Acting
Nov 27, 1962
Chicago, Illinois
Paul Dinello
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Paul Dinello (born November 28, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and an alumnus of Chicago-based The Second City, Improv Institute, and Annoyance Theatre. He is best known for his role on Comedy Central's Strangers with Candy as Geoffrey Jellineck, the closeted gay art teacher at Flatpoint High, who carries on a not-so-secret relationship with his colleague Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert). Dinello dated the show's star Amy Sedaris for eight years after they met at Second City. In 2003 Dinello co-authored the novel Wigfield with Sedaris and Colbert, which they promoted by creating a traveling play. Most recently, Dinello has made guest appearances on Colbert's show The Colbert Report as Tad, the building manager. The character is often berated by Colbert, who forces him to do dangerous things. Dinello has made at least five appearances on The Colbert Report, including a tumbling act with Colbert and their Strangers costar Sedaris in July 2006. Dinello was also a writer, producer and director for the Strangers with Candy film, which was released in July 2006. In January 2009, Participant Media announced it would produce Dinello's next film, Mr. Burnout (about a burned out teacher seeking to rekindle his love of teaching). He was one of the main cast in the show Exit 57, also starring Sedaris and Colbert. He also appeared as Mr. Rooney in the film Be Kind Rewind, alongside Jack Black and Mos Def. Dinello recently directed the Nickelodeon original movie Gym Teacher: The Movie, starring Christopher Meloni and Amy Sedaris. Dinello can be seen with Amy Sedaris in the "Mummified Hand" episode of the Science Channel show Oddities. Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Dinello, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Feature Films (7)
A man whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.
Be Kind Rewind
A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her life over.
Strangers with Candy
Four stories intersect in this violent film parody. Exterminators dress as hit men and try to protect the wife of their boss, Montello. Meanwhile, the strippers at Montello's strip club, dressed as nuns, attempt to rob him. Tag-team wrestlers steal Montello's briefcase, thinking its contents are valuable. Finally, Bumpkin, running to deliver a script, loses a lot of the pages.
Plump Fiction
A routine psychiatric evaluation goes awry when the protagonist is perceived as 'reluctant and angry'.
Shock Asylum
Dave Stweie was America's hope for the gold in the 1988 Seoul Games.... until he ran face first into the vault. After Suffering humiliation on a global scale, Dave eventually faded into obscurity and became a gym teacher. A gym teacher with the drive of a former Champion, that is, who takes his job seriously. Very seriously!
Gym Teacher: The Movie
Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in show, it is clear she is a natural and is hired on the spot. But the station insists she call herself Doctor, and as her popularity grows a local reporter starts digging for the truth. Problem is, the more he is around her the more he fancies her.
Straight Talk
Television & Series (8)
Exit 57 was a 30-minute sketch comedy series that aired on the American television channel Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996; its cast was composed of comedians Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert, Jodi Lennon, and Mitch Rouse, all of whom had previously studied improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 1999 Sedaris, Dinello, Colbert and Rouse would also create the Comedy Central show "Strangers with Candy". Humorist David Sedaris also served as an additional writer for the series, sharing a single onscreen credit with his sister as "The Talent Family". The show's producer, Joe Forristal, had also served as executive producer for The Kids in the Hall. All of the sketches in the series are implied to take place in the fictional suburban setting of the Quad Cities. During the show's memorably cryptic opening sequence, the cast members are seen standing next to a broken down car on the highway. Soon they are picked up by a passing driver, who changes the radio station at the mention of a serial killer, and takes Polaroid pictures of his increasingly uncomfortable passengers. Growing suspicious, the cast demands to be let out. The car is then seen pulling off the highway at Exit 57.
Exit 57
Jerri Blank is a former prostitute and junkie whore who returns to high school as a 46-year-old freshman at Flatpoint High. Jerri ran away from home and became 'a boozer, a user, and a loser' after dropping out as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she 'stole the TV'. At home, Jerri's father Guy is comatose, although he seems perfectly capable of amazing feats. Her stepmother Sara is vain and bitter, and stepbrother Derrick is a bullying jock. Jerri tries to do things the right way but always ends up learning the wrong lesson. Her hijinks often involve, either directly or indirectly, neurotic history teacher Chuck Noblet and his secret lover, sensitive art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck.
Strangers with Candy
The Colbert Report is an American satirical late night television program. It stars political humorist Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Colbert Report is a spin-off from and counterpart to The Daily Show that comments on politics and the media in a similar way. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits.
