Early life

Edward Harry Dezen was born in Cumberland, Maryland, the son of Irma and Robert Dezen. A class clown in his youth, Deezen started out with aspirations of becoming a stand-up comedian, moving out to Hollywood within days of graduating high school in order to pursue a career. As a comedian, he performed at least three times at The Comedy Store, though eventually decided to abandon stand-up and focus on acting after bombing his last act and having difficulty memorizing his routine. Deezen attempted stand-up one last time, however, when he appeared on an episode of The Gong Show in the mid-1970s, only to be gonged by singer-songwriter Paul Williams.

Hollywood career

Deezen landed his first and perhaps best known role in the film Grease, playing nerdy student Eugene Felsnic, a part he won through a standard audition process. During Grease's post-production period, Deezen won another small role playing a bully in the low-budget independent science fiction movie Laserblast. Despite being his second film, Laserblast marked Deezen's screen debut when it was released in March 1978, three months before the theatrical release of Grease.

Following the massive success of Grease, Deezen found himself being cast in a string of high-profile comedy films playing similarly nerdy characters, including Robert Zemeckis' directorial debut I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Steven Spielberg's 1979 epic comedy 1941. Deezen was in such demand by 1979 that he was constantly having to turn down roles. At least two such notable instances were the characters of Eaglebauer in Rock 'n' Roll High School and Spaz in Meatballs, both of which Deezen turned down in order to film 1941.

Throughout the early 1980s, Deezen perpetuated his trademark nerd persona in several major films, including WarGames, Zapped! and Disney's Midnight Madness, as well as returning to the role of Eugene Felsnic in Grease 2, one of only seven actors from the original Grease to return for the sequel. In 1984, Deezen was cast in a recurring role on television, playing a goofy superintendent on the first season of Punky Brewster. After filming only eight episodes, however, Deezen voluntarily left the series due to his reluctance to perform before a live audience and a continuing difficulty in remembering his lines.

Independent film

1983's WarGames marked the final mainstream film of Deezen's live-action acting career as he began working exclusively in independent film for the remainder of the 1980s, starting with his first starring role in the 1984 cult comedy Surf II: The End of the Trilogy, where he played the movie's antagonist, mad scientist Menlo Schwartzer.

1984 also saw the release of Revenge of the Nerds, the film that is generally credited with making the stock character of the stereotypical "nerd" a mainstay of teen films. Despite having arguably created the nerd archetype in such movies before, Deezen was not cast in the film. He remarked in an interview that he later asked the producers of Revenge of the Nerds why he hadn't been offered a role, and was given the response that he was deemed "too geeky", whereas casting was instead just looking to dress "normal people" up as nerds. Despite this, Deezen says he is frequently "recognized" by strangers for being in the film.

Deezen worked steadily throughout the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s, continuing to play nerds in both bit parts and major roles, including the ensemble comedy Million Dollar Mystery, Critters 2: The Main Course, The Whoopee Boys and The Silence of the Hams. He worked several times alongside comedian Tim Conway, most notably appearing in two of his Dorf videos, and struck up a partnership with prolific low-budget filmmaker and producer Fred Olen Ray, who gave Deezen leading roles with the films Beverly Hills Vamp, Mob Boss and Teenage Exorcist.

Following his cameo appearance as a security guard in the 1996 Leslie Nielsen spoof Spy Hard, Deezen wouldn't appear in a live-action film for another 17 years. In a July 2009 interview, Deezen talked about his struggle maintaining an acting career, saying "The truth is, it is extremely tough to sustain a career in Hollywood. It is tough enough ever getting work, just the sheer odds. I loved John and Matthew and it would definitely be my pleasure to work with them again. Believe me, if the right role was there and available, I'd be there in a second".

In 2012, Deezen starred in a live-action comedic short film entitled I Love You, Eddie Deezen. The plot revolves around a nerdy woman's cross-country journey to find the man of her dreams: Eddie Deezen. The short was released on November 19, 2012. The following year, Deezen returned to live-action movies in Fred Olen Ray's television film All I Want for Christmas, making a cameo as a supposed A-list action movie star being interviewed on a daytime talk show. In early 2015, Deezen did a cameo in a live action comedy short film Flight Fright, playing a nervous airline passenger. His brief but hilarious appearance earned him an Outstanding Actor Award at the 2015 Zed Fest Film Festival in Hollywood. Later this year, he's scheduled to star in another live action short film The Love Suckers, by the same director as Flight Fright.

