Taran Killam facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Taran Killam
Killam in 2024
Born	Taran Hourie Killam (1982-04-01) April 1, 1982 (age 43) Culver City, California, U.S.
Education	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation	Actor comedian
Years active	1994–present
Spouse(s)	Cobie Smulders ​ (m. 2012)​
Children	2

Taran Hourie Killam (born April 1, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He first became known for his time on the Fox comedy show MADtv from 2001 to 2002. Later, he became even more famous as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 2010 to 2016.

Taran Killam has also appeared in many other TV shows, including Wild 'n Out, The Amanda Show, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, and Single Parents. He is also known for playing a teen pop star in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. He is the voice of the main character on the PBS children's cartoon series Nature Cat.

Killam is also famous for his work in Broadway theatre. He played King George III in the musical Hamilton in 2017. He returned to Broadway in 2023 to play Lancelot in Spamalot.

About Taran Killam

Early Life and Education

Taran Killam was born on April 1, 1982, in Culver City, California. He lived in Big Bear Lake, California, until he was 15 years old. His mother was a singer-songwriter who toured with The Charlie Daniels Band. His father was part of a theater group and also wanted to act. Killam is also the great-nephew of Rosemarie Bowe, who was married to actor Robert Stack.

Killam went to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. After high school, he studied musical theater at the UCLA. He spent a lot of his time working on UCLA's Theater Festival. He later left UCLA to focus on his acting career.

Starting His Acting Career

In 1994, Killam made his first movie appearance as a young boy in Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult. He was also featured on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, a comedy show starring Amanda Bynes. On that show, he played Spaulding, a boy with a crush on a character named Moody in a soap opera parody called "Moody's Point."

Killam joined the cast of MADtv in 2001 when he was 19. This made him the youngest cast member ever hired on the show. He appeared in 13 episodes during the show's seventh season. He was also a regular cast member on the third and fourth seasons of Wild 'N Out. In 2005, Killam co-starred in a TV pilot called Nobody's Watching, which never aired on TV but became popular online.

Killam also co-starred in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. After MADtv, he appeared on many other TV shows like Jake in Progress, Still Standing, Boston Public, Drake & Josh, Do Over, Roswell, and Judging Amy. He also played Jimmy (the Overly Touchy Orderly) on Scrubs. In 2006, Killam was a contestant on the game show The Price Is Right.

He has also been in movies such as Big Fat Liar, Just Married, and My Best Friend's Girl. Killam was a member of the Groundlings, a famous improv and sketch-comedy group in Los Angeles, until 2012.

Saturday Night Live Years

On September 25, 2010, Taran Killam joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL) for its 36th season. This made him the second SNL cast member who had also been on MADtv. Killam said that Eddie Murphy was his favorite SNL cast member. In August 2016, Killam left the show.

On November 10, 2012, Killam appeared in an SNL music video called "The Legend of Mokiki and the Sloppy Swish" with Kenan Thompson and Anne Hathaway. In the video, Killam played Mokiki, a character who performs a funny dance called the "Sloppy Swish." This sketch quickly became very popular online and got a lot of attention.

Other Projects and Roles

In December 2011, Killam made a funny video where he copied the dance from the Robyn music video "Call Your Girlfriend". He posted it on YouTube, and it quickly went viral, getting over a million views. Killam later explained that he learned the dance when Robyn was going to be a guest on SNL.

In 2011, Killam appeared in the Community episode "Regional Holiday Music" as Mr. Radison, a character who made fun of a character from the show Glee. In 2012, he was in the iCarly episode "iMeet the First Lady" as a Secret Service agent.

Killam co-starred in the 2013 comedy movie The Heat. He also voiced Zip "Frantic" Danger in the Hulu cartoon series The Awesomes.

In 2013, Killam also started writing comic books. He co-wrote a six-issue comic series called The Illegitimates, which was about a team of siblings who take over their spy father's job after he dies.

Killam appeared in the 2013 movie 12 Years a Slave. He played Abram Hamilton, one of the people who brought the main character into slavery.

Killam is a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and his favorite turtle is Raphael. He successfully got a role in the 2014 movie as a TV station staff member.

He made six guest appearances as Gary Blauman on his wife Cobie Smulders' TV show, How I Met Your Mother.

Since 2015, Killam has been the voice of the main character on the PBS Kids show Nature Cat. Other SNL actors like Kate McKinnon, Bobby Moynihan, and Kenan Thompson also voice characters on the show.

On January 17, 2017, Killam took over the role of King George III in the Broadway musical Hamilton.

Killam also produced, wrote, directed, and starred in the movie Killing Gunther, which came out in 2017. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played Gunther in the film, was an executive producer.

In March 2018, Killam was cast as a main character in the comedy show Single Parents for ABC. The show started airing on September 26, 2018.

Personal Life

After dating for several years, Taran Killam and actress Cobie Smulders got engaged in January 2009. They got married on September 8, 2012, in Solvang, California. The couple has two daughters, born in 2009 and 2015. In January 2025, Killam and Smulders' home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles was affected by a wildfire.

Killam is a big fan of the Los Angeles Rams football team and often goes to their home games.

Filmography

Movies

Television Shows

Theatre Performances

See also

In Spanish: Taran Killam para niños