Brian Michael "Q" Quinn (born March 14, 1976) is an American podcaster, improvisational comedian, actor, and retired

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

. He is a member of

The Tenderloins The Tenderloins, often referred to as the Impractical Jokers, are an American comedy troupe composed of James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The group stars in the television series ''Impractical Jokers'', which premiered on ...

, a comedy troupe also consisting of Sal Vulcano, James Murray, and formerly Joe Gatto. Along with the other members of The Tenderloins, he stars in the television series ''

Impractical Jokers ''Impractical Jokers'' is an American hidden camera comedy and reality show with improvisational elements. Produced by NorthSouth Productions, ''Impractical Jokers'' premiered on truTV on December 15, 2011, starring the members of The Tenderlo ...

'', which premiered in 2011, on

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

Early life

Brian Michael Quinn was born on March 14, 1976, in the borough of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in New York City, but moved to

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

at two years old. He is of Irish and Italian ancestry. His mother was born in Italy, and migrated to the U.S. at the age of two. His father is of Irish decent. Quinn attended Monsignor Farrell High School. Along with Murray, Vulcano, and Gatto, he was a member of his high school's

Improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

Club. He studied at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

before joining the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fi ...

, where he served for eight years.

Career

Early career

Despite not being an initial member of his friends' comedy troupe

, after one of the original members, Mike Boccio, left the group in 2006, Quinn became the troupe's then-fourth member. The Tenderloins began producing comedy sketches together, posting them on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

, and

Metacafe Metacafe was an Israeli video-sharing website, launched in July 2003. During the mid-2000s it was one of the largest video-sharing websites, though it eventually began to be superseded by YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion. On 28 August 2021, the pl ...

, accumulating millions of views online. In 2007, the troupe won the $100,000 grand prize in the

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 ...

''It's Your Show'' competition for the sketch "Time Thugs".

''Impractical Jokers'' and other television shows

'' premiered on December 15, 2011, on

. The first season was watched by over 32 million viewers. The show quickly became the most popular series on TruTV, and has boosted Quinn into the public eye. Quinn had a cameo in the first episode of the second season of ''

12 Monkeys ''12 Monkeys'' is a 1995 American Science fiction film, science fiction thriller film directed by Terry Gilliam from a screenplay by David Peoples and Janet Peoples, based on Chris Marker's 1962 short film ''La Jetée''. It stars Bruce Willis, M ...

'', which first aired in the US on April 18, 2016. In October 2019, Quinn, along with the other members of The Tenderloins, starred in '' The Misery Index'', which is hosted by

Jameela Jamil Jameela Alia Jamil (born 25 February 1986) is an English actress, activist and presenter. She began her career on Channel 4, where she hosted a pop culture series in the ''T4 (Channel 4), T4'' strand from 2009 until 2012. She then became the ra ...

and is based on

Andy Breckman Andrew Ross Breckman (born March 3, 1955) is an American screenwriter, comedian, and radio personality. He is the creator and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning television series ''Monk'' on the USA Network and is co-host of WFMU radi ...

's card game "Shit Happens". Quinn was in the 6th episode of Tacoma F.D., 'Full Moon Fever', released May 2, 2019. '' Impractical Jokers: The Movie'' was released on February 21, 2020. Quinn also had a cameo in the fourth episode of the second season of '' Star Trek: Picard,'' which first aired in the US on March 25, 2022. Brian Quinn 2017 2

Podcasts

''Tell 'Em Steve-Dave''

Quinn is also a co-host of the podcast ''

Tell 'Em Steve-Dave! ''Tell 'Em Steve-Dave!'', or simply ''TESD'', is an American comedy podcast, featured previously on the SModcast Podcast Network. It is hosted by View Askew Productions regulars and close friends of Kevin Smith: Bryan Johnson and Walt Flanagan of ...

'', which he hosts with

Bryan Johnson Bryan Johnson (born August 22, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, writer and author. He is the founder and former CEO of Kernel, a company creating devices that monitor and record brain activity, and OS Fund, a venture ca ...

and

Walt Flanagan Walter Flanagan is a former comic book store manager, reality television personality, podcaster, and comic book artist. Flanagan is a long-time friend of Kevin Smith, and (according to Smith's book '' Silent Bob Speaks'') it was Flanagan who tur ...

. The podcast started in February 2010 with Quinn in the role of the off-mic audio engineer, then shortly after as occasional commentator and ultimately co-host.

''The Tenderloins Podcast''

The group began hosting a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

in April 2012. It is available on their official website and

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

''What Say You?''

''What Say You?'', an occasional podcast hosted by Sal Vulcano and Quinn, was named Best New Show at the 2013

Stitcher Stitcher was a media company that specialized in the creation, distribution, and monetization of podcasts. Stitcher created original shows through networks such as Earwolf and Witness Docs. Stitcher provided ad sales and distribution services to ...

Awards. The increased popularity of ''What Say You'' sparked a friendly competition among the comedians, spurring Joe Gatto and James Murray to release their own Tenderloins podcast without the other two members. In 2015, ''What Say You?'' was nominated for the Comedy, Entertainment, and Best Produced Podcast Awards at the 10th Annual Podcast Awards. Vulcano and Quinn have stated that the podcast is their own side project, not a replacement of ''The Tenderloins Podcast''. The group explained that it was difficult to coordinate the schedules of all four members outside of work, making it challenging to produce their troupe's official podcast with any regularity.

Personal life

Quinn suffers from

arachnophobia Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions and ticks. The word "arachnophobia" comes from the Greek words arachne and phobia. Signs and symptoms People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they b ...

. He has three cats, Brooklyn, Boris, and Chessie. Along with that, he has a tattoo that says, "38. Lives alone. Has 3 cats" from the result of a triple punishment on ''Impractical Jokers'' in 2014. Quinn has suffered from depression, and has been very open about his struggles throughout the years. While taking a trip to Germany in 2009, Quinn was arrested for disorderly conduct while visiting

Oktoberfest Oktoberfest (; ) is the world's largest , featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October. The annual event attracts more than seven milli ...

. An assailant punched him in the face, knocking his tooth out. Quinn was escorted back to the United States by German police, and was bailed out by his Tenderloins troupe members. Since his time on ''Impractical Jokers'', Quinn has donated $50,000 to the

, and he occasionally meets with his former coworkers. In August 2019, Quinn revived the Rubsam & Horrmann Brewing Company on Staten Island. Quinn is a

Kentucky Colonel Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the US state of Kentucky. It is the most well-known colonelcy in the United States. A Kentucky Colonel Commission (the certificate) is awarded in the name of the Commonwealth by the go ...

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Brian 1976 births Living people 21st-century American comedians American people of Irish descent American people of Italian descent Brooklyn College alumni Monsignor Farrell High School alumni New York City firefighters Comedians from Brooklyn Comedians from Staten Island The Tenderloins American male comedians