Jorma Taccone Biography

Jorma Christopher Taccone was born on March 19, 1977, in Berkeley, California, US, in the family of Sue Ellen and Tony Taccone. His father is an American theatre director who served as Artistic Director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California.

Taccone studied at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and completed his graduation from there with a BA in Theater in 2000

His brother, Asa Taccone, is an American musician, founding member and lead singer of the Los Angeles-based band called ‘Electric Guest’. Asa sometimes collaborates with Taccone.

Jorma Taccone made his theatrical debut in 1993 playing one of the townspeople in Friedrich Durrenmatt’s play ‘The Visit’ at Saint Mary's College-High School in Berkeley, California.

Jorma Taccone first met Akiva Schaffer, in seventh grade Spanish class while attending Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, California and ‘The Lonely Island’ was first formed in the early 1990s. Andy Samberg, who was studying a year behind the two, later joined the group. Following their high school graduation, the three split to attend different colleges and later regrouped and relocated to Los Angeles in September 2000 to “get real jobs”.

Initially the trio struggled to find work and started their website where they uploaded short films that included absurdist comedy and occasionally music. Counted among the first performers who uploaded their works online, the trio involved themselves with Channel 101. They created the short comedy drama The 'Bu, their record-breaking contribution to Channel 101 in 2003. Taccone starred as Brett, a ninja who did not belong, in 8 of the 11 episodes of the show during 2003-05. The group’s increasing popularity within Los Angeles comedy circles landed them with a writing job at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards that was hosted by Jimmy Fallon, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Fallon recommended the trio to the creator of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels, leading the three to join the staff of the popular NBC late-night variety show in the fall of 2005. Since that time Taccone rose to prominence as one-third of ‘The Lonely Island’ that created over 100 SNL Digital Shorts. These include ‘Lazy Sunday’ (2005) featuring Chris Parnell which emerged as an internet sensation; ‘Dick in a Box’ (2006) featuring Justin Timberlake, another major viral hit on the internet which went on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics in 2007; and other YouTube favourites like ‘I'm on a Boat’ (2009) featuring T-Pain and ‘Jizz in My Pants’ (2008). Taccone featured as a main actor in music video of the latter.

The February 10, 2009, released debut studio album of ‘The Lonely Island’ titled ‘Incredibad’ is largely composed of tracks composed by them for SNL. Taccone created, co-wrote and co-directed the recurring sketch comedy on SNL titled ‘MacGruber’ which was aired for four seasons from January 20, 2007�to May 8, 2010. Popularity of the sketch led to the making of an action-comedy film based on it and bearing the same title. The film that released on May 21, 2010, in the US and has since been labelled a cult classic was directed by Taccone, marking his debut in film direction. Taccone also contributed as director for other SNL shorts like ‘Business Meeting, ‘Giraffes’ and ‘Sloths’. The February 1, 2009, aired ‘MacGruber’ Pepsi commercial spot for the 43rd Super Bowl was also directed by him.

The trio retired from SNL during the early 2010s, however are sometimes seen making guest appearances in the show. As of the 36th season of SNL, Taccone’s name did not find mention in the end credits any more, however he still finds place on website of NBC as a writer. The trio’s website thelonelyisland.com nevertheless mentioned that “the Dudes" were still responsible for the SNL Digital Shorts. Later it was mentioned that although Taccone left SNL, he contributed on some shorts during the 36th season.

Over the years, Jorma Taccone, Samberg and Schaffer released three other full studio albums of the group namely ‘Turtleneck & Chain’ (2011), ‘The Wack Album’ (2013), and ‘The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience’ (2019).

Meanwhile Taccone played the starring role of Kevin Powell in Schaffer’s directorial debut comedy film ‘Hot Rod’ that released on August�3,�2007. He made a cameo appearance as Mitch from Graphics and sang a karaoke version of the German rock band Scorpions’s signature song ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ in the blockbuster hit 2008 American comedy film ‘Role Models’. He also made cameo appearances as part of ‘The Lonely Island’ in the films ‘The Watch’ (2012), ‘Grown Ups 2’ (2013) and ‘Neighbors’ (2014). He was nominated for Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor for playing Cha-Ka in the 2009 American adventure comedy film ‘Land of the Lost’ that was rejected by both critics and audience.

Jorma Taccone starred as Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer" in the David Sandberg written and directed 2015 English-language Swedish martial arts comedy featurette ‘Kung Fury’. Sandberg played titular role in the film which was crowdfunded through Kickstarter and was chosen to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It eventually lost to British film ‘Rate Me’. Taccone will reprise the role of Kung Führer in the upcoming sequel of the film titled ‘Kung Fury 2’.

Jorma Taccone�co-starred with Aasha Davis in the 2008 music video of ‘Who's Gonna Save My Soul’, a single from Gnarls Barkley's second studio album, ‘The Odd Couple’.

The trio produced and starred in the 2016 American mockumentary comedy film ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ directed by Taccone and Schaffer. The film released by Universal Pictures received positive reviews from critics but failed at the box office.

Taccone also played voice roles in different films including that of William Shakespeare in ‘The Lego Movie’ (2014), Miscellaneous Stork in ‘Storks’ (2016), Norman Osborn / Green Goblin in ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018) and Larry Poppins in ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part’ (2019). Jorma Taccone's other works include playing the recurring role of Booth Jonathan in the American comedy-drama television series ‘Girls’ (2012–2013); featuring in season 5 of the ‘My Damn Channel’ hosted internet video series ‘Wainy Days’; and directing the AT&T Wireless TV ad campaign called ‘It's Not Complicated’.

While studying acting at UCLA, Taccone met Marielle Heller. The two developed a relationship and married on June 30,�2007. Marielle became a writer, director, and actress and is best known for directing the films ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’, ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ and ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ The couple have a son Wylie Red Heller Taccone, born on December 12, 2014. Taccone and his family lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Jorma Taccone’s sister-in-law Emily is a comedian, actor, writer and podcast host best known for her contributions as writer and producer for the HBO aired television series ‘Barry’; and his brother-in-law Nate is a musician who composed the scores for all three feature films of Marielle.

Jorma Taccone is a talented musician and was a member of the comedy trio The Lonely Island, known for their viral music videos and comedic songs.

He has directed several comedic films, including "MacGruber" and episodes of popular TV shows like "Parks and Recreation" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

Jorma Taccone is also a voice actor and has lent his voice to characters in animated films and TV shows, adding a unique touch to his versatile career.

Despite his success in Hollywood, Jorma Taccone remains down-to-earth and approachable, often engaging with fans on social media and at live events.