| Jim Meskimen | |
| Birth Name: | James Ross Meskimen |
| Birth Date: | 10 September 1959 |
| Birth Place: | Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Years Active: | 1984–present |
| Children: | 1 |
| Mother: | Marion Ross |
| Father: | Freeman Meskimen |
James Ross Meskimen (born September 10, 1959) is an American actor, comedian and impressionist. He has appeared in films for director Ron Howard, as well as films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Garry Marshall.
He attended Taft High in Woodland Hills, CA, where he met his wife, Tamra Shockley.[1] He was the cartoonist for the school newspaper, and also acted in plays.[2]
After high school, he attended the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and began his college education.[3] Before that first year was over, he returned home for a time and received training in animation at Hanna-Barbera studios in Hollywood, under the apprenticeship of Harry Love.[4]
Shortly after, he began working for producer Doug Wildey, who had created the original Jonny Quest series.[5] [6] Jim was assistant storyboard artist to veteran comic book artist Don Rico on the animated series, Jana of the Jungle.
After a season at Hanna-Barbera, in 1978 Jim returned to UCSC to study general subjects, painting, drawing and lithography. He also did parts in plays, but did not take classes in the Drama department, preferring to concentrate on his visual art education.
He studied art history in five courses with Jasper Rose, a fixture at UCSC, who later became the inspiration for an art historian character, Professor Knestor Jackdaws.[7]
He studied painting with Eduardo Carrillo, a Mexican muralist and teacher, and sculpture with Hardy Hanson.[8]
In 1980 he travelled to Galicia, Spain to begin a period of intensive training in classical painting with Argüello and a handful of other students. He returned in 1981 and resumed studies at UCSC, studying sculpture, printmaking and painting, as well as private training with Miguel, who continued teaching at the university.[9]
When not painting, Jim participated in major theatrical productions in Santa Cruz, both at the university and in local theater.[10]
After graduating UCSC In 1982 he returned with Argüello to Galicia, and resumed private studies.[11]
In 1983, after living for a time in Madrid on his own, he had an encounter with actor Harvey Keitel and he decided to pursue acting, and moved to New York City.[12]
In New York, he worked as a visual artist, doing illustrations, cartoons and commercial art for various companies. He landed a job designing characters for Rankin/Bass's original series Thundercats, then in its first season. He worked with producer Jules Bass on expanding the story, and contributed to the Thundercats "bible."
While working for Rankin/Bass, Jim visited one of the recording sessions with actors Bob McFadden, Earl Hammond, Peter Newman, Earl Hyman and others, and began working in radio and TV voiceovers.
He did hundreds of radio and television commercials, and became a series regular on the animated show The Comic Strip, produced by his old employer Rankin/Bass.
He became the voice of several brands in the 1980's and 1990's. He was the voice of the channel that became Comedy Central, (then named HA!) and did campaigns for Swatch Watch as Doctor Swatch, a character he created with marketing head Steven Rechtshaffner.[13]
He became on-camera spokesman on television and radio commercials for Skaggs Alfa Beta grocery stores in 1986.[14]
He worked as a man-on-the-street interviewer for banks, cars, retail chains and other clients, in spontaneous, off-the-cuff comedic campaigns that won dozens of industry awards. Among these were Schnucks Markets, Food Lion, and Kash & Karry.[15]
During those New York years (1983-1993) Jim studied and performed improv with several companies, chiefly INTERPLAY and did hundreds of live shows at the National Improvisational Theatre on Eighth Avenue, Chelsea.[16]
On the invitation of producers, he and fellow Interplay member Christopher Smith guest starred several times on Britain’s Whose Line Is It, Anyway?[17]
His first film role was in Ron Howard's The Paper, starring Michael Keaton.[18]
In 1993, he moved home to LA with his family to start a career in TV and film, beginning with Fresh Prince of Bel Air and a role in director Ron Howard’s Oscar-nominated Apollo 13.[19] Howard cast Jim in no less than five feature films, including The Grinch and Frost/Nixon.[20] [21]
He appeared in an early episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as professor Jeremy Mansfield, who was loosely modeled after Robin Willams character in the film Dead Poets Society.
In early 2003, he met Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the brothers who founded Jibjab Media. He voiced early hits, including Arnold for President, This Land, and Second Term.[22] [23] He continued to work with the Spiridellis brothers on their Emmy and BAFTA award-winning children's series Ask The Storybots, and other projects.[24]
He has appeared on major television programs; Friends, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, This is Us, SWAT, Hunters, NCIS, Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory, to name but a few.[25] [26]
His character voices have been heard on a number of video games and animated shows including Star Trek: Resurgence, Marvel Avengers Assemble, Batman: Arkham Asylum,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shaggy and Scooby Doo: Get a Clue, Pinky & The Brain, Phineas & Ferb, Legend of Korra, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and two reboots of Thundercats.[27] [28]
His viral hit, Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices brought him global attention on YouTube and lead to many opportunities, including performing on America’s Got Talent in 2013, where his improvised celebrity impressions at Radio City Music Hall earned him a standing ovation.[29]
He has performed his live one-man show, JIMPRESSIONS in Hollywood, Australia and the U.K.[30] [31]
In 2017, he wrote a screenplay for a short film, which became Son to Son, and won festival awards. He starred in the short, with actor Nick Lane, with Taron Lexton directing.[32] [33]
His performance as the troubled, opioid addict father in Son to Son garnered; the UK Film Review said: "Meskimen delivers a tragically believable character in a short space of time to great effect."
