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Brian Scolaro (born October 18, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, voice-over actor and author. He is most known for his role Stuart on FOX's Stacked, as Uncle Bill on HBO's Ten Year Old Tom, as Brian the lawyer on ABC's A Million Little Things, his appearances on Conan, his half-hour special "Comedy Central Presents: Brian Scolaro", his Dry Bar special "Trouble", as Doug on TBS's Sullivan and Son, as Gordon on NBC's Three Sisters and his Amazon/Apple TV special "I Don't Know Who I Am Either".[1]
Brian Scolaro
| |
|---|---|
| Born | (1973-10-18) October 18, 1973 (age 50) |
| Occupation(s) | Comedian, actor |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Website | BrianScolaro.com |
Scolaro was born October 18, 1973, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and went to Archbishop Molloy High School in Jamaica, Queens, where he appeared as a lead in the school's theatre productions of No Time for Sergeants, Room Service, 12 Angry Men and Arsenic and Old Lace. At the State University of New Paltz, New York, Scolaro wrote, produced and hosted a radio comedy program That Damn Show on WFNP FM for three years and became the hero of neighboring high school kids in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Along with his friend Brett Bisogno, Scolaro wrote, produced and starred in the college's television comedy show Earp and Whitney which was nominated for a National Association of College Broadcaster's award for Best Comedy Program in 1995.
After graduating college, Scolaro worked with the mentally handicapped in Brooklyn, and as a brief stint as a production assistant for HBO Downtown Productions, The Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central) and HBO's "Reel Sex". Scolaro quit his assistant job and turned to stand-up comedy full-time and did his first stand-up show at Stand Up NY in Manhattan on January 14, 1992.
He established himself as a stand-up comedian in Manhattan at Gotham Comedy Club, Caroline's Comedy Club, Stand Up NY, Dangerfields, Comic Strip Live, Boston Comedy Club, Catch a Rising Star and The Comedy Cellar on Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village. He appeared in Montreal's Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in 1999.
His early professional acting career was highlighted by three Wendy's commercials and a guest role on Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre St."
In 2001, writer Steve Koren (Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld) saw Scolaro at the end of 12-hour video tape collage of actors auditioning for his NBC pilot Everything but the Girl with Tiffani Amber Thiessen. Koren insisted NBC fly Scolaro in to test and he was hired as a regular cast member for the role of love sick, overly sensitive "Doug". When the pilot was beat to the line-up by Scrubs, Lester Lewis (The Office) brought him to the attention of Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline (The Middle) and he immediately moved to Hollywood to be a regular cast member on the second season of NBC's Three Sisters as the bartender named Gordon, love interest of A. J. Langer.
In 2003, Scolaro appeared as a regular cast member on a popular ABC pilot by director Tom Shadyac called Platonically Incorrect with Tom Everett Scott. The pilot was penned by Darlene Hunt, Gabe Sax and Jeff Judah and even shot a second episode but still did not get picked up by ABC after a long deliberation.
After a holding deal with CBS in 2004, Scolaro was cast as Stuart Miller for Fox's Stacked which starred Pamela Anderson and Christopher Lloyd. Written by Steve Levitan, Stacked was a pilot that was guaranteed to air six episodes in 2005 and the following year aired a full second season. Paul Brownfield from the Los Angeles Times said, "Scolaro is terrific. An actual sitcom find."
During the writers strike of 2007-08, Scolaro did stand-up performances on NBC's Late Nite with Conan O'Brien and was invited back to the channel that started his career as an intern, Comedy Central, to headline an episode of Live at Gotham. In 2009, he taped his own half-hour special for the network Comedy Central Presents: Brian Scolaro.
Due to movie star celebrities turning to TV after the strike and economic collapse, Brian was shoved down a level to guest role actor. From 2008 to 2023, Scolaro has had recurring characters on several series; the sad sack, forgetful, Doug, on TBS's Sullivan and Son, Brian the negative but competent lawyer on ABC's A Million Little Things, the ridiculous Uncle Bill on "Ten Year Old Tom", the paranormal police man Goblin on Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place" and played numerous characters on HBO's The Life and Times of Tim and Comedy Central's "Kroll Show".
He also did stand-up on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, "Comics Unleashed", "Gotham Comedy Live", and Conan, as well as specials for Dry Bar, Helium Comedy Studios, and Amazon Prime TV/Apple TV's special "I Don't Know Who I Am Either." He has also appeared on ABC's "Abbott Elementary", AMC's Mad Men, Showtime's Shameless, NBC's "Night Court", TNT's Men of a Certain Age, Showtime's Dexter, ABC's Grey's Anatomy, FOX's Bones, ABC's The Middle, Disney's Girl Meets World, ABC's Castle, Showtime's I'm Dying Up Here, NBC's "Law and Order: SVU", NBC's Harry's Law, CBS's Superior Donuts, Freeform's Alone Together, NBC's Truth Be Told, Disney's Crash and Bernstein, the film The Brothers Solomon, as well as commercials for Snapple and the famous jewelry/teddy bear heist ad for Netflix.