Robert Ben Garant, credited earlier in his career as Ben Garant, is an American screenwriter, producer, director, comedian and actor. He has a long professional relationship with

Thomas Lennon Thomas Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'', Andrei Novak on '' Santa Clarita Diet'' and Felix Unger on '' The Odd Couple''. He is the screenw ...

and

Kerri Kenney-Silver Kerri Kenney-Silver (born January 20, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and musician. She is best known for starring as Trudy Wiegel on the mockumentary series ''Reno 911!'', for which she has been nominated for four Prime ...

from their time on the sketch-comedy show ''

The State A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a definite territory. Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrat ...

'', the cop show spoof ''

Reno 911! ''Reno 911!'' is an American television sitcom created by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver for Comedy Central. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically '' Cops'', with comic ...

'', and numerous screenwriting collaborations.

Early life

Garant grew up in

Farragut, Tennessee Farragut is a suburban town located in Knox and Loudon counties in the State of Tennessee, United States. The town's population was 23,506 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area. The town is named in honor of U ...

. He lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

for several years and attended the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. While at NYU he was a member of

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

troupe

Career

Garant was a cast member on the 1993–1995

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

sketch comedy series ''

''. In 2003, Garant,

and

, all members of The State, created the

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

show ''

'', which aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

; Garant appeared on the show as Deputy Travis Junior. Garant and Lennon are frequent writing partners, and have written several successful screenplays together, including the ''

Night at the Museum ''Night at the Museum'' is a 2006 fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It is based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc. The film had an en ...

'' films. Their films have earned over $1.4 billion in box office revenue alone. Garant and Lennon created and starred in a 2010 sitcom pilot for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

called ''The Strip''. However, it was not ordered as a series. Later in 2010, Garant and Lennon created a pilot for FX called ''USS Alabama'', a

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

/comedy set a thousand years in the future, aboard a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

peacekeeping spaceship, the U.S.S. Alabama. This pilot was not picked up either. In 2011, Garant and Lennon released a book about their careers called ''Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at The Box Office and You Can Too!'' In 2020, Garant reprised his role as Deputy Travis Junior in the seventh season of ''Reno 911!'' which aired on

Quibi Quibi ( ) was an American short-form streaming platform that generated content for viewing on mobile devices. It was founded in Los Angeles in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg and was led by Meg Whitman as CEO. The service raised $ ...

. He also appeared in the 2021

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

movie, ''Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon''. The eighth season of the series, now titled ''Reno 911! Defunded'', premiered on

The Roku Channel The Roku Channel is an over-the-top video streaming service available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the UK. The service was launched in 2017, and is owned and operated by Roku, Inc. It is the most popular free ad-supported streaming televisio ...

in February 2022.

Personal life

Garant currently resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He is married to actress Cathy Shim, and they have two children.

Filmography

* ''

'' (TV) (1993–1995) – co-creator, actor * ''

Viva Variety ''Viva Variety'' is an American sketch comedy series that aired on Comedy Central from April 1997 to December 1999. The series satirizes European variety shows. Overview The show stars Thomas Lennon as Meredith Laupin, Kerri Kenney as the fo ...

'' (TV) (1997–1999) – co-creator, actor * ''

'' (TV) (2003–2009, 2020-present) – co-creator, actor, director * ''

Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

'' (2004) – writer * ''

The Pacifier ''The Pacifier'' is a 2005 American family action comedy film directed by Adam Shankman, written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant and starring Vin Diesel. After a failed rescue mission, Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe is assigned as babysitter to ...

'' (2005) – writer * '' Herbie: Fully Loaded'' (2005) – writer * ''

Let's Go to Prison ''Let's Go to Prison'' is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Bob Odenkirk and starring Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, and Chi McBride. The film was loosely based on the non-fiction book, '' You Are Going to Prison'' by Jim Hogshire. The film ...

'' (2006) – writer * ''

Balls of Fury ''Balls of Fury'' is a 2007 American sports comedy film directed by Robert Ben Garant, who also wrote the screenplay with Thomas Lennon, who also co-starred and produced with Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman. The film stars Da ...

'' (2007) – director, writer * '' Reno 911!: Miami'' (2007) – director, writer, actor * '' Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'' (2009) – writer, actor * ''

Archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern ...

'' (TV) (2010) – guest voice actor * ''

Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is centered on the Belcher family—parents Bob Belcher, Bob and Linda Belcher, Linda and their three children, Tina Belcher, Tina, G ...

'' (TV) (2011) – guest voice actor * ''

Hell Baby ''Hell Baby'' is a 2013 American horror-comedy film written and directed by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It stars Rob Corddry, Leslie Bibb, Keegan-Michael Key, Riki Lindhome, Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer. Writer-directors Garant and Lennon ...

'' (2013) – director, writer, actor * ''

The Aquabats! Super Show! ''The Aquabats! Super Show!'' is an American action-comedy musical television series which aired from March 3, 2012 to January 8, 2014 on The Hub Network, later resuming as an independent YouTube series from September 2019 to July 2021. The ser ...

'' (2014) - guest voice actor * ''

Jessabelle ''Jessabelle'' is a 2014 American supernatural horror film directed and edited by Kevin Greutert and written by Ben Garant. The film stars Sarah Snook, Mark Webber, David Andrews, Joelle Carter, and Ana de la Reguera. The film was released b ...

'' (2014) – writer * ''

Rocky and Bullwinkle ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and also stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weat ...

'' - narrator (also writer) * '' Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb'' (2014) – writer * ''

Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ ''Bajillion Dollar Propertie$'' is an American comedy series on the Seeso comedy subscription streaming service. The series, created by Kulap Vilaysack, is a semi-scripted parody of the reality television franchise ''Million Dollar Listing''. ...

'' (2016) – director, actor * '' The Veil'' (2016) – writer * ''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...

'' (2017) – story writer * ''

Raising Buchanan ''Raising Buchanan'' is a 2019 American comedy film produced by Amanda Melby, Joe Gruberman, Chadwick Struck and Cathy Shim, written and directed by Bruce Dellis. The film stars René Auberjonois in the role of the title character, James Bucha ...

'' (2019) – actor * '' Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank'' (2022) – special thanks * '' The Casket Girls'' (TBA) - writer * ''Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon'' – actor, director, writer

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garant, Robert Ben 1970 births Living people Male actors from Tennessee American sketch comedians American male comedians 21st-century American comedians American male film actors American male screenwriters American male television actors American television writers American television directors Tisch School of the Arts alumni Film directors from Tennessee American showrunners American male television writers People from Farragut, Tennessee American comedy film directors Farragut High School alumni Television producers from Tennessee Comedians from Tennessee