Seán Cullen (born August 29, 1965) is a Canadian actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for combining improvisation with mimicry and music. He is known for providing voices of characters in shows like Best Ed, Seven Little Monsters, and Almost Naked Animals.
Career
Cullen entered into the public eye in 1987 as a member of musical comedy group Corky and the Juice Pigs. Corky and the Juice Pigs toured the world, winning awards at the Edinburgh Fringe & performing at Just for Laughs in Montreal eight times. The group was also featured on Fox's MADtv. They released two comedy albums. The group broke up in 1998, after ten years together.
Following the breakup, Cullen began performing solo, often accompanied by musician Dylan Goodhue. He wrote and mounted his own one-man show called Wood, Cheese and Children which went on to become a special in CTV's Comedy Now! series and was nominated for a Gemini Award. Also in 1998, he was in a sketch comedy show in England called Unnatural Acts.
Cullen has appeared frequently on Canadian television, including CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce, CTV's The Associates, and The Comedy Network's Patti and Liocracy. He has appeared on American sitcoms, such as The Ellen Show and Payne. He has been a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, hosted NBC's Late Friday, and has been featured in comedy bits on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which he visits an event and interviews other attendees. He also supplied the voices of Four, Five, and Seven in the show, Seven Little Monsters. He has appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and his own Comedy Central Presents special in 2002. He also portrayed comedian Jackie Gleason in the 2002 TV movie entitled Martin and Lewis.
In 2003, Cullen produced his own sitcom, The Seán Cullen Show, for the CBC. It lasted for one six-episode season. Also at Christmas 2003, CBC aired the Seán Cullen's Home for Christmas special. Cullen hosted the 17th and 18th Annual Gemini Awards Galas in 2002 and 2003 respectively, winning a Gemini himself the latter year for hosting the former gala. He has also won awards in 2001 for his gala performance at Just for Laughs, and in 2006 for hosting What Were They Thinking?, a CTV program in which Cullen visited various unusual and somewhat inexplicable landmarks around Canada. Cullen, along with Goodhue, hosted The Just For Laughs 20th Anniversary Special on CBC.
In 2004, Cullen appeared as Max Bialystock in the Canadian production of The Producers for Mirvish Productions, earning him a Dora Mavor Award nomination. In July 2005, CBC Radio One began airing Simply Seán, a music radio program hosted by Cullen. In 2005, he hosted the documentary series What Were They Thinking? for The Comedy Network, for which he won a Gemini Award for best host in a lifestyle, practical information or performing arts program at the 21st Gemini Awards in 2006.
Cullen has a longstanding relationship with the members of the band Barenaked Ladies, formed when the band, in its original duo form, opened for Corky and the Juice Pigs on an early cross-Canada tour in 1989. On the Barenaked Ladies' 2004 U.S. and Canadian holiday tour, Cullen joined the band on the road. He would tell a comedic version of the nativity story and sing Christmas songs with band member Kevin Hearn accompanying him.
He provides the voice of Lucius Heinous VII, on the Teletoon series Jimmy Two-Shoes, Principal General Barrage on Detentionaire, Narwhal and Piggy on the animated series Almost Naked Animals, Blade Stabbington on the animated series Grojband, and the voice of Gus, Nefarious, and Deep Space Dave on Rocket Monkeys.
In 2008, Cullen was a contestant on NBC's Last Comic Standing 6. He became a finalist on the show, making it through the auditions, Las Vegas semi-finals, and the "house" round. Cullen made it to number six and finally was eliminated on 31 July 2008 episode after the first of two rounds of home viewer voting which determined the final winner.
In the 2010 and 2011 season of the Stratford Festival, Sean played Smee in Peter Pan, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Vinnie in The King of Thieves by George F. Walker. He appeared as a singing camp counsellor in the 2010 short film The Legend of Beaver Dam.
From 2011 to 2020, Cullen hosted the podcast The Seánpod, featuring interviews with guests including Alan Thicke, Norm Macdonald and Doug Benson.
Cullen is associated with Balzac's Coffee, a chain of cafés in southern Ontario. The company frequently sponsors Cullen's events, such as his comedy show, The Sean Schau!. Cullen also appears in other videos promoting the chain, exhibited on his Myspace page, and YouTube.
As of 2012 Cullen was a staple character and a frequent panelist on the Canadian version of Match Game which aired on The Comedy Network, and on The Debaters on CBC Radio.
In 2020, Séan voiced the inventive, but "creepy" twin brothers, Barnaby A & Barnaby B in the Netflix original The Willoughbys.
In season sixteen of Murdoch Mysteries, he guest starred as the famous Rudyard Kipling.