Voice acting

In the mid-1980s, Deezen transitioned into voice acting, a change of pace he favored due to better pay and not needing to memorize dialogue. He started out lending his voice to animated feature films, including the voice of Donnie Dodo in Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird and Snipes the Magpie in Don Bluth's 1991 film Rock-A-Doodle. According to a 2011 interview, Deezen unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of the title character in Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, losing out to comedian Charles Fleischer.

Deezen eventually found full-time voice work on television in the mid-1990s, playing recurring characters on the animated series Grimmy, Duckman, Kim Possible and What's New, Scooby-Doo?, as well as guest spots on many others, including Johnny Bravo, Recess and Darkwing Duck. His best-known voice-over character, however, is that of Mandark, the nemesis of the eponymous Dexter on Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory, a role he played for the series' entire run from 1996-2003. Deezen also voiced the character on the TV special Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip and the video games Cartoon Network Racing and FusionFall.

In 2004, Deezen returned to the big screen once again under the direction of Robert Zemeckis to supply voice and motion capture performance for the blockbuster holiday film The Polar Express, playing the role of the nerdy "Know-It-All". He reprised this role for the subsequent video game.

Deezen regularly lends his voice to radio and television commercials. In the late 1990s, he provided the voice of Pop (of Snap, Crackle and Pop) in commercials for Rice Krispies cereal, and Nacho, the mascot for Taco Bell's kid's meals commercials, alongside Rob Paulsen as Dog. In 2011, Deezen was under consideration for succeeding Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of The Aflac Duck, but did not win the role.

Personal life

Deezen still lives in Hollywood, where, according to him, "Along with my unemployment checks and residual checks, I will continue living the 'great American dream' - getting paid while doing absolutely nothing".

Deezen is a huge fan of The Beatles, proclaiming himself to be their "biggest fan". He was interviewed as himself for the unreleased 2005 film Me and Graham: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, a documentary following two filmmakers searching the US and UK for the ultimate Beatles fan. For over a year his official website featured a difficult Beatles trivia quiz - devised by Deezen himself - with a $100 prize for anyone who could answer all the questions correctly. Deezen revealed in a later interview that nobody had ever claimed the prize.

