Born:
October 29, 1957
in
Oak Park, Illinois, United States
Best Known For:
Being the voice of Homer Simpson.
Early-life:
Daniel Louis Castellaneta was born on October 29, 1957 in Oak Park, Illinois, United States. He showed a talent for impressions at a young age and his mother enrolled him in an acting class when he was 16. Dan attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and then Northern Illinois University. While studying, he worked as a student teacher and planned to become an art teacher. He also honed his skills as a voice-over actor working on one of the university's radio shows.
Career:
Castellaneta started working at The Second City, an improvisational comedy theatre, in 1983 and stayed until 1987. During this time, he did voiceover work for various radio stations. He was hired to work on The Tracey Ullman Show and he started voicing Homer Simpson in The Simpsons, which was initially aired as a series of animated shorts. The Simpsons has since become a half-hour show and Castellaneta has continued to provide the voice of Homer. He has also voiced many other characters, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble and Krusty the Clown. Castellaneta and his wife, Deb Lacusta, have also written several episodes of The Simpsons. He has done voice acting for a number of other animated series too, including Back to the Future, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, Hey Arnold!, The Batman and Futurama. Besides voice acting, Castellaneta has had on screen parts in such series as Entourage, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Greek, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother and Desperate Housewives. He has appeared in such films as K-9 (1989), The War of the Roses (1989), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Super 8 (2011) and Fantastic Four (2015).
Quote:
"To many, Homer may appear lazy and a loser, but he's just much misguided. He's boorish, sure, but well meaning and, I guess, the one thing we have in common is the pursuit of lousy diets."
Trivia:
He has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Homer.