Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, WordGirl, Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and We Bare Bears. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and voiced Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–2025)
Patton Oswalt has voiced Remy in the animated film Ratatouille (2007), various characters in the animated series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020), Max in the animated film The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) where he replaced Louis C.K., Jesse (male) in the game Minecraft: Story Mode, and M.O.D.O.K in the 2021 animated series of the same name. Other film credits include Man on the Moon (1999), Zoolander (2001), Blade: Trinity (2004), All Roads Lead Home (2008), Big Fan (2009), A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011), 22 Jump Street (2014), and The Circle (2017). In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) multimedia franchise, Oswalt guest starred as the Koenigs on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2014–2020) and voiced Pip the Troll in Eternals (2021). He was also in the web series Best of the Worst in 2019. As a stand-up comedian, Patton Oswalt has appeared in six stand-up specials and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special and a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the album of his Netflix special Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping (2016).
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Early life
Patton Oswalt was born on January 27, 1969, in Portsmouth, Virginia, the son of Carla and Larry J. Oswalt, a career United States Marine Corps officer. He was named after General George S. Patton. He has one younger brother, Matt Oswalt, a comedy writer best known for writing and starring in the YouTube web series Puddin'. While he was a military brat, his family lived in Ohio and in Tustin, California, before settling in Sterling, Virginia. He is a 1987 graduate of Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia. As a senior, he won first place for humorous dramatic interpretation in the Region II, Group AA forensics meet. He later attended the College of William & Mary where he majored in English and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1991, and was initiated into the Alpha Theta chapter of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. In May 2023, Oswalt was made an honorary Doctor of Arts by William & Mary. He lived in San Francisco in the 1990s, where he said, "It was cheap, so, so cheap, and I was a young, hopeful comedian."
Career
Patton Oswalt's influences include Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Emo Philips, Blaine Capatch, Jim Goad, Bill Hicks, Bobcat Goldthwait, Sam Kinison, Steve Martin, and Louis C.K.
Patton Oswalt began performing stand-up comedy on July 18, 1988. After writing for MADtv and starring in his own 1996 comedy special for HBO, he went on to garner notable roles in films and television shows with his film debut coming in the 1996 military comedy film Down Periscope alongside Kelsey Grammer. His television debut was on the Seinfeld episode "The Couch". His most prominent and longest running role was as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens. His first starring film role was as the voice of Remy, the lead character in the 2007 Academy Award-winning Pixar film Ratatouille. He has also appeared in smaller roles in such films as Magnolia and 22 Jump Street.
Patton Oswalt is a longtime reader of comics, in particular DC Comics. He discussed his love of the medium in his stand-up, and having written comics stories. His writing credits include "JLA: Welcome to the Working Week", a backup story in Batman #600; a story for Dwight T. Albatross's The Goon Noir #01 and a story for Masks: Too Hot for TV. He is also a cinephile, having watched 4,000 films, including 720 films from 1995 to 1999 at the New Beverly Cinema. Expanding his voice artist repertoire, he began voicing the villainous character Tobey on PBS Kids GO! series WordGirl in 2007.
His work in roast comedy includes appearances in the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner in 2006 and the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav in August 2007. That same year, he appeared on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, "The Original Fry Cook", as Jim. Oswalt moderated a reunion panel of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast at San Diego Comic-Con in 2008.
Patton Oswalt played Paul Aufiero, the leading role in Robert D. Siegel's 2009 directorial debut, Big Fan. He was set to star in a 2010 Broadway revival of Lips Together, Teeth Apart. The show was postponed, then eventually canceled, when Megan Mullally left the production after the director denied her request to replace Oswalt due to his lack of stage experience.
He starred in the Showtime drama United States of Tara as Neil, an employee of Four Winds Landscaping. He also provided the voice of Thrasher, a robot protagonist from the Cartoon Network show Robotomy.
Personal life
Oswalt married true crime writer and journalist Michelle McNamara on September 24, 2005. In April 2009, McNamara gave birth to their daughter, Alice. At age nine, Alice made her voiceover debut on the TV series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, as Wind Sprint, which saw her working alongside her father, who voices the character of Quibble Pants, and Alice's stepmother, Meredith Salenger, who plays Clear Sky.
