Brian Posehn (; born July 6, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, musician, and writer. After numerous appearances as a television guest star, he acquired his first major recurring role in HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998). He is known for his roles as Jim Kuback on The WB's Mission Hill and Brian Spukowski on Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program. Posehn had a recurring role on The Big Bang Theory as geologist Bert Kibbler.
As a stand-up comedian, Posehn has released four comedy albums and one standalone music album. Since 2012, he has hosted the online Dungeons & Dragons podcast Nerd Poker. He has done voice work for video games including Halo 2, FusionFall, Brütal Legend, and Minecraft: Story Mode.
Posehn received nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards in 1998 and 1999 for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program for his work on Mr. Show with Bob and David. He was nominated along with the rest of the series' writing crew. He also received a nomination for a DVDX Award for Best Original Song in a DVD Premiere Movie in 2003 for Run Ronnie Run!.
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Background
Posehn was born in Sacramento and grew up there. He is of German and Irish descent. He graduated from Sonoma Valley High School in Sonoma in 1984 and attended California State University, Sacramento. He began his career after meeting Bob Odenkirk and David Cross in San Francisco; some say his career of comedy began in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Career
Television work
Posehn began with guest appearances and mainly small roles in TV shows. He was in 28 episodes of Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998), a sketch comedy series on HBO. In a 1996 episode of Friends, he delivered the manuscript in which Joey Tribbiani's soap opera character "Dr. Drake Ramoray" is killed. He appeared as two different characters in NewsRadio: a fan with questions for Jimmy James at a book reading (1997), and a member of Dave's a cappella group "Chock Full o' Notes" (1998). In the Seinfeld episode "The Burning" (1998), he played a patient, when Kramer caught gonorrhea. His character was instructed to demonstrate for a group of medical students how a surgeon left a sponge in him post surgery. Posehn wrote a Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episode, "Cahill" (1998), with Ben Karlin. Posehn appeared on 29 episodes of the NBC comedy series Just Shoot Me! (1999–2003). He played the voice of Jim in Mission Hill on the WB (1999–2002), and Del Swanson in 3-South on MTV (2002–2003). On an Adult Swim show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he voiced the Wisdom Cube in the 2003 episode "The Cubing".
Posehn performed the voice of Gibbons, a tiny man, on several episodes of the Cartoon Network's Tom Goes to the Mayor (2005–2006). He appeared in the 2005 pilot for The Showbiz Show with David Spade, in a segment called "The Nerd Perspective" giving a scathing criticism of MTV and its declining quality. He played a mortician in several episodes of Comedy Central's Reno 911!. He was featured on the 2005 documentary series The Comedians of Comedy on Comedy Central and Showtime. He was in a 2007 episode of the improv series Thank God You're Here on NBC and was a celebrity judge on the revived 1970s game show The Gong Show with Dave Attell (2008), on Comedy Central. He co-stars on The Sarah Silverman Program with Steve Agee as a gay couple that are friends of Silverman. Posehn also wrote the season three finale "Wowschwitz". He played himself in the episode "Spagett" of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, appeared in the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, played the role of a physically disabled man (Scooter Man) in the second season's premiere episode "Slip of the Tongue" of Californication (2008), on Showtime; and played Dethklok's second manager in the Metalocalypse episode "Dethsources". Posehn wrote the episode "Fatherklok".
In 2007 he joined the first season of Human Giant, a sketch comedy series on MTV, as a writer and performer, and voiced Glen Furlblam, a mega fan of Dr. Two-Brains on the PBS Kids animated series WordGirl. In 2012 he co-wrote the fourth season of Metalocalypse. From 2013 to 2019, Posehn portrayed the recurring character Bert on The Big Bang Theory. In October 2024, it was announced he would reprise his role as Bert Kibbler in the Big Bang Theory spin-off series, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.
Film work
Film appearances from Posehn include the 2003 comedy film sequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, Grind, the 2005 Rob Zombie horror film The Devil's Rejects, Sleeping Dogs Lie, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and the 2007 animated feature Surf's Up, where he played Glen Maverick. Posehn appeared as himself in the 2007 documentary Super High Me starring 'marijuana comedian' Doug Benson, the 2008 documentary Nerdcore Rising about MC Frontalot and in a supporting role in Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. Posehn voices the character of Murray, a robot, in Rob Zombie's animated The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. He also voiced the character Hayashi in the English dub of Pom Poko.