Deezen is also a pop culture trivia buff, and since 2011 has been a contributing writer to several trivia websites including mental floss, TodayIFoundOut.com and Neatorama.com. While most of Deezen's articles pertain to The Beatles and their members, he also regularly writes about such subjects as baseball, American history and classic comedy acts like The Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers and Martin and Lewis.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1978	Laserblast	Froggy
1978	Grease	Eugene Felsnic
1978	I Wanna Hold Your Hand	Richard "Ringo" Klaus
1979	1941	Herbie Kazlminsky
1980	Midnight Madness	Wesley
1981	Desperate Moves (aka Rollerboy)	Red
1982	Grease 2	Eugene Felsnic
1982	Zapped!	Sheldon
1983	WarGames	Eddie Malvin
1984	Surf II: The End of the Trilogy	Menlo Schwartzer
1984	The Rosebud Beach Hotel	Sydney
1985	A Polish Vampire in Burbank	Sphincter
1985	Mugsy's Girls	Lane
1985	Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird	Donnie Dodo	Voice
1986	The Longshot	Parking Attendant	Cameo
1986	The Whoopee Boys	Eddie Lipschitz
1987	Happy Hour	Hancock
1987	Million Dollar Mystery	Rollie
1988	Critters 2: The Main Course	Hungry Heifer Manager
1988	Assault of the Killer Bimbos	Dopey Deputy
1988	Dorf's Golf Bible	Waldo
1988	Beverly Hills Vamp	Kyle Carpenter
1989	Hollywood Boulevard II	Walter
1990	Wedding Band	Slappy the Clown	Cameo
1990	Dorf Goes Auto Racing	Dipstick
1990	The Raven Red Kiss-Off	Himalayan Operator	Cameo
1990	Mob Boss	Tony Anthony
1991	Rock-A-Doodle	Snipes	Voice
1991	Teenage Exorcist	Eddie
1994	The Silence of the Hams	Video Cameraman	Cameo
1995	Mr. Payback: An Interactive Movie	Phil the Guard
1996	Spy Hard	Rancor Guard Who Gets Spit On	Cameo
1997	The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue	Charlie	Voice
2004	The Polar Express	The Know-It-All	Voice and motion capture
2012	I Love You, Eddie Deezen	Himself	Short film
2013	All I Want for Christmas	Larry Eastwood	Cameo Television film
2015	The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water	Seagull	Voice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Homeroom	Ron Carp	Pilot
1982	The Facts of Life	Grusky	Episode: "The Big Fight"
1983	Magnum, P.I.	Mickey Dalrumple	Episode: "Squeeze Play"
1984	Punky Brewster	Eddie Malvin	8 Episodes
1986	The Fall Guy	Merle Monroe	Episode: "Lady in Green"
1989	Monsters	Demon #2	Episode: "The Demons"
1991	Darkwing Duck	Mouth (voice)	Episode: "Darkly Dawns the Duck"
1992	Mother Goose and Grimm	Ham (voice)	2 episodes
1992	Goof Troop	Road Hogs Biker (voice)	Episode: "Queasy Rider"
1992	Eek! the Cat	Ringo (voice)	Episode: "Bearz 'N the Hood"
1994	Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights	Caliph (voice)	Television special
1994	Aaahh!!! Real Monsters	Bulletin Board Monster (voice)	Episode: "Cold Hard Toenails/Attack of the Blobs"
1994-1996	Duckman	Iggy Catalpa (voice)	3 episodes
1995	The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes	Agent Tucker	Television film
1996-1999, 2001-2003	Dexter's Laboratory	Mandark (voice)	20 episodes
1996-1997	Life with Louie	Melvin (voice)	4 episodes
1996	Mighty Ducks	Alvin Yasbek (voice)	Episode: "Mondo-Man"
1996	Timon & Pumbaa	Bahuka (voice)	Episode: "Alcatraz Mataz/Oahu Wahoo"
1997	The Weird Al Show	The Guy Boarded Up in the Wall	4 episodes
1998	Cow and Chicken	Glasses Boy (voice)	Episode: "Can Cow Come Out and Play/Horn Envy"
1998	The Lionhearts	Tex Hardbottom (voice)	Episode: "Brown Dog Day"
1998	The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs	D'Cell (voice)	Episode: "D'Cell/Halfday"
1999	Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip	Mandark (voice)	Television special
1999	Johnny Bravo	Oswald (voice)	Episode: "A League of His Own/Johnny Goes to Camp/Buffoon Lagoon"
1999-2000	Disney's Recess	Frank 'Tiny' Sedgwick (voice)	3 episodes
2001-2004	Lloyd in Space	Larry (voice)	5 episodes
2001	Oswald	Andy Pumpkin (voice)	2 episodes
2002-2007	Kim Possible	Ned (voice)	4 episodes
2003-2005	What's New, Scooby-Doo?	Gibby Norton (voice)	3 episodes
2005	Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island	Slurpy the Bat (voice)	Episode: "A Cold Day on Fruit Salad Island/Five Nuts and a Baby"
2005	Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama	Ned	Television special
2009	Chowder	Todd (voice)	Episode: "Sheboodles"
2009	SpongeBob's Truth or Square	Himself	Cameo Television special
2010	Pound Puppies	Carlton J. Stankmeyer (voice)	Episode: "The Yipper Caper"
2012	Handy Manny	Zip (voice)	2 episodes
2015	Star vs. the Forces of Evil	Additional Voices	Episode: "Star Comes to Earth/Party With a Pony"
2015	Transformers: Robots in Disguise	Ped (voice)	Episode: "Can You Dig It?"
2016	Wander Over Yonder	Cartoon Peepers (voice)	Episode: "The Cartoon"
2016	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	TBA

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2004	The Polar Express	Know-It-All (voice)
2006	Cartoon Network Racing	Mandark (voice)
2009	Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall	Mandark (voice)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]