Greg Proops
Proops in 2007
Born	Gregory Everett Proops (1959-10-03)October 3, 1959 (age 66) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Occupations	Actor stand-up comedian television host
Years active	1982–present
Notable work	Whose Line Is It Anyway?UK andUSA Bob the Builder
Spouse	Jennifer Canaga ​ (m. 1990)​
Comedy career
Genres	Improvisational comedy observational comedy
Website	www.gregproops.com
Notes
[1]

Gregory Everett Proops (born October 3, 1959)^[1] is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his work on theBritish andAmerican versions ofWhose Line Is It Anyway?. He has also voiced thetitular character on the American version ofBob the Builder: Project: Build It^[2] in series 10 to 14.

Proops was born inPhoenix, Arizona, and raised inSan Carlos, California, a suburb south of San Francisco, attendingSan Carlos High School.^[3][4] He attended theCollege of San Mateo and spearheaded the comedy duo "Proops & Brakeman". Later, he took courses in improvisation and acting atSan Francisco State University, though he never finished college.^[5]

After college, he joined an improv group withMike McShane. Both Proops and McShane impressed producersDan Patterson and Mark Leveson, who put them on their show,Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He frequently instigated jokes concerning variousidiosyncrasies and differences betweenBritish English andAmerican English, and would frequently banter withClive Anderson on these matters (among others). He lived in London for four years when he was doing the show and lists McShane,Richard Vranch^[6] andColin Mochrie among his best friends. After the show ended, he was recalled for theAmerican version and has been a frequent "fourth contestant". Through 2020, he has appeared in 74 AmericanWhose Line episodes, more than any other non-regular cast member.

Proops also appeared in every episode of the short-livedDrew Carey's Green Screen Show, where the performers would play improv games (some of which were taken from the show's main influenceWhose Line Is It Anyway?) in front of a massive green screen.^[7] Later, animators would draw on the background and other props. In April 2011,Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza premiered onGSN featuring Proops along with other frequent guests fromWhose Line is it Anyway? In July 2012, Proops appeared in ABC's improvisation show,Trust Us with Your Life.^[8]

In November 2011, Proops did a week onRoyal Caribbean'sFreedom of the Seas with the Lewis Black Comedy Cruise Tour. He performed the entire week of stand-up with other artists, which included a live, one-hour podcast in front of his entire audience.^[9]

Proops has performed his stand-up act acrossBritain, mainlandEurope,Australia andNew Zealand. His other credits include hostingSpace Cadets, a mid-1990s science-fiction comedy game show onChannel 4 in the UK, which also featuredCraig Charles (Dave Lister fromRed Dwarf) andBill Bailey, and appearances onBBC2'sMock the Week. He appeared as a panelist on the 2000 revival ofTo Tell the Truth. Proops has also hosted game shows, includingVS. in 1999,^[10]Rendez-View in 2001,^[11][12] andHead Games, aScience Channel game show which ran for one season in 2009.^[13] Proops also competed on the November 8th, 1984 episode ofJeopardy!, losing to eventual five day champion John Genova. He would later record video clues for twoJeopardy! episodes in 2000 and 2001.^[14]

In addition to his stand-up and improv acts, Proops has done voice work in various films and TV shows, includingTim Burton'sThe Nightmare Before Christmas, and the miniseriesStripperella withPamela Anderson. Proops provided the voice of Bob in the US version of the TV seriesBob the Builder for the five seasons ofProject Build It. He has also featured in 2003 filmBrother Bear as the voice of one of the Love Bears and provided the voice as Cryptograf in 2006 filmAsterix and the Vikings.

Proops has been involved withTurner Classic Movies since 2013, appearing on several of the network's podcasts and in person at public events. In 2016, he appeared as a television presenter for TCM, introducing comedy films by theMarx Brothers andWheeler & Woolsey.^[15]

Proops has been involved with theStar Wars franchise as well. He played the role ofFode inStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He would later work with theExpanded Universe, reprising his role as Fode in the video gameStar Wars Episode I: Racer and the video game adaptation ofStar Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and he guest-starred on two episodes of the animated seriesStar Wars: The Clone Wars ("The Mandalore Plot" and "Voyage of Temptation") as Tal Merrick. In 2018, Proops voiced Jak Sivrak inStar Wars Resistance.

Proops appeared as a guest onThe George Lucas Talk Show during theirMay the AR Be LI$$ YouArli$$ marathon fundraiser.

Since 2010, Proops has hosted a podcast calledThe Smartest Man In The World,^[16] often together with his wife Jennifer Canaga, in which he talks about current events, celebrity culture, and his personal life, usually in front of a live audience. BeforeSmartest Man, Proops hosted a podcast calledThe Greg Proops Experiment.^[17]

In 2010, Proops hosted Odd News on yahoo!.com for several years. It was a weekly program where he told weird and funny stories from around the world. The series seems to have continued in text format and on Twitter for several years after Proops was no longer a part of it.^[18][19][20]

From 1995 to 1996, Proops presentedBits from Last Week's Radio onBBC Radio 1. He did voice work for theBBC Radio 2 seriesFlight of the Conchords, first broadcast in September 2005. Proops also played the title role inBBC Radio 4's sci-fi comedy seriesSeymour the Fractal Cat.

Proops provided the voices for the Harlequin Demon, the Devil, and the Sax Player inTim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack and movie.

Proops provides voice-over work as Howard "Buckshot" Holmes, a game show announcer along withJohn DiMaggio for theNintendoWii gameMadWorld. DiMaggio and Proops play as comical announcers on a brutal game show set in the future.

Proops provided the voice of Matthew Black, a reporter in thePsygnosis game,ZombieVille (1997).

Proops also provided the voice of Fargus, a pyromantic court jester for the PlayStationPandemonium game series.

He later worked as a voice actor inSkylanders: Imaginators, where he voiced a Brain that was freed by Kaos in order to help perfect his Doomlanders project.

• Live (1994)
• Back in the UK (1997)
• Joke Book (2006)
• Houston, We Have a Problem (2007)
• Elsewhere (2009)
• Greg Proops Digs In! (2010)
• In the Ball Park (2015)
• The Resistance (2018)
• In The City (2022)
• French Drug Deal (2023)

• Greg Proops: Live At Musso & Frank (2013)

On May 5, 2015, Proops released nonfiction bookThe Smartest Book in the World through publisher Touchstone. The book is based in part on Proops's weekly podcastThe Smartest Man in the World, detailing the author's movie and poetry recommendations, baseball facts, powerful women, and misconstrued history. The paperback version of the book was released from Touchstone on February 21, 2017.^[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toGreg Proops.

• Official website
• Greg Proops atIMDb
• The Smartest Man in the World Podcast

• 1959 births
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• 20th-century American comedians
• 21st-century American comedians
• American male film actors
• American game show hosts
• American male television actors
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• Comedians from California
• Male actors from San Mateo County, California
• American male feminists
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• People from San Carlos, California
• San Francisco State University alumni
• Stand Up! Records artists
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• Comedians from Phoenix, Arizona

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