Stand-up comedy
In 2002, Posehn appeared on Comedy Central Presents, followed by the release of 2005's The Comedians of Comedy, a documentary/live special chronicling a 2004 small-club comedy tour he participated in. A television series on Comedy Central of the same name followed. Posehn's debut comedy album Live In: Nerd Rage was released in 2006. He participated in the Comedy Lineup of the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which included Louis C.K., Janeane Garofalo and Zach Galifianakis. Posehn performed as part of the Rock N' Roll Comedy set with Jim Norton and Michelle Buteau. During his 2008 routine on Comedy Central Presents he referred to his Wikipedia article, which he supposedly vandalized. In 2010, Posehn released his second album Fart and Wiener Jokes. In 2011, Posehn agreed to perform at the Gathering of the Juggalos. Some of his fans criticized this decision as being "not metal". Posehn countered that "getting a paycheck is metal", and expressed respect towards the Juggalo fan culture, as well as the independent music success of Insane Clown Posse and Psychopathic Records. In 2013, Posehn released his third comedy album and first DVD, The Fartist, and in 2017 his fourth comedy album, Posehn 25x2.
Music
In 2006, Relapse Records released his first album, Live In: Nerd Rage. It includes "Metal by Numbers", a song mocking the formulaic nature of modern metal at the time of its release. The instrumental tracks feature musicians such as guitarist Scott Ian (of Anthrax), bassist Joey Vera (then of Anthrax, but also of Armored Saint and Fates Warning), drummer John Tempesta (of The Cult and White Zombie), and lead guitarist Jonathan Donais (of Shadows Fall). Posehn also appeared in the Anthrax music videos for "What Doesn't Die" and "Blood Eagle Wings". Posehn appeared on a Season 4 episode of the music talk show That Metal Show and Lamb of God's Walk With Me In Hell DVD, and performed "More Metal Then You", a song that was included on his non-musical stand-up comedy album Fart & Weiner Jokes, with "Brian Posehn's All-Star Band" on the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods Awards. Posehn appeared in The Damned Things music video for "We've Got A Situation Here". He provided backing vocals for Evile's album Five Serpent's Teeth.
In 2020, Posehn released his first music-only album, Grandpa Metal, which featured guest appearances from Brendon Small of Dethklok, Scott Ian, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour, Weird Al Yankovic, Phil Demmel of Machine Head, Michael Starr of Steel Panther and others. The album consists of comedy metal songs, as well as metal covers of "Take On Me" by A-Ha and "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" by Ylvis.
Other work
Posehn has provided voice work for video games Brütal Legend as The Hunter and Star Warped as co-narrator Brian. Posehn has also voiced Grunts and various Marines in the 2004 video game Halo 2. Posehn appeared in the commercial "Ink Fairy" for Staples office supply store in its ad campaign featuring the "Easy Button."
In 2006, Posehn co-wrote the comic book The Last Christmas with writer Gerry Duggan, published by Image Comics (ISBN 1582406766). In April 2009 Posehn hosted the first American "Golden Gods Awards" for metal music hosted by Revolver Magazine. As part of the Marvel NOW! initiative Posehn and Gerry Duggan co-wrote the Deadpool ongoing comic series which launched in November 2012, lasting 45 issues. His run ended in April 2015. The first six issues were illustrated by Tony Moore. Since 2012, Posehn has hosted a podcast called Nerd Poker, where a group of comedians play Dungeons & Dragons. Co-hosts include comic book writer Gerry Duggan and comedian Blaine Capatch, among others. Posehn has participated in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign Force Grey: Lost City of Omu, hosted by Matthew Mercer.
Personal life
Posehn and Melanie Truhett married in 2004 and they have a son. He is known for using cannabis. He quit smoking marijuana in 2011 but resumed about three years later. In April 2023, he said he "almost died" in a serious car crash in Los Angeles involving his family and a friend.
Filmography
Discography
Live In: Nerd Rage (2006) – stand-up comedy
Fart and Wiener Jokes (2010) – stand-up comedy
The Fartist (2013) – stand-up comedy
Posehn 25x2 (2017) – stand-up comedy
Grandpa Metal (2020) – as Posehn, music only
Accolades
Posehn has been nominated for two Primetime Emmys and a DVDX Award. His first Primetime Emmy nomination in 1998 for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program was for writing Mr. Show with Bob and David. Crew members Scott Aukerman, Jerry Collins, David Cross, Jay Johnston, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Odenkirk, B. J. Porter, and Dino Stamatopoulos were also nominated for the award. The television series' writing staff including Posehn, received another nomination in the same category in 1999. Posehn shared the nomination with Mike Stoyanov, Paul F. Tompkins, Mike Upchurch, and the staff from the 1998.
For working on Run Ronnie Run!, Posehn was nominated at the 2003 DVD Exclusive Awards for Best Original Song in a DVD Premiere Movie for "The Golden Rule Song" along with Jack Black (with the Joey Cheesy Reunion Band) and fellow lyricists Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Aukerman, Porter, and Eban Schletter.