Paul Brittain (born February 16, 1977) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his brief tenure as a cast member on 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 ...

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 ...

series ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' from 2010 to 2012.

Early life and education

Brittain was born and raised in

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwestern suburb of Chicago located west of the city on the DuPage River. As of the 2020 United State ...

.Moynihan, Rob. "''SNLs Fab Four", ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'', March 7, 2011, Pages 44-45 He graduated from

Naperville North High School Naperville North High School is a public four-year high school located at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Mill Street in the northern-central part of Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It’s a part ...

in 1995. He attended the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, where he majored in finance and Spanish, graduating in 2000. Brittain was the nephew of comedian

Bob Newhart George Robert Newhart (September 5, 1929 – July 18, 2024) was an American comedian and actor. Newhart was known for his deadpan and stammering delivery style. Beginning his career as a stand-up comedian, he transitioned his career to acting in ...

Career

He is a veteran performer at the iO Theater in Chicago where he trained with ''SNL'' castmate

Vanessa Bayer Vanessa Bayer (born November 14, 1981) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2010 to 2017, for which she was nominated for an Emmy. She co-created, co-executive pr ...

and performed as a member with numerous improv and sketch groups. He has appeared on ''

Sports Action Team ''Sports Action Team'' was a half-hour comedy television series that ran for two seasons in 2006–2007. It was aired by some affiliates of the NBC network and the high definition channel HDNet. It was a semi-improvisational mockumentary depictin ...

''.

''Saturday Night Live''

Brittain joined the cast of ''

'' for the 36th season on September 25, 2010. His recurring characters included Lord Cecil Wyndemere (a childlike, 48-year-old lord), Goran "Funky Boy" Bogdan (a Croatian stand-up comic who punctuates his jokes with "Oooh, funky boy!"), and "Sex Ed" Vincent (a low-rent sex counselor who holds seminars in shady hotels). Brittain's celebrity impressions included

Ron Paul Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977, and again from 1979 to 1985, as well as for Texas' ...

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007), ''Milk (2008 American film), Milk'' (200 ...

, and

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...

. Brittain's uncle,

hosted ''SNL'' in its fifth (1979–1980) and 20th (1994–1995) seasons, making Brittain the second ''SNL'' cast member to be the nephew of a celebrity who hosted ''SNL'' more than once (after

Jason Sudeikis Daniel Jason Sudeikis ( ; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago (Improv Olympic), and The Second City. I ...

, whose uncle is semi-frequent 1990s host

George Wendt George Robert Wendt Jr. (October 17, 1948 – May 20, 2025) was an American actor. Wendt was best known for playing Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' from 1982 to 1993, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Em ...

). Brittain exited ''SNL'' midway through his second season, making his final appearance on January 14, 2012.

Recurring characters

*Marius, one of the French teens in "Les Jeunes de Paris" * Goran "Funky Boy" Bogdan, a Croatian stand-up comic * "Sex" Ed Vincent, a middle-aged "sex expert" who holds couples seminars * Lord Cecil Wyndemere, a foppish man-child who's actually 48 years old

Celebrity impressions

* Vili Fualaau *

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2 ...

Dax Holt Dax Holt (August 3, 1982) is an American entertainment reporter, entertainment personality host, and entrepreneur. He was a TMZ on TV on-air correspondent for 11 years and is currently the co-founder of the fantasy football trophy company Troph ...

Michael Gelman Michael Seth Gelman (born August 4, 1961) is an American television producer best known as the executive producer of ''Live with Kelly and Mark''. He also occasionally takes small roles on television, appearing in two episodes of Kelly Ripa's ABC ...

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

Tom Felton Thomas Andrew Felton (born 22 September 1987) is an English actor. Born in Surrey, Felton began appearing in commercials and made his screen debut in the role of Peagreen Clock in ''The Borrowers'' (1997). He portrayed Louis T. Leonowens in ...

(as

Draco Malfoy Draco Lucius Malfoy is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. He is a student in Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter's year belonging in the Slytherin house. He is frequently accompanied by ...

)

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brittain, Paul 1977 births Living people Male actors from Naperville, Illinois American sketch comedians American male television actors 21st-century American male actors American impressionists (entertainers) Comedians from Illinois 21st-century American comedians Gies College of Business alumni American male comedians