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Producer · Actor · Writer

1978-06-05 · New York City, New York, USA · Male

72 series in the catalog

Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for the FX comedy series The League (2009–2015); creating and starring in the Comedy Central series Kroll Show (2013–2015); and starring in and co-creating the animated Netflix series Big Mouth (2017–2025), Human Resources (2022–2023) and Mating Season (2026), as well as the Hulu sketch comedy series History of the World, Part II (2023).

He has acted or voice-acted in films such as I Love You, Man (2009), Get Him to the Greek (2010), Adult Beginners (2014), Vacation (2015), Sausage Party and Sing (both 2016), Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), The House (2017), The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019), Sing 2 and How It Ends (both 2021), The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022), First Time Female Director (2023), Red One (2024) and Smurfs (2025).

Early life

Kroll was born in Rye, New York, on June 5, 1978, to Lynn and Jules Kroll. His father is a billionaire businessman who founded the corporate investigations and risk consulting firm Kroll Inc. The youngest child in the family, Kroll has a brother, Jeremy, and two sisters, Vanessa and Dana. He grew up in a Conservative Jewish family, and attended the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester. He went on to high school at Rye Country Day School. During this time, he briefly attended The Mountain School in Vershire, Vermont, where he developed a fondness for hiking. In 2001, Kroll graduated from Georgetown University. He described himself as a history major who minored in art and Spanish, but found himself "gravitating toward media studies as time went on."

Career

Early in his career, Kroll contributed writing for Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show and MTV's Human Giant. In November and December 2008, he toured with Aziz Ansari on his Glow in the Dark comedy tour in the United States. Kroll's live work is a mix of standup, sketch and characters. In 2011, Comedy Central aired his stand-up special Thank You Very Cool. He has studied and performed regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City and Los Angeles and co-hosted the stand-up show Welcome to Our Week with Jessi Klein.

He has performed characters such as Bobby Bottleservice, who has been featured in a number of online videos for the website Funny or Die, including the Ed Hardy Boyz and an audition tape for the MTV show Jersey Shore. Other characters include Ref Jeff and Fabrice Fabrice, and Gil Faizon of The Oh, Hello Show, who he created with writing partner John Mulaney. His character work features prominently in Kroll Show, a sketch comedy show on Comedy Central. Kroll was honored with the Breakout Star of the Year award from the 2013 Just For Laughs festival.

The Oh, Hello Show

Kroll toured the U.S. alongside John Mulaney in The Oh, Hello Show, with both in character as Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland, respectively. The show premiered on Broadway on September 23, 2016, and ran for six months to positive reviews. The Broadway performance was filmed and released on Netflix in 2017.

Television

Kroll's first significant career success came when he co-starred in the ABC sitcom Cavemen, based on the Geico insurance TV commercial characters. Although the show was cancelled after seven episodes, he called his role "the most important experience of my professional career". He went on to VH1's Best Week Ever, and to guest-starring roles on Parks and Recreation, Community, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and New Girl. He made appearances on numerous Comedy Central series such as Reno 911!, John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show, and The Benson Interruption, both performing as himself and in character.

Kroll had a starring role as Rodney Ruxin in the FXX comedy series The League, which aired October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015. Concurrently, he created and starred in his own Comedy Central sketch series, Kroll Show, which aired January 16, 2013, to March 24, 2015. Kroll had a recurring role on Childrens Hospital on Adult Swim. His voice work includes the character Stu on the HBO animated series The Life & Times of Tim, Andrew LeGustambos in the animated Fox comedy series Sit Down, Shut Up, and Reuben Grinder in the PBS Kids GO! series WordGirl. Kroll was one of the roasters on the Comedy Central Roast of James Franco.

In 2017, Kroll co-created, wrote, and starred in Big Mouth, an animated television show on Netflix. The show features the experiences of a group of 7th graders in the throes of puberty. Two of the main characters are based on, and named after, Kroll and his best friend from childhood, Andrew Goldberg. Kroll plays Nick, as well as Coach Steve, Maurice the Hormone Monster, Lola, Rick the Hormone Monster, the Jansen twins and Lady Liberty, in addition to several further minor and one-off characters. The show's success led its creators – Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett – to form the production company Brutus Pink, which works with Titmouse, Inc. to produce other shows for Netflix like the spin-off Human Resources, as well as the series Mating Season.

Film

Kroll starred in A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and had supporting roles in comedy films such as Sing, Dinner for Schmucks, Date Night, Get Him to the Greek, Adventures of Power, and I Love You Man.

In 2016, Kroll's first villain role was a vaginal douche in the adult animated film Sausage Party. Originally, he played Douche's voice in a British accent, but the team wanted to make a Pixar-like film instead of a Disney Renaissance-like film.

In 2017, Kroll then had a second villain voice role as a villainous mad scientist Professor Poopypants in the DreamWorks animated superhero film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. Although many critics only either mentioned his character in passing, some pointing out his similarities with Albert Einstein, or his "committed" performance, Matt Zoller Seitz took particular note of his performance, praising it as "irrepressibly silly" with "an orange juice spit-take voice". Seitz further stated that "he way Kroll savors every syllable of his alternately peevish, self-pitying and nonsensical dialogue—aided mightily by the animators, who've given the character a fireplug body and a waddling walk—transforms the ridiculous into the sublime." In recent years, Kroll has taken several non-comedic acting roles, such as that of Bernie Cohen in Loving and Rafi Eitan in Operation Finale, both historical drama films.

Book

In 2005, Kroll published a book, Bar Mitzvah Disco, cowritten with Jules Shell and Roger Bennett.

Personal life

In May 2013, Kroll began dating comedian and actress Amy Poehler. They ended their relationship in 2015.

Kroll met landscape artist Lily Kwong in 2018. They married in November 2020 and their son was born in January 2021. In November 2023, they announced the birth of their daughter.

Kroll's brother-in-law is journalist Roger Bennett, who is married to Kroll's sister Vanessa. Through his wife, his cousin-in-law is fashion designer Joseph Altuzarra.

Before the 2020 United States elections, Kroll and other celebrities participated in the #IDCheck Challenge from VoteRiders to raise awareness about what identification voters need to cast a ballot in the election.

Official website

Nick Kroll Archived November 25, 2015, at the Wayback Machine on Funny or Die