Taran Killam

Though Taran Killam seemed like an overnight success when he joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975- ) as a featured player in the fall of 2010, he already had an extensive resume at the time, including a stint on SNL's most successful competitor, "MADtv" (Fox 1995-2009). Born on April Fool's Day 1982 and raised in a small town near San Bernadino, CA, Killan made his film debut in 1994 in a small role in "The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult." In 2001, at the age of 19, he joined the cast of Fox's "MADtv" for one season. While studying with improv troupe The Groundlings in Los Angeles, Killam made guest appearances on a handful of comedy and variety series, including "All That" (Nickelodeon 1994-2005) and its spinoff, the Amanda Bynes vehicle "The Amanda Show" (Nickelodeon 1999-2002). He also had a small part in the Ashton Kutcher romantic comedy "Just Married" (2003). In 2005, Killam had a key role in a fascinating TV misfire called "Nobody's Watching." Created by writer/producer Bill Lawrence, the show was conceived as a meta-sitcom, in which two TV-obsessed young men, Derrick (Killam) and Will (Paul Campbell) are followed by a reality-TV camera crew as they try to write and produce their own sitcom. A pilot was produced for The WB, but the network declined after focus groups reacted negatively. But when the show appeared on YouTube the following year, it found enough fans to get a series of web-only episodes bankrolled by NBC in 2006-07. As part of the ongoing conceit of the series, Killam and Campbell appeared in character as background actors on a number of NBC series during this period, including "Days of Our Lives" (NBC 1965- ) and Lawrence's own "Scrubs" (NBC 2001-08 / ABC 2009-2010). Killam returned to sketch comedy as a cast member on the improv show "Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out" (MTV 2005-07) and its more conventional sketch-based spinoff "Nick Cannon Presents: Short Circuitz" (MTV 2007). In 2006, Killam began an occasional recurring r