Bruce McCulloch

Bruce McCulloch, actor, director, writer (born at Edmonton 12 May 1961). Bruce McCulloch attended Mount Royal College in Calgary, where he studied journalism and public relations. His ambition was to write comedy and he soon found his way to Calgary's improvisational Loose Moose Theatre Company, where he joined forces with Mark McKinney to form a comedy duo known as The Audience. While attending a fringe festival in Toronto, he and McKinney joined forces with Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald, who were already known as The Kids in the Hall. Performing locally, they were joined by Scott Thompson and soon came to the attention of Saturday Night Live (SNL) producer Lorne Michaels. He saw the group's potential, and invited McCulloch and McKinney to New York to write for the long-running series for two seasons.

In 1989 The Kids in the Hall debuted in Canada and the US. Along with the other four members, McCulloch was responsible for writing and sometimes directing the series. It was nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards in 1993, 1994 and 1995, and received nine Gemini Award nominations, winning three times, for best performance in a comedy program or series in 1989 and 1993 and best writing in a comedy program or series in 1989. With a distinctly gay, edgy and frequently surreal style, the show slowly gained a loyal fan base over its five-year run. McCulloch's best-known character was the Cabbage Head Man, and occasionally he directed short films for the show, the most memorable being Love and Sausages. A strange love story about two workers at a dark, sterile sausage factory, it was smartly filmed and devastatingly dismal. When The Kids series came to an end, he returned to his writing duties for SNL.

Bruce McCulloch appeared in and co-wrote The Kids' knock off film, Brain Candy (1996), and wrote and directed his first feature, the romantic comedy Dog Park, starring McKinney and himself, in 1998. He appeared in the Watergate satire Dick (1999; as Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein), and directed Superstar (1999; a vehicle for SNL regulars Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell), Stealing Harvard (2003; starring the Canadian shock comedian Tom Green), and Comeback Season (2006). He wrote 13 episodes of the television series Carpoolers (2007-08).

The Kids in the Hall were reunited in 2000, 2002 and 2008 for cross-country comedy tours, and fans were able to revisit some of their favourite characters from the beloved series. The original idea for the eight-part CBC miniseries Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (2010) came from McCulloch, and fans were delighted to see the group on television again.

Bruce McCulloch has released two comedy albums: Shame-Based Man (1995) and Drunk Baby Project (2002). As with his television work, these feature a mixture of music and monologues.