Michael Edward O'Malley (born October 31, 1966) is an American actor, writer and television producer. Born in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
and raised in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, O'Malley hosted the early 1990s children's game shows ''
Get the Picture'' and ''
Nickelodeon Guts'' before moving to Los Angeles later that decade to star in his own sitcom for
NBC called ''
The Mike O'Malley Show''. He is best known for his role as Jimmy Hughes on ''
Yes, Dear'', a
CBS series which aired from 2000 to 2006. He was nominated for an
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
for his role as
Burt Hummel on the
Fox series ''
Glee
Glee may refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album)
* ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album)
* Gle ...
''.
O'Malley has also guest-starred in series including ''
My Name Is Earl
''My Name Is Earl'' is an American television sitcom created by Greg Garcia (producer), Greg Garcia for NBC. It aired for four seasons from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, with a total of List of My Name Is Earl episodes, 96 episodes. It wa ...
'', ''
Raising Hope'', ''
Parenthood'', and ''
Parks and Recreation'', and has appeared in films including ''
28 Days''; ''
Deep Impact''; ''
Leatherheads''; ''
Eat, Pray, Love''; ''
R.I.P.D.''; ''
Concussion
A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...
''; and ''
Sully''.
O'Malley is also a published playwright whose plays include ''Three Years From Thirty'' and ''Diverting Devotion''. He adapted another play called ''Searching for Certainty'' for
Peter Askin's film ''
Certainty
Certainty (also known as epistemic certainty or objective certainty) is the epistemic property of beliefs which a person has no rational grounds for doubting. One standard way of defining epistemic certainty is that a belief is certain if and ...
'', which premiered at the
Boston Film Festival in 2011. O'Malley was also a writer on
Showtime's comedy-drama ''
Shameless''.
O'Malley was the creator and an executive producer of the
Starz series ''
Survivor's Remorse'', which ran for four seasons between 2014 and 2017. He has recently been a regular on the
TNT series ''
Snowpiercer
''Snowpiercer'' () is a 2013 Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic action thriller film based on the French climate fiction graphic novel ''Le Transperceneige'' by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. The f ...
'' based on the film of the same name.
Early life
O'Malley was born in
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, and raised in
Nashua, New Hampshire
Nashua () is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 91,322, the second-largest in northern New England after nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester. It is on ...
. His mother Marianne was a career counselor and father Tony O'Malley an executive in the defense industry.
O'Malley graduated from
Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, New Hampshire in 1984, and from the
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...
in 1988, where he studied theater. He is also a member of
Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Career
Television
O'Malley's first career breakthrough came as the host of
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
children's game show ''
Get the Picture'' in 1991. A year later, in 1992, he was the host of ''
Nickelodeon Guts'' and later ''Global GUTS'' from 1992 to 1995. On the advice of
Marc Summers, O'Malley moved to Los Angeles after the conclusion of ''GUTS'' to further pursue his acting career. O'Malley starred in ''
Life with Roger'', a series which aired from 1996 to 1997.
In 1999, two of thirteen filmed episodes of ''
The Mike O'Malley Show'' aired before the show was canceled. During the 1990s, he also appeared as "The Rick", a character in a series of ads for the
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
network. In 2018, The Rick made a return in ads for the
ESPN+
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
streaming service.
From 2000 to 2006, O'Malley starred as Jimmy Hughes on the CBS comedy ''
Yes, Dear''. He later reprised this role in 2013 on the sitcom ''
Raising Hope''. Along with ''Yes, Dear'' costar
Anthony Clark, O'Malley appeared in the
Alan Jackson music video "
The Talkin' Song Repair Blues". From 2000 to 2002, O'Malley also provided the
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...
of Darryl MacPherson for The WB's ''
Baby Blues''.
In 2006, O'Malley made a guest appearance on ''
My Name Is Earl
''My Name Is Earl'' is an American television sitcom created by Greg Garcia (producer), Greg Garcia for NBC. It aired for four seasons from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, with a total of List of My Name Is Earl episodes, 96 episodes. It wa ...
'' as a police officer with bowling aspirations, and made several more guest appearances on the show. In 2008, O'Malley appeared in the NBC drama ''
My Own Worst Enemy''.
In 2008, O'Malley became the spokesman for
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...
's
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previo ...
. In 2009, O'Malley began playing the recurring character, Burt Hummel, the father of a student, on ''
Glee
Glee may refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album)
* ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album)
* Gle ...
''.
The role lead to ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
s Tim Stack to say, "If Mike O'Malley doesn't win an Emmy for playing Burt Hummel, I will be sorely disappointed."
Chris Colfer, who plays Burt's son
Kurt, has credited his off-screen relationship with O'Malley with improving the quality of their scenes together.
