Dana Gould

If you know anything about Dana, you probably know that he grew up in a blue-collar, heavily drinking, Irish-Catholic family in the "weird little town" of Hopedale, Massachusetts. Dana describes his hometown as the most ironically named town in the country - a gray, dingy little factory town that had no hope within 500 miles. He had four older brothers that were talented athletes in school, and a younger sister. Being no athlete himself, and in fact hating everything about sports, he never had any chance of having an easy time of things. The one way he 'fit in' with his family was to entertain them. At the early age of six, he could do an amazing Nixon impression.

As a child, Dana was not afraid of the dark or monster movies, but his nightlight seemed creepy and anytime a clown appeared on TV, he ran from the room. His unique way of looking at the world was encouraged by Science Fiction/Horror movies and comic books. Spiderman and Starlog were among his childhood favorites, and "Famous Monsters of Filmland" was his bible. Other kids had their favorite baseball cards in the spokes of their bicycle wheels, but for Dana only "Planet of the Apes" cards would do.

Once the fascist prison camp known in America as 'high school' was over, Gould attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and studied Communications and Theatre. He performed at an open mike comedy night, and Dana knew. He just knew that THIS was what he was meant to do. (Well, actually now he does more writing than stand-up . . . but if you take it to mean that he knew he was meant to entertain some people and piss off most others, you could say he really did find his true calling that fateful night.) So he quit college and worked crap day jobs while honing his comedy skills at night.

In 1987, he moved to San Francisco after competing in the city's International Stand-Up Comedy Competition. (He was a finalist, and the winner was Jake Johanssen. They became and remain good friends.) Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles where he split time working the local clubs as well as comedy gigs across the country. Anyone familiar with his standup material knows why he moved out West. It was because he was In Love, he tells us in his act, and then mimics a jaw-breaking slap across his face in slow motion.

In 1992, Dana Gould expanded his act to a one-man show entitled, "Insomnia," that he took to Manhattan's Second Stage Theatre and Edinburgh's Festival of the Arts (in Scotland!). As he continued to tour the states with his standup comedy, he also began working in TV and film as well as developing his own shorts such as "Break On Through With JFK," "A Night On Java Island," and "Soul Mates," among others.

Since then he's worked on numerous TV shows, did voice-overs for the video game "Gex" (which was so successful two sequels were made), created the "Super Adventure Team" with his friend Rob Cohen for MTV, released a comedy album, "Funhouse," and starred in the independent film, "Courting Courtney."

Currently he is producing "The Simpsons" and lives in L.A. with his lovely wife, Sue and their three adorable dogs.