Tom Kenny facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tom Kenny
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Kenny in 2022
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Thomas James Kenny
July 13, 1962 Syracuse, New York, U.S.
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| Years active | 1981–present |
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Roles and awards |
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| Children | 2 |
Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is famous for being the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants. He has voiced this character since the show started in 1999.
Tom Kenny has also voiced many other popular characters. These include Heffer Wolfe in Rocko's Modern Life and the Ice King in Adventure Time. He was also the Narrator and Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls. Other roles include Dog in CatDog and Starscream in Transformers: Animated. He also voiced Spyro from the Spyro video games.
Kenny has won awards for his voice work. These include two Daytime Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards. He is married to Jill Talley, who voices Karen on SpongeBob SquarePants. They have two children together.
Contents
About Tom Kenny
Early Life and Comedy
Thomas James Kenny was born in Syracuse, New York, on July 13, 1962. He grew up there. When he was young, he loved drawing and collecting music albums.
Kenny met his friend Bobcat Goldthwait in first grade. They stayed friends for life. As teenagers, they tried stand-up comedy together. Kenny performed stand-up comedy for about eight years. He traveled around the country doing shows.
TV and Movie Roles
Tom Kenny has acted in many TV shows and movies. He first appeared in a film called How I Got into College in 1989. He was also in sketch comedy shows. These include The Edge and Mr. Show.
On SpongeBob SquarePants, he plays Patchy the Pirate in live-action parts. He also appeared in an episode of R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series. In that show, he played a kids' show host named Uncle Howee.
Voice Acting Work
Tom Kenny has voiced many characters. He once said he voices "a lot of sweet yellow characters." He describes SpongeBob's voice as sounding like a child and an adult mixed together.
He voiced Cupid for the Nickelodeon show The Fairly OddParents. He also voiced Dog and Cliff in CatDog. In The Powerpuff Girls, he voiced many characters. These include the Mayor, the Narrator, and Mitch Mitchelson.
Kenny voiced Eduardo in Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. He was Dr. Two-Brains in WordGirl. He also voiced villains like Knightbrace in Codename: Kids Next Door. He was the Penguin in The Batman in 2004.
He plays several roles in Transformers Animated. These include Starscream and his clones. He also voiced Skids and Wheelie in the live-action Transformers movies.
In Adventure Time, he voices the Ice King and Magic Man. He also voiced Woody Johnson on Brickleberry. Kenny has voiced characters in Mixels and Sumo in Clarence. He was Dr. Otto Octavius in The Ultimate Spider-Man.
Tom Kenny is also known for voicing Spyro the Dragon in video games. He first voiced Spyro in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!. He returned to voice Spyro in Spyro Reignited Trilogy. He also voiced Fethry Duck in the 2017 DuckTales. In 2022, he voiced characters in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.
SpongeBob SquarePants
While working on Rocko's Modern Life, Kenny met Stephen Hillenburg. Hillenburg was a marine biologist and animator. After Rocko's Modern Life ended, Hillenburg created a new show. It was about the ocean and his favorite animal, the sea sponge.
Hillenburg asked Kenny to voice the main character in 1997. The show, SpongeBob SquarePants, first aired on Nickelodeon in 1999. It quickly became very popular. Kenny also voices other characters on the show. These include Gary the Snail, the French Narrator, and SpongeBob's dad.
In 2010, Kenny won an Annie Award for his voice work as SpongeBob. He also voiced SpongeBob in the movie The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. In 2018 and 2020, he won Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program awards.
In 2019, the show celebrated its 20th anniversary. A special episode called "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout" aired. In this special, the voice actors played live-action versions of their characters. This honored the show's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, who had passed away.
Kenny also played Patchy the Pirate in the live recording of the SpongeBob SquarePants musical.
In 2024, the Super Bowl LVIII football game was shown on Nickelodeon. This was a special family-friendly broadcast. Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, who voices Patrick Star, voiced their characters live. They even made up jokes as SpongeBob and Patrick.
Family Life
Tom Kenny met his wife, Jill Talley, in 1992. They were working on The Edge together. They have worked on many projects since then. This includes SpongeBob SquarePants, where Jill Talley voices Karen Plankton.
They also appeared in a music video for the song "Tonight, Tonight". Tom and Jill have two children, Mack (born 1997) and Nora (born 2003). The Kenny family lives in Studio City, California.
Images for kids