Beginning in 2010, O'Malley portrayed a recurring character on ''
Parenthood''. He also hosted ''The World's Funniest Office Commercials'' in 2010. On July 8, 2010, O'Malley received a nomination for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series for playing Burt Hummel on ''Glee''. Prior to its second season, O'Malley was made a series regular on ''Glee''.
On August 8, 2010, O'Malley won the
Teen Choice Award for Best Parental Unit. He returned to recurring guest star status for the show's
third season.
Film
O'Malley made his film debut in the 1998 film ''
Deep Impact'', playing
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. Wood made his film debut with a minor part in ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989) at the age of eight and achieved recognition in the early 1990s as a child acto ...
's astronomy teacher. He followed that with a supporting role in the comedy ''
Pushing Tin''. In 2000, he portrayed Oliver, a
drug addict in rehab, in the film ''
28 Days''. In 2005, O'Malley appeared in the film ''
The Perfect Man''. In 2007, he had supporting roles in ''
Leatherheads'' and ''
Meet Dave''.
O'Malley was interviewed in the film ''City of Champions: The Best of Boston Sports''.
In 2009, O'Malley participated in the American documentary film ''
The People Speak''. In the film, he performed in a segment with political activist
Staceyann Chin.
O'Malley's feature work also includes roles in ''
Eat Pray Love'', ''
Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in u ...
'', ''
Concussion
A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...
'' and ''
Sully''.
Writing and producing
O'Malley is a playwright with two of his plays, ''Three Years from Thirty'' and ''Diverting Devotion'', having been published and produced
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
. In 2003, a third play, ''Searching for Certainty'' was produced in Los Angeles.
He served as the director for the series finale episode of ''
Yes, Dear'', in which he starred.
He later wrote the screenplay for the film ''
Certainty
Certainty (also known as epistemic certainty or objective certainty) is the epistemic property of beliefs which a person has no rational grounds for doubting. One standard way of defining epistemic certainty is that a belief is certain if and ...
'', which is based on ''Searching for Certainty''. The film began production on May 24, 2010, directed by
Peter Askin and produced by O'Malley, along with Will Battersby and Per Melita. ''Certainty'' premiered at the
Boston Film Festival on September 16, 2011, where it won the Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Ensemble Cast awards.
He was also a writer and consulting producer on the
Showtime comedy-drama
Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...
series ''
Shameless''.
O'Malley co-wrote the book for the musical ''
Escape to Margaritaville'' featuring the songs of
Jimmy Buffett
James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessman. He was known for his tropical rock sound and persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapis ...
with
Greg Garcia. The show ran on
Broadway from February to July 2018.
He created the
Starz basketball comedy series ''
Survivor's Remorse'' and serves as the show's writer and producer with his production company O'Malley Ink. He is also an executive producer as well as the showrunner for the series
''Heels'', with a recurring role as Charlie Gully, a rival wrestling promoter.
Other media work
Along with
Anthony Clark, his ''
Yes, Dear'' co-star, he appeared in
Alan Jackson's 2005 music video for "
The Talkin' Song Repair Blues".
In 2007, O'Malley kept a blog on
Yahoo! Sports, which followed the
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
throughout their journey in the
MLB
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
playoffs, which was eventually capped off by their
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
title.
Personal life
O'Malley resides in Los Angeles with his wife Lisa, who is a school psychologist.
They have three children.
Kerry O'Malley, his younger sister, is an actress and
Broadway veteran. The siblings co-starred in the first season of ''
Snowpiercer
''Snowpiercer'' () is a 2013 Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic action thriller film based on the French climate fiction graphic novel ''Le Transperceneige'' by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. The f ...
''.
A long time fan of Boston band
Buffalo Tom, O'Malley is a close friend of lead singer
Bill Janovitz. They have often supported causes together. O'Malley requested that the band create a title song for his own short-lived television show ''
The Mike O'Malley Show'', as well as for the sitcom ''
Yes, Dear'' which he co-starred on. According to O'Malley, his love of the band was shared with his wife and was "the glue" that kept them together during their long-distance relationship.
O'Malley is a
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
fan, and in May 2006, threw out the first pitch at a game in
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...
. He is also an avid fan of the
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
's
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...
and the
NFL's
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
.
O'Malley returned to his graduating ''alma mater'' in 2006 to deliver the
commencement speech to the university's 136th graduating class.
He also received an honorary degree.
Acting credits
Film
Television
Writing and producing credits
Film
Television
Theatre
* ''Three Years from Thirty'' (1994)
* ''Diverting Devotion'' (1996)
* ''Searching for Certainty'' (2003)
* ''
Escape to Margaritaville'' (2017)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omalley, Mike
1966 births
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
American bloggers
American game show hosts
American male bloggers
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bishop Guertin High School alumni
Comedians from Boston
Comedians from New Hampshire
Living people
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from New Hampshire
Nickelodeon people
People from Nashua, New Hampshire
American showrunners
University of New Hampshire alumni