Sidesplitters Comedy Club in Tampa, Florida is set to welcome comedian Jamie Kennedy this weekend, for performances on July 11-13.
Jamie grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, the son of a machinist and a paralegal, and the youngest of six children. He spent his formative years the same way as many children: being abused by nuns in Catholic school, tormenting his parents, and avoiding any thought of long-term goals. But when Jamie's high school guidance counselor informed him that his grades, test scores and personality best suited him to a career of shoeing horses, he decided that the time had come to get serious about the future. He was going to move to Hollywood and become an actor. Honing his skills on the comedy circuit, Jamie landed his big break being cast in Baz Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet,' alongside Leonardo DiCaprio as a punked-out rival to John Leguizamo. His career soon kicked into high gear as he co-starred in his breakthrough performance as Randy Meeks, the video store clerk well-versed in the conventions of scary movies, in Wes Craven's 'Scream' and its follow-up 'Scream 2.'
Since these early days, Jamie has worked alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood. While doing what he does best alongside legendary comics such as
Steve Martin in 'Bowfinger,' you see a harder side of Jamie Kennedy the actor as a street hustler who attacks Greg Kinnear in the Oscar-nominated 'As Good As It Gets.' Across his acting range, he always maintains his crafted ability to add much-needed comedy into dramas, seen in 'The Three Kings' with George Clooney, 'The Boiler Room' with Vin Diesel, and Tony Scott's 'Enemy of the State,' playing a comedic techie in charge of protecting national security alongside Seth Green with Will Smith and Gene Hackman.
In 2002, Kennedy created his own sketch comedy show 'The Jamie Kennedy Experiment,' a television show that can be best described as a combination of Candid Camera meets Saturday Night Live. As a part of the show, he collaborated with Oprah Winfrey on multiple occasions, combining his prank jokes and unwavering wit on her practical joke special. JKX quickly became The WB's highest-ranking new show, attracting three million viewers each week. Among the wacky characters played by Kennedy, one became across the board an all-time favorite - Brad Gluckman the Malibu rapper. Taking it to the next level in 2003, 'Malibu's Most Wanted' was released starring Kennedy as the white "wanna-be rapper" from Malibu. Both projects were produced by Kennedy's production company, Wannabe Producers. The company also produced the TV comedy 'Living with Fran' in 2005 with Fran Drescher, the WB reality show 'The Startlet' in 2005, and MTV's 'Blowin' Up' in 2006, starring Kennedy and Stu Stone. He also created and Executive Produced did his own comedy special, 'Unwashed' in 2006 for Comedy Central.
Kennedy starred in 'Son of the Mask' in 2005, the sequel to the blockbuster Jim Carrey vehicle, 'Kickin' It Old Skool' in 2007, about a young break dancer who slips into a coma for twenty years and wakes up 2006, and 'Heckler' in 2008, a documentary that examines the means, methods, and motives of hecklers, comparing film critics to stand up comedy hecklers. With approximately 190 episodes of television under his belt - with networks that include CBS, WB, MTV, Comedy Central, Showtime, NBC, Fox, and VH1 - Jamie currently provides his voice for 'The Cleveland Show' on Fox and was starring as psychology professor Eli James in the CBS drama 'Ghost Whisperer,' which was Friday's number one show on television at the time. After wrapping WWE's 'Bending the Rules' feature with Adam "The Edge" Copeland in the fall of 2010, he spent the spring of 2011 filming Tyler Perry's latest, 'Good Deeds,' starring Tyler Perry, Thandie Newton, Rebecca Romijn and Gabrielle Union. While now prepping for a five week summer shoot in Europe, on 'Lost and Found in Armenia,' Jamie Kennedy just finished filming three episodes of the final season of 'Entourage.'
After working with such directors as Baz Luhrmann, Wes Craven, James L. Brooks, Tony Scott, Frank Oz, David O. Russell, Antoine Fuqua, and Kevin Smith, Jamie Kennedy is a true renaissance man, covering the genres of comedy, drama, animation, reality, horror, action and thriller. Along the way he has also written his own book 'Wannabe' and recorded his own record 'Blowin' Up.' Kennedy stands now with the experience of being a part of over 40 films with such industry entities as Dimension, Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., New Line, Sony, and Disney, totaling a gross of over 2 billion dollars in worldwide box-office sales. He has appeared on Oprah, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, George Lopez, and Larry King Live to name a few. Kennedy has also been hired to either consult or create commercials for several companies on new product launches. Pepsi hired him to shoot four commercials for Aquafina water. Coors hired him to shoot a commercial with the push of Coors Light into the urban market. AXE Body Spray hired him to host an event for a new product release, along with other companies such as Activision, Intel, and Sketchers to name a few. After all this knowledge and fifteen years in the business, Kennedy has decided once again to start up his own production company appropriately titled, Jamie Kennedy Entertainment, where he will own all the content and license it out.
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