In 2013, he teamed up with PETA, spoke out against chaining pet dogs, and sent a letter to the mayor and members of the city council of Newport News, Virginia, urging them to ban the practice.
McNamara died in her sleep in the family's Los Angeles home on April 21, 2016. Her death was attributed to a combination of a previously undiagnosed heart condition and complications from ingested medications, including Adderall, Xanax, and fentanyl. The season-three finale of The Goldbergs was dedicated to her memory.
On August 1, 2016, Patton Oswalt announced that he had been working to complete McNamara's unfinished nonfiction book about the Golden State Killer. In September 2017, Oswalt announced that the book, titled I'll Be Gone in the Dark, was scheduled for release on February 27, 2018, and was subsequently available for preorders. Less than two months after the book's release, on April 25, 2018, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department announced they had made an arrest in the Golden State Killer case. Oswalt posted a brief video to Instagram, saying: "I think you got him, Michelle." He also posted on Twitter that same day, saying that he hoped to visit the suspect if he was indeed the Golden State Killer, "not to gloat or gawk – to ask him the questions that [McNamara] wanted answered in her 'Letter to an Old Man'" at the end of her book.
Patton Oswalt has been diagnosed with clinical depression, which he has dealt with throughout his adult life. He has incorporated these experiences into his comedy routines.
In July 2017, he and actress Meredith Salenger confirmed their engagement. They were married in November 2017.
As of 2017, Patton Oswalt "remained friendly" with alt-right author Jim Goad; in a Facebook post that year, Oswalt wrote that Goad "can fucking write ... And, unlike a lot of the failed comedians and sad punks on the alt-right, he isn't in it for the 'lulz' and doesn't affect a bullshit nihilist pose."
Discography
EPs
Patton vs. Alcohol vs. Zach vs. Patton (2005) with Zach Galifianakis
Melvins/Patton Oswalt split 7 (2006) with Melvins
Comedians of Comedy Tour (2006)
The Pennsylvania Macaroni Company (2006) with Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, and Eugene Mirman
Frankensteins and Gumdrops (2008) - available during the WFMU pledge drive
Compilation album appearances
Beth Lapides's Un-Cabaret – The Un & Only (2002)
Beth Lapides's Un-Cabaret – The Good, The Bad, and the Drugly (2006)
Comedy Death-Ray (2007)
Awards and nominations
Writing
Nonfiction
The Overrated Book (co-author with Henry H. Owings, Last Gasp (publisher), San Francisco, 2006) OCLC 65203542 ISBN 0867196572
Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga (foreword, DC Comics, 2008)
The Rock Bible: Unholy Scripture for Fans & Bands (co-author with Henry H. Owings, Quirk Books, Philadelphia, 2008) ISBN 1594742693
Zombie Spaceship Wasteland (Scribner, 2011) OCLC 555639819
Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film (Simon & Schuster, 2015) OCLC 885377924
Oswalt, Patton (May 3, 2016). "Patton Oswalt Remembers His Wife, Michelle McNamara: 'She Steered Her Life With Joyous, Wicked Curiosity'". Time.
Oswalt, Patton (December 2, 2016). "Patton Oswalt's Year of Magical Parenting". GQ.
Comics
JLA: Welcome to the Working Week (DC Comics, 2003)
The Goon: Noir (co-author with Thomas Lennon, Steve Niles, and Eric Powell, Dark Horse Comics, 2007)
Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror 13 (contributor to anthology comic) (Bongo Comics, 2007)
Serenity: Float Out (Dark Horse Comics, 2010)
Better Days and Other Stories (co-author with Will Conrad, Dark Horse Comics, 2011) OCLC 751718642
Sky Cake! (co-author with Kona Morris, Jon Olsen, Chris Henry. Godless Comics, 2012) OCLC 933277633
M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games (co-writer with Jordan Blum. Marvel Comics, Dec 2020)
Black Hammer: Visions #1 (Dark Horse Comics, February 2021)
Minor Threats (co-writer with Jordan Blum. Dark Horse Comics, 2022)
From the World of Minor Threats: The Alternates (co-writer with Jordan Blum and Tim Seeley. Dark Horse Comics, 2023)