Scott Thompson

Scott Thompson

Along with attracting fans as a member of Canada's famed sketch comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall and for his stint on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, Scott Thompson has also made his comic presence felt in the movies. Raised in Brampton, Ontario, Thompson headed to York University to study drama. He was asked to leave after his third year due to his "disruptive presence," so he began to hone his skills on the improv and stand-up comedy circuit instead. After meeting Mark McKinney in 1984, Thompson joined the Kids in the Hall, easily meshing with their outrageous humor. Though he appeared in several movies during his years with the Kids, including the science fiction yarn Millennium (1989) and the horror comedy Popcorn (1990), Thompson and his cohorts became TV stars when their series The Kids in the Hall began broadcasting in 1989. During the show's five-year run, Thompson was famous for such characters as Queen Elizabeth, Danny Husk, and the controversially bitchy gay bar owner/philosopher Buddy Cole. After the show ended in 1994, Thompson appeared in the pseudo-documentary about a porn actor/director, Super 8 1/2 (1994), and joined the other Kids for the troupe's feature debut Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996). Though the drug culture spoof included inspired moments of Kids lunacy, particularly Thompson's spectacular "coming out" musical number, Brain Candy failed at the box office and the Kids disbanded. Thompson, though, had already scored a role on another highly esteemed TV series in 1995, Garry Shandling's mercilessly funny Hollywood satire The Larry Sanders Show. During his three seasons as Hank's Jeffrey Tambor personal assistant. Brian, Thompson also played a horrific assistant to a deplorable producer in the Tinsel Town comedy Hijacking Hollywood (1997) and appeared in the miniseries Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City (1998). After The Larry Sanders Show went off the air in 1998, Thompson began to work again with his Kids in the Hall colleagues, co-authoring Buddy Babylon: The Autobiography of Buddy Cole with Paul Bellini in 1998, and playing a role in Brain Candy director Kelly Makin's Mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). The Kids in the Hall officially reunited for a 2000 tour, but Thompson also continued to pursue non-Kids projects, including his own Internet series Scottland and acting in Amy Heckerling's presciently titled college comedy Loser (2000). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide