first audiences when he discovered the joys of being the class clown.
Career
Gass has been performing stand-up comedy since 1993 when he decided to get revenge on a group of comedians who had ridiculed him for attempting to perform at an open mic.
Shortly into the new millennium, shock radio kingpin, Howard Stern, took Craig under his massive, media wing.
“I never really had an agent, all my TV roles appeared from people who were supporters of mine.
One of Howard Stern’s writers got me the guest part as Miranda’s overweight glazed donut eating boyfriend on Sex in the City.
Someone from the show called and said, ‘we heard you talking about your relationship this morning and we think you’d play a really good insecure guy for a storyline we’re developing.’ My impression of Al Pacino on Stern was heard by one of the Family Guy writers.
All of a sudden, I’m in a recording studio with Seth McFarlane.
Peter Griffin says, ‘This is crazier than when Al Pacino was a slum lord Laundromat attendant.’ They cut to me and I’m riffing the classic Pacino line from …And Justice for All (great Metallica record by the way) at this wall of broken washing machines, ‘You’re out of order!
And you’re out of order!’”
In 2004, Craig’s unique ability to sound like famous people led to a co-starring role on CBS’s hit sitcom, King of Queens. Kevin James character hires Craig as the new delivery driver who keeps his fellow employees in bellyaching laughs. Hollywood has known some venerated impressionists – Rich Little, David Frye, Frank Gorshin, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and Frank Callendo, to name few. While they’re all laudable in their parroting prowess, Craig takes impression a step further.
"He just doesn’t mirror the sound, cadence and mannerisms – he literally channels the individual into a speaking-in-tongues-esque out of body presentation, frighteningly precise without the aid of a single prop.
He just doesn’t do Adam Sandler, he becomes Adam Sandler, every character nuance a laser sharp reflection of the original.
He owes this phenomenal gift to the force majeure of his birth and childhood environment.
"
Peronal life
Gass was born into a Deaf family- his mother, father and sister are completely without hearing. He learned how to speak by mimicking the voices on television.
Filmography
In 2015 he voicedThe People vs. Martin Sugarof American Dad! (TV Series).
In 2007 he played the role of Al Pacino in The Next Best Thing: Who Is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator? (TV Series).
In 2004 he starred in The King of Queens (TV Series) as Tim Murphy.
In2004he voiced various celebrities in The Wrong Coast (TV Series).
In 2004 he played the role of a Deaf Man in Noise . [12] [10]
In 2004 he starred in Last Vegas (TV Series) as Richie Phillips.
In 2003 he voiced Sam Kinison in Pauly Shore Is Dead . [12] [10]
In 2003 he played the role of Jamie in Queens Supreme (TV Series).
In 2002 he starred in Sex and the City (TV Series) as Tom 'Big Boned'.
In 2002 he played the role of Mark Grandy in Law & Order (TV Series).