Brian Edmund Posehn (born July 6, 1966) is an American actor, musician and comedian, known for his roles as mail clerk Kevin Liotta on NBC's Just Shoot Me!, a cast member and writer on HBO's Mr. Show, and most recently as Brian Spukowski on Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program.
Posehn was born in Sacramento, California. He is of German and Irish descent. Posehn graduated from Sonoma Valley High School in 1984.
Posehn began with guest appearances and mainly small roles in TV shows. He was on 28 episodes of Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995—1998), a sketch comedy series on HBO. In a 1996 episode of Friends, he delivered the manuscript in which Joey Tribbiani's soap opera character "Dr. Drake Ramoray" is killed off. He appeared as two different characters in NewsRadio: a fan with questions for Jimmy James at a book reading (1997), and a member of Dave's a cappella group "Chock Full o' Notes" (1998). In the Seinfeld episode "The Burning" (1998), he played a patient, when Kramer "was given" gonorrhea. His character was instructed to "act out" to a group of medical students how a surgeon left a sponge in him post surgery. Posehn also wrote the Coast to Coast episode "Cahill" (1998) with Ben Karlin. He appeared on 29 episodes of the NBC series Just Shoot Me! (1999—2003). He played the voice of Jim in Mission Hill on the WB (1999—2002), and Del Swanson in 3 South on MTV (2002—2003). He performed the voice of Gibbons, a tiny man, on several episodes of the Cartoon Network's Tom Goes to the Mayor (2005—2006). On another Adult Swim production, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he voiced the Wisdom Cube in the 2003 episode "The Cubing". He also played a mortician in several episodes of Comedy Central's Reno 911. He was featured on the 2005 documentary series The Comedians of Comedy on Comedy Central and Showtime. He was in a 2007 episode of the improv series Thank God You're Here on NBC and was a celebrity judge on the revived 1970s game show, The Gong Show with Dave Attell (2008), on Comedy Central. He co-stars on The Sarah Silverman Program with Steve Agee as a gay couple who is friends with Silverman, and also wrote the season three finale "Wowschwitz". He played himself in the episode "Spagett" of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, appeared at the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, played the role of a physically disabled man (Scooter Man) in the second season's premiere episode "Slip of the Tongue" of Californication (2008), on Showtime, and played Dethklok's second manager in the Metalocalypse episode "Dethsources". He appeared in the 2005 pilot for The Showbiz Show with David Spade, in a segment called "The Nerd Perspective", in which he gave a scathing criticism of MTV and its declining quality. In 2007 he joined the first season of the MTV sketch comedy series Human Giant, as a writer and performer, and voices Glen Furlblam, the biggest fan of Dr. Two-Brains on the PBS Kids animated series WordGirl.
Movie appearances from Posehn include the 2003 comedy film sequel When Harry Met Lloyd, Grind, the 2005 Rob Zombie horror film The Devil's Rejects, Sleeping Dogs Lie, Rise of the Silver Surfer, and the 2007 animated feature Surf's Up, where he played Glen Maverick. Posehn appeared as himself in the 2007 documentary Super High Me starring 'marijuana comedian' Doug Benson, the 2008 documentary Nerdcore Rising about MC Frontalot and in a supporting role in Jesus Is Magic.
Posehn voices the character of Murray, a robot, in Rob Zombie's animated The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. He also voiced the character Hayashi in the English dub of Pom Poko.
In 2006, Posehn released his debut comedy album Nerd Rage.
Posehn participated in the Comedy Lineup of the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which included Louis C.K., Janeane Garofalo and Zach Galifianakis. Posehn performed as part of the Rock N' Roll Comedy set with Jim Norton and Michelle Buteau.
During his 2008 routine on Comedy Central Presents he referred to his Wikipedia article.
In 2010, Posehn released his second album Fart & Wiener Jokes.
In 2006, Relapse Records released his first album, Nerd Rage. It includes "Metal by Numbers", a song mocking bands that term themselves "metal" but are clearly not. The instrumental tracks feature musicians such as guitarist Scott Ian (of Anthrax), bassist Joey Vera (of Armored Saint and Fates Warning), drummer John Tempesta (of The Cult and White Zombie), and lead guitarist Jonathan Donais (of Shadows Fall). Posehn also appeared in the Anthrax music video for "What Doesn't Die".
Posehn appeared on a Season 4 episode of the music talk show That Metal Show and Lamb of God's Walk With Me In Hell DVD, and performed "More Metal Then You", a song that was included on his non-musical stand-up comedy album Fart & Weiner Jokes, with "Brian Posehn's All-Star Band" on the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods Awards.
Posehn has provided voice work for video games Brütal Legend as The Hunter and Star Warped as co-narrator Brian. Posehn has also voiced Grunts and various Marines in the 2004 video game Halo 2.
Posehn appeared in the commercial "Ink Fairy" for Staples office supply store in its ad campaign featuring the "Easy Button."
In 2006, Posehn co-wrote the comic book The Last Christmas with writer Gerry Duggan, published by Image Comics (ISBN 1582406766).
In April 2009 Posehn hosted the first American "Golden Gods Awards" for metal music hosted by Revolver Magazine.
