Biography
He grew up in Naperville, Illinois, and is a graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island. He may be best known for his work on the 1990 TV series Higgins Boys and Gruber and playing guidance counselor Jeff Rosso on the Judd Apatow-produced comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks. He also plays Mr. Kwest on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and a town troubadour on Gilmore Girls.
Allen also plays the "Naked Trucker" - a character that first appeared as part of a sketch comedy show Two-Headed Dog. In 1998, at the invitation of Largo owner Mark Flannigan, Dave began to appear as the Naked Trucker as a solo act, opening at Largo in L.A. for Tenacious D, Jon Brion, and others. The act was an instant success and soon expanded to include David Koechner, who plays "T-Bones." Koechner and Allen starred in The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show on Comedy Central, which was picked up for 8 episodes.
Allen is a member of comedy group 2 Headed Dog with comedians Jim Turner, Mark Fite, and Craig Anton.
Allen also made an appearance on the television show Malcolm in the Middle.
Dave also frequently plays the character "Todd Carlin", a hippie and fictional relative of George Carlin. This character is usually involved in comedy shows at Largo.
Allen's guest starred on Gilmore Girls, where he played a town troubadour, organic farmer, and a de facto minister officiating a wedding.
Allen has been credited in movies and television roles as Dave Gruber Allen and David Gruber Allen.
Allen has provided his voice to the animated series King of the Hill episodes, "Unfortunate Son", "Phish and Wildlife", "Raise the Steaks", and "Bill's House".
Allen also has provided his voice for the TV short Moobeard the Cow Pirate, playing as Dark Blade of Fire.
He also played several different characters in NBC's Newsradio, and appeared as night school teacher "Randy", teaching basic auto repair and maintenance in the episode, "Motor Skills", of the eighth season of the sitcom Frasier. He has appeared as a hippie on Mr. Show with Bob and David and a protester on Arrested Development.
In 2006, Allen appeared in the Stan and Lois sketch on Norm Macdonald's comedy album Ridiculous (released by Comedy Central Records).
In November 2008, Allen appeared as "Todd"—and was credited as "Todd Carlin"—in the Cinematic Titanic episode "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" during the pre-movie sequence, introducing the movie to the crew. With Allen having a long-standing friendship with Joel Hodgson and several other CT crew members, it is expected he will reprise this role as a fixture of the series going forward. Additionally, Allen has been touring periodically at live shows with Cinematic Titanic, performing his stand-up routine.
In 2010, Allen was featured as a sci-fi author in season two of Party Down and made a cameo in the film The Mother of Invention as Dr. Henry Miller. In 2011, Allen had a small role in the movie Bad Teacher. As of November 2012, Allen continues to tour with Cinematic Titanic as the MC of the pre-show warm up act.
Read more about this topic: Dave Allen (actor)
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