- Chris Wylde
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Chris Wylde Born Christopher Scott Noll
August 22, 1976
Hackettstown, New Jersey, U.S.Occupation Actor Years active 2000–present Website http://www.chriswylde.com/ http://twitter.com/chirswylde Chris Wylde is the stage name of an American actor and comedian who was born on August 22, 1976 in Hackettstown, New Jersey as Christopher Scott Noll.
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Early life
Chris was raised in Belvidere, New Jersey and moved to Verona, New Jersey when he was seven.[1] Both his parents are United Methodist ministers.
When Chris was 10 years old he attended the Saint Thomas Choir School in Manhattan. While there he sang with the St. Thomas Boys Choir and Carly Simon on the song "Let the River Run", which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the film Working Girl, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song-Motion Picture (1989), and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture (1989).
After moving to Allendale, New Jersey, he attended the Northern Highlands Regional High School from 1990 to 1994, where he starred in many plays and musicals.[1] While there, he infamously broke into the school's TV studio and broadcast a pirate television signal on the local public access television station.
In the summer of 1993 Chris attended the New Jersey Governor's School of the Arts for Acting.
From 1994 to 1998 he attended American University in Washington, D.C. and received a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre - Performance. He starred in several plays and musicals as well as the improvisational comedy troupe "Mission: IMPROV-able". He hosted his own late night talk show Midnight with Chris Noll on the student run campus television station ATV. Midnight still holds the record as the longest running comedy program in the station's history.
Career
Television
While living in Washington D.C. and attending A.U. he starred in the PBS series Standard Deviants.
After graduating college Chris moved to Hollywood. He was quickly cast as Barry opposite Jonathan Mangum on Strip Mall on Comedy Central. After that show wrapped he created, wrote, produced, and starred in The Chris Wylde Show Starring Chris Wylde on Comedy Central. He hosted the game show Taboo based on the popular board game and starred in Filmfakers on AMC. On Filmfakers, Chris reunited with his Strip Mall cast mate Allison Dunbar (The Sopranos).
Chris guest-starred on a memorable 2002 episode of Trading Spaces and in 2007 was voted their Funniest Home Owner.
In 2005 Chris pranked American Idol, posing as a rapping nanny. VH1 named it one of the 40 Greatest Pranks in TV History.
Chris was the top center square for a week on Hollywood Squares, played Ricky for multiple episodes on General Hospital, and guest-starred on sitcoms Just Shoot Me!, Watching Ellie, Jonas L.A., Pair of Kings, Good Luck Charlie, and A.N.T. Farm.
In 2005, Chris hosted the Discovery Health Channel show Is Your House Out to Get You? where he delivered important and serious messages about the common dangers in the home in a lighthearted and fun way.
Chris Wylde created and executive-produced the series Dad Camp on VH1.
Film
Wylde's first film role was in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys playing Jason, the birthday boy. His scene was also the big screen debut of actor Jon Hamm. Wylde was cast alongside Johnny Knoxville in a memorable scene from Coyote Ugly which appeared in all the film's trailers and commercials. Both Space Cowboys and Coyote Ugly opened in theaters on the same day, August 4, 2000. Wylde's other films include: All's Faire in Love, Evolution, Fred: The Movie, Joe Dirt, My Date With Drew, My First Mister, The Revenant, Spring Break Lawyer, and The Ten.
In 2009 Chris Wylde was named Best Actor at the New York City Horror Film Festival for his work in "The Revenant". He shared this award with co-star David Anders.
