The State is an American sketch comedy television series, originally broadcast on MTV from 1994 to 1995. The show combined bizarre characters and scenarios to present sketches that won the favor of its target teenaged audience. The cast consisted of comedy troupe The State, who were 11 comedians who created, acted, wrote, directed and edited the show. In various combinations, the former members of The State have continued to collaborate over the years, with alumni playing major creative, directing and acting roles in a number of notable projects including Reno 911! and Wet Hot American Summer.
Michael Ian Black is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He has starred in several TV comedy series, including The State, Viva Variety, Stella, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Michael & Michael Have Issues, and Another Period. In the late 1990s to early 2000s, he was the puppeteer and voice actor for the Pets.com sock puppet dog, and played a supporting character on the TV series Ed. Since 2008 he has written a number of books, including several for children.
Mark Alexander Knox, better known as Flex Alexander or Flex, is an American actor, comedian and dancer. He began his career while appearing on numerous of television sitcoms before portraying single father Flex Washington on the UPN sitcom One on One (2001-2006). Alexander also had a number of roles in many films including Modern Vampires (1998), The Force (1999), Out Cold (2001), Book of Love: The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs (2002), Gas (2004), Snakes on a Plane (2006), and Trigger (2020).
David Benjamin Wain is an American comedian, writer, actor, and director. He has co-written and directed six feature films, including Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Role Models (2008), Wanderlust (2012) and They Came Together (2014). He has also served as a creator, producer, writer and director on a number of television series, including Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Childrens Hospital and Medical Police. He has had small roles in most of the films and TV series he has produced or directed. Wain had a starring voice role as The Warden on the 2008–2014 Adult Swim animated series Superjail!, and has provided the voices for Courtney Wheeler and Grover Fischoeder on Bob's Burgers since 2012.
Adam Paul Scott is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He is known for his role as Ben Wyatt in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, for which he was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. He has also appeared as Derek Huff in the film Step Brothers, Johnny Meyer in The Aviator, Henry Pollard in the Starz sitcom Party Down, Ed Mackenzie in the HBO series Big Little Lies, and Trevor in the NBC series The Good Place. In 2022, he began starring in the Apple TV+ psychological drama series Severance, for which he received numerous award nominations, including for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as best actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, and more.
Thomas Patrick Lennon is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series Reno 911!
Kerri Kenney-Silver is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and musician. She is best known for starring as Trudy Wiegel on the mockumentary series Reno 911! for which she has received five Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. She is also known for her previous sketch comedy work on MTV's The State, where she was the show's lone female cast member. She has also appeared with recurring roles on sitcoms such as Superstore, 2 Broke Girls, Love, and The Ellen Show. In the mid-late 1990s, Kenney fronted the all-female rock band Cake Like.
Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian, writer, and a founding member of the famed Upright Citizens Brigade improv and sketch comedy troupe.
Michael Patrick Jann is an American actor, writer, and director best known as a cast member on MTV's The State.
Robert Anderson Huebel is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. He also appeared as Russell on the FX/FXX series The League and as Len Novak on the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent. In December 2022, Entertainment Weekly called Huebel "the premier d-bag character actor of his generation".
Michael Showalter is an American comedian, actor, director, writer, and producer. He first came to recognition as a cast member on MTV's The State, which aired from 1993 to 1995. He and David Wain created the Wet Hot American Summer franchise, with Showalter co-writing and starring in Wet Hot American Summer (2001), and the Netflix series. Showalter wrote and directed The Baxter (2005), in which he starred with Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux, and Elizabeth Banks. Both films featured many of his co-stars from The State, and so do several of his other projects. Showalter is also a co-creator, co-producer, actor, and writer for the TV series Search Party. He directed the 2017 critically acclaimed feature film The Big Sick.
Leslie Louise Bibb is an American actress and model. Bibb first appeared on television in 1996 with minor roles in a few series, and on film in 1997 with a small role in Private Parts. Her first recurring TV role was in The Big Easy (1997). For her role as Brooke McQueen on the WB Network dramedy series Popular, she received a Teen Choice Award for Television Choice Actress. She has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Reporter Christine Everhart in Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), What If...? (2021), and several viral marketing campaigns in which the character hosts WHIH Newsfront. She appeared as Grace Sampson / Lady Liberty in the Netflix series Jupiter's Legacy (2021).
Jon Glaser is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his work as a writer and sketch performer for many years on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, creating and starring in the Adult Swim series Delocated and Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter as well as the truTV series Jon Glaser Loves Gear.
Stella is a comedy trio consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, and David Wain. The group formed in 1997 as a weekly nightclub comedy attraction, performing at New York City nightclub Fez from 1997 until the club's closing in February 2005. Stella soon gained a wider cult following after a series of self-produced shorts were released in limited quantities on DVD. Now known for their unique blend of potentially mainstream comedy and surrealist humor, Stella has garnered a small but dedicated fanbase.
Edward Mitchell "Mitch" Rouse is an American film and television actor, director, and screenwriter. He is known for co-creating, Comedy Central's Exit 57 (1995–1996) and Strangers with Candy (1999–2000), with fellow The Second City alumni Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris. In 2008 he created and starred in Spike TV's comedy series Factory.
Joseph Vincent Lo Truglio is an American actor and comedian. Best known for his role as Charles Boyle on the Fox/NBC sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he also was a cast member on the television series The State and Reno 911!. His notable film roles include Wet Hot American Summer, I Love You, Man, Superbad, Paul, Role Models, and Wanderlust.
Childrens Hospital is an American dark comedy television series and web series that parodies the medical drama genre, created by and starring actor/comedian Rob Corddry. The series began on the web on TheWB.com with ten episodes, roughly five minutes in length, all of which premiered on December 8, 2008. Adult Swim picked up the rights to the show in 2009 and began airing episodes in 2010.
Burning Love is a web and television comedy series that is a spoof of reality dating competition shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. The show was created and written by Erica Oyama, while her husband, Ken Marino, co-produced, directed and starred in the series. Ben Stiller was one of the series' executive producers and appeared in a supporting role.
Medical Police is an American comedy television series, created by Rob Corddry, Krister Johnson, Jonathan Stern and David Wain, that premiered on Netflix on January 10, 2020. It is a spin-off of the short-form alt-comedy series Childrens Hospital, that parodied medical dramas, whereas Medical Police is a parody of international spy thrillers. The series stars Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel as Childrens Hospital doctors Lola Spratt and Owen Maestro. When they discover a world-threatening virus, they are recruited as government agents in a globe-spanning race to find a cure. In the process, they unmask a deep conspiracy amidst the outbreak. Released during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the series' depiction of a global disease outbreak has been described as "inadvertently timely."
The State is an American comedy troupe. The troupe was founded by a group of New York University students in 1988, as an offshoot of the NYU improv comedy group The Sterile Yak; it was briefly named The New Group before landing on the name The State. The troupe's members are Kevin Allison, Michael Ian Black, Robert Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, Michael Patrick Jann, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter and David Wain. As a group, the troupe is best known for creating and starring in the 1993-1995 MTV sketch comedy series The State. However, since the show aired, members of the troupe have frequently collaborated on other television and film projects, including Viva Variety, Reno 911!, and the Wet Hot American Summer media franchise. The comedy group Stella is composed of three of The State's members, Showalter, Black and Wain, and starred in the 2005 sketch comedy series Stella, among other works. Additionally, some members of The State have achieved independent success as comic actors, writers and directors.
