Paul Marcarelli (born May 24, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for being the ubiquitous "Test Man" character in

commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

("Can you hear me now?") for

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

from 2002 to 2011. He appeared in all of his Verizon commercials wearing a gray Verizon jacket and his own

horn-rimmed glasses Horn-rimmed glasses are a type of eyeglasses. Originally made out of either horn or tortoise shell, for most of their history they have actually been constructed out of thick plastics designed to imitate those materials. They are characterized b ...

Early life and education

Marcarelli is a native of

North Haven, Connecticut North Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States on the outskirts of New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 24,253. North Haven is home ...

, and graduated from North Haven High School. Marcarelli then received his bachelor's degree in English from

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...

in 1992, having been a member of Theatre Fairfield, the resident production company.

Acting career

A founding member of New York's Mobius Group Productions in 1998, Marcarelli produced and performed in works by

Eric Bogosian Eric Michael Bogosian (; born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University ...

Warren Leight Warren Donald Leight (; born January 17, 1957) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and television producer. He is best known for his work on '' Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' and '' Lights Out'' and as the showrunner for ''In ...

, and Richard Nelson. Mobius's production of '' The Adding Machine'', in which he played the lead role, garnered the award for excellence in overall production from the

New York International Fringe Festival The New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, was a fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It took place over the course of a few weeks in October, spread on more than 20 stages across se ...

in 2001; and his 2005 production, ''Bridezilla Strikes Back!'' starring Cynthia Silver, which ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called "irresistible," won the Fringe's overall excellence award for an outstanding solo show. Marcarelli is also a founding member of the Table Ten Films production company. He co-wrote the storyline for the 2011 independent film '' The Green'', for which he also wrote the screenplay. Marcarelli wrote and produced the feature film ''Clutter'', starring

Carol Kane Carolyn Laurie Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress. She gained recognition for her role in '' Hester Street'' (1975), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She became known in the 1970s and 1980s in ...

and

Natasha Lyonne Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American producer, director, comedian, writer, actress, and artificial intelligence film studio head. Lyonne started her career as a child actress before expanding her career taking o ...

. The film won Best Film at the

Harlem International Film Festival The Harlem International Film Festival (Hi) is an annual five-day film festival in Harlem, New York. The first festival took place in 2005. Michael Franti's ''I Know I'm Not Alone'' was named Best International Documentary at the festival that y ...

and was nominated for the New American Cinema Award in 2013.

Advertising career

In 2002 Marcarelli started appearing as the "Test Man" character in Verizon Wireless commercials, for which ''

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, ...

'' named him one of the most intriguing people of 2002. In April 2011 Marcarelli was informed by email that Verizon was moving in a new direction with its advertising campaign. He remained under contract but would no longer play "Test Man". Marcarelli was glad that he was able to move on from it. Prior to Verizon, Marcarelli had already appeared in numerous commercials for companies including

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

Dasani Dasani () is a brand of bottled water created by the Coca-Cola Company, launched in 1999. It is one of many List of Coca-Cola brands, brands of Coca-Cola bottled water sold around the world. The product is filtered and bottled. Marketing Un ...

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

, and

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

. He also performed in industrial and promotional films, and as a voiceover artist for

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 ...

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

, and Aetna Insurance, among others. Since 2016 Marcarelli has been working as a Sprint (later merged with

) spokesman and often refers to his switch from Verizon to Sprint in the commercials in which he appears. In 2025 Marcarelli returned as a Verizon spokesman in an advertisement that also featured astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Personal life

Paul is gay and is married to his husband Ryan Brown who owns a catering business. They both reside in Litchfield, Connecticut where they own a farm and two pugs. They also appeared in a Sprint ad together.

References

External links

*
Clutter website

Table Ten Films website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcarelli, Paul 1970 births 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American gay actors American male film actors American male screenwriters American male voice actors Fairfield University alumni Living people Male actors from New York (state) People from North Haven, Connecticut Screenwriters from Connecticut Spokespersons Sprint Corporation people Verizon people