Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, stand-up and actor.

Early Life

David Cross was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Susi, a computer retailer. Six months later, Cross' family moved to Florida. After additional moves to New York and Connecticut, the family settled back in Roswell, Georgia, where Cross remained for nearly a decade. Cross has been estranged from his father since age 19, although they both currently reside in New York City.

He attended Northside High School of the Performing Arts (now North Atlanta High School), graduating in 1982. Cross was elected treasurer of his senior class and was voted "Most Humorous" by his classmates. He began performing stand-up comedy at 17.

The day after he graduated from high school, Cross went to New York. Lacking a plan, he drifted around, working briefly for a lawn care company in Long Island, and later enrolled at Emerson College in Boston. He would drop out after only a semester, but during his time there he discovered his new favorite things: partying and sketch comedy. Cross joined This is Pathetic, a college sketch group, where he met John Ennis. In the summer of 1985, the two aspiring actors took a road trip to Los Angeles, although this did not significantly further their acting careers. In Boston, Cross began to perform stand-up more regularly. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, Boston had a booming comedy scene, although Cross did not fit the types of acts being booked most of the time. He recalls that it was "a loud, dumb, pandering, racist, homophobic type scene".

In 1990, a new comedy scene began to emerge at a small club called Catch a Rising Star. Cross—along with Janeane Garofalo, Louis C.K., and other comics—appeared regularly several nights a week. Cross formed the sketch comedy group "Cross Comedy" with twelve other performers, and they put on a new show every week. They were known for playing tricks on the audience, such as introducing fake comics or planting fake hecklers. Cross became increasingly focused on his comedy work.

In Los Angeles, Cross performed at the alternative comedy club Un-Cabaret which everyone there enjoyed.

Career

Cross began his professional television career as a writer on The Ben Stiller Show. The short-lived Fox Network series hired him toward the end of its run, and he occasionally made brief appearances in the sketches. He had a speaking role in "The Legend of T.J. O'Pootertoot", a sketch written almost entirely by Cross. It was during this period that he first met Bob Odenkirk, with whom he would later co-create the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show in 1995. Cross won an Emmy for his work on The Ben Stiller Show in 1993.

Cross later co-starred as Tobias Fünke in Arrested Development, which was originally intended to be only a minor role. He has also played smaller roles on programs such as Just Shoot Me!, The Drew Carey Show, NewsRadio, Strangers with Candy, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Since October 2005, Cross has appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report as Stephen Colbert's arch-nemesis, a fictional liberal radio talk show host from Madison, Wisconsin named "Russ Lieber". Cross also developed an animated series for Comedy Central called Freak Show, which co-starred H. Jon Benjamin, and was canceled due to low ratings. He has appeared several times on the MTV2 series Wonder Showzen.

Cross teamed up with Odenkirk to produce a feature film, based on one of their Mr. Show characters, called Run Ronnie Run. The film satirized the reality television craze, and featured cameos from many stars. However, Cross and Odenkirk came into creative conflict with the director, Troy M