Reviews for his work in All's Faire in Love:
The only grandly comic turn comes from Chris Wylde as a true fool in royal's clothing, merrily meta-villainous and at times simply lunatic with the period playacting. He's so mesmerizingly weird that you can practically see him on a 16th century stage, giving Globe Theater patrons a "Twelfth Night" Toby Belch for the ages. [2]
Also good is Wylde's Prince Rank, who never steps out of character (except during a cell-phone call, which is itself a pretty good joke) and seems to be channeling every swashbuckling character actor from Basil Rathbone to Bill Nighy, with more than a soupcon of Bette Davis. [3]
As Rank, Chris Wylde is the stand-out in this farce, the one guy who could have made it work as a PG comedy, or as a more gonzo “Role Models” style R-rated raunch-a-thon. [4]
Commercials
Chris Wylde has starred in several notable campaigns. He played Buddy Mignon and sang, "Four Times the Steak!" for Taco Bell, he was the Digiorno Delivery Guy for Digiorno Pizza. He starred alongside Jane Lynch in several commercials for Comcast. Wylde is the voice of Buster the talking dog/CEO of Petco. He was part of the legendary pair Alan and Jerome in the Fox Sports NBA Live the Game campaign, which were the most award winning commercials of the year. Wylde played The Beast in the Del Taco Feed the Beast campaign. Wylde has also starred in spots for Champs, Wendy's, Sprite, Bell South, Monday Night Football, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, La-Z-Boy, Budweiser, Heineken, Riff, Alltell, California Cheese, The Espy's, Jiffy Lube, and multiple others.
Stage
While in D.C., Chris starred as Woof in Hair, alongside Tracie Thoms. The show was initially supposed to have a 6 week run of 4 shows a week at the Studio Theatre but sold-out so quickly they added "extensions" and ended up performing 8 shows a week for 6 months. Hair would go on to win the Helen Hayes Award for Best Resident Musical. Chris performed with the cast at the Kennedy Center.
Chris Wylde's first role, after graduating and moving to Hollywood, was starring as Lucio in William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, at the Morgan Wixson Theater on Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, California. He starred alongside Henry Dittman who still remains one of his closest friends (Chris was the best man at his wedding).
Stage name
When Chris joined the Screen Actors' Guild, there already was a Chris Noll on the memberhip rolls, so he became Chris Wylde. He asked his brother, Dave Noll, for advice on what to call himself, and Dave was sitting under a movie poster for the film Wild Things at his VH1 office.
I had to think of a new name right on the spot. So I went through a whole list of names, like family names. My middle name is Scott. Scott Noll, didn't like it. Chris Scott—Nee. If I wanted to keep my real name, I would have had to be C. S. Noll or Christopher Scott Noll which just sucks. For a comic to have a name that's so long is just ridiculous, you know? So I went through this whole family list, and I finally found a name I like, which was my grandfather's middle name, which was his mother's maiden name, and it was Sands. I was like, "Chris Sands, cool; I sound like a Vegas lounge singer guy." That was taken too. I was like, Jesus Christ! I'm on the phone with my brother trying to decide my future name, and he's got this big movie poster for Wild Things, cause he's a known pedophile. So he was like, how about Chris Wild? Chris Wild, I thought it was kinda corny. So I was saying Chris Wild and the woman was like, "OK, how do you want to spell that?" I was just like I don't want to do it Wild, so I'll do it Wyld, and then I realized that is Chris Wyld [rhymes with guild], so I said throw an "e" on it and that's the story of the Hollywood phony you see before you today, Chris Wylde. It was definitely weird. It totally took a while to get used to.[5]
Personal life
Chris was married on October 10, 2009 in Greenville, South Carolina. The ceremony was both United Methodist and Hindu.
Chris' wife gave birth to their son Kiran on October 17, 2010. Kiran means "beam of light" or "sun rays" in Sanskrit.
References
- ^ a b Strauss, Robert. "IN PERSON; Hide Those Children. A Jersey Guy's on TV.", The New York Times, July 22, 2001. Accessed February 11, 2011. "On Aug. 5 at 11:30 p.m., The Chris Wylde Show Starring Chris Wylde, a 24-year-old who grew up as Chris Noll in Belvedere, Verona and Allendale, will premiere as the first late-night show on the cable network Comedy Central... So far, I think, the most famous person out of Northern Highlands Regional High School is Vinnie Testaverde's niece, he said."
- ^ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/reviews/la-et-movie-review-alls-faire-love,0,3434698.story
- ^ http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946449/
- ^ http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2011/10/movie-review-alls-faire-in-love.html
- ^ http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/former-atv-star-chris-noll-goes-wylde-on-tv/
External links
Categories:- American film actors
- American University alumni
- 1976 births
- Living people
- People from Allendale, New Jersey
- People from Essex County, New Jersey
- People from Warren County, New Jersey
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