Biography
While at Ridgewood High School, Stamatopoulos wrote for his school variety show and was astounded he could get laughs with the material he had written. While attending Columbia College Chicago he performed a duo act with comedian Andy Dick, in which Stamatopoulos played a ventriloquist and Dick played a dummy under the influence of sleeping pills.
Stamatopoulos had written a spec script for a Simpsons episode, just out of love for the show, and Andy convinced him to submit it to The Ben Stiller Show, which got him hired. He met and worked with Bob Odenkirk. After Stiller's show was canceled, he moved to New York and joined the writing staff of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, also with Odenkirk. During the '90s he wrote for Late Show with David Letterman, The Dana Carvey Show and Mr. Show with Bob and David. In 2000 Dino and Robert Smigel pitched Comedy Central a spin-off of Smigel's TV Funhouse Saturday Night Live cartoons which would be a half-hour sketch comedy show. TV Funhouse premiered on 2000 and was canceled after one season. He later joined the writing staff on Mad TV.
Stamatopoulos worked as a creative consultant and contributing writer on the first season of Tom Goes to the Mayor, with Tim & Eric and Bob Odenkirk. He also provided the voice of Drinky Crow on The Drinky Crow Show, which aired for one season on Adult Swim.
His stop motion animated series Moral Orel premiered on Adult Swim on Christmas 2005 and aired for three seasons, airing its final episode in December 2008. Following the cancellation, the show began to gain more popularity through reruns, leading to Adult Swim eventually reviving the series. It was announced on May 17, 2012 that a special episode titled "Before Orel" will air in September 2012, with the possibility of more new episodes to follow.
In 2010, Stamatopoulos began his new stop motion series Mary Shelley's Frankenhole, the show most recently finished its second season on Adult Swim in March 2012.
Stamatopoulos appeared in a recurring role as "Star-Burns" on the NBC comedy series Community from Season 1 in 2009 until his character was supposedly killed off in Season 3. His character was later discovered to be alive, although he won't be returning for Season 4. He was also a consulting producer and writer on the show. He co-wrote the stop motion animation Christmas episode which aired on December 9, 2010.
In 2012, Stamatopoulos began hosting the "Sorry About Everything" podcast on the The Steve Dahl Podcasting Network.
Read more about this topic: Dino Stamatopoulos
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