Trevor Moore (comedian)


Trevor Walton Moore is an American comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and musician. He is known as one of the founding members, alongside Sam Brown and Zach Cregger, of the New York City-based comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know, who had their own sketch comedy series on IFC which ran for five seasons.

Early life

Moore was born in Montclair, New Jersey. His parents are former Christian folk-rock singers, Mickey & Becki Moore, who were successful in the 1980s, their single 'Love Song for Number Two' having ranked as the number two Christian song in the USA. Because he traveled a lot on tour with his family, he changed schools constantly, going to about five different schools. By the age of 15, he became a published cartoonist after compiling his early work in a book called Scraps. At 16, Moore created the comic strip Cuddy for the now-defunct newspaper The Charlottesville Observer.
Trevor Moore attended high school at the Covenant School in Charlottesville, and by the time he was 18 he graduated while also developing personal projects.
Moore started out as a broadcasting major at Virginia Commonwealth University, and while he originally wanted to study journalism and political science, he chose film in the end. Moore, like his future Whitest Kids U' Know comrades Sam Brown and Zach Cregger, studied in Manhattan's prestigious SVA School of Visual Arts where he majored in film with a BFA and graduated cum laude.

Career

1990s

From 1997 to 1998 his show, called The Trevor Moore Show, ran on public-