He provided the voice of Colonel Harland Sanders for the KFC brand on radio, web and television ads for many years, starting in 2016.[34]
As an audiobook narrator, he has worked on hundreds of titles for all major publishers and received awards for his narration.[35] [36]
Directing multi-cast audiobooks for Galaxy Audio was his full time job from 2005 to 2009, when he worked as senior director to complete hundreds of hours of audio of the fiction work of American author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard.
The multi-cast production of Battlefield Earth, a Saga of the Year 3000, which Jim directed and performed in won an Audie Award in 2017.[37]
He appeared on America's Got Talent as a celebrity impressionist in 2013 and as a finalist performed at Radio City Music Hall, NYC, receiving a standing ovation.[38] [39]
Since 2020, he has played roles on television in Gaslit with Sean Penn and Julia Roberts, Hunters, and as the recurring character of Cary Hubbard in AppleTV+'s The Big Door Prize, opposite Chris O'Dowd.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tamra, who is a co-founder of The Acting Center, an acting school and performance venue in Sherman Oaks, California.[40] They have one daughter, actress, singer and award-winning audio book narrator Taylor Meskimen.[41] His mother is Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actress Marion Ross of Happy Days.
Meskimen is a practicing Scientologist.[41]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Gordy | Bill Clinton | Voice | [42] |
| Apollo 13 | TELMU White | |||
| 1999 | My Neighbors the Yamadas | Additional voices | English dub | |
| Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein | Mr. Yesman | Voice; direct-to-video | ||
| 2000 | Battlefield Earth | Blythe | ||
| How the Grinch Stole Christmas | Officer Wholihan | |||
| Our Lips Are Sealed | Rick Parker | Direct-to-video | ||
| 2004 | The Punisher | Accountant | ||
| 2008 | Slam Bradley | Voice; direct-to-video | ||
| Deadshot, James Gordon | ||||
| 2010 | Red Archer, Captain Super | Voice | ||
| Ignorance | ||||
| 2011 | John F. Kennedy | Voice; uncredited | ||
| 2012 | King | Voice; direct-to-video | ||
| Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Pt. 1 | General Briggs | |||
| Big Top Scooby-Doo! | Detective, Phil Flaxman | |||
| Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Pt. 2 | Ronald Reagan | |||
| 2013 | I Know That Voice | Himself | Documentary | |
| 2015 | Victor Fries | Voice; direct-to-video | [43] | |
| 2019 | Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Commissioner Gordon, Scarecrow | ||
| 2020 | Superman: Red Son | Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy | ||
| 2021 | All Those Small Things | Brian | ||
| Bad Detectives | Mr. Strathmore | |||
| 2023 | Sweetwater | Desk Clerk | ||
| Once Upon a Studio | Merlin, Eeyore | Voice, short film |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985-1989 | ThunderCats | Secondary character designer | [44] | ||
| 1997 | Danny the Janitor | Voice, episode: "Double Dose" | |||
| 2002 | Justice League | Knight | Voice, episode: "A Knight of Shadows" | ||
| 2004 | All Grown Up! | Skeleton, Dr. Cartunian, Dr. Cartunian Sr. | Voice, episode: "The Old & the Restless" | ||
| Johnny Bravo | Whiny Man, Derek, Waiter #1 | Voice, episode: "It's a Magical Life/The Hunk at the End of This Cartoon" | |||
| Quentin Smithee | Voice, episode: "Lights! Camera | Danger!" | |||
| 2005 | The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy | Narrator, Old Man, Chubby Employee | Voice, episode: "Runaway Pants/Scythe 2.0" | ||
| 2005-2007 | Fire Nation soldier, Jee, How, Avatar Kuruk, additional voices | ||||
| 2007 | The Batman | Chuck | Voice, episode: "Joker Express" | ||
| 2007-2011 | Back at the Barnyard | Goraldo | Voice, 2 episodes | ||
| 2010 | Norton, News Reporter, S.W.A.T. M.P. | Voice, episode: "The Descent: Part 2" | |||
| 2011-2012 | ThunderCats | Aburn, Ponzi, Dog Constable, Vendor | Voice | ||
| 2012-2014 | Emissary, Master Kweng, Shying Tree, Guardian #1 | ||||
| 2012-2017 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe, General Griffen, EPF Commander #2 | |||
| 2013-2014 | The Legend of Korra | Bataar, Daw, Avatar Kuruk | |||
| 2014-2017 | Avengers Assemble | [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] | |||
| 2015 | Ultron | Voice, television short | [51] | ||
| 2017 | The Loud House | Ted, Manager, Junkyard Guy, Announcer | Voice, 2 episodes | ||
| 2018 | Beroul | Voice, episode #1.5 | [52] | ||
| Family Guy | Ron Howard | Voice, episode: "Griffin Winter Games" | |||
| The Good Place | Bertram Varmin | Episode: "Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent" | |||
| 2019 | The Kids Are Alright | Johnny Carson | Voice, episode 21 | ||
| 2021 | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Deputy Chief Williams | 2 episodes | ||
| 2024 | Night Court | Shot Clock Showdown | Season 2 Episode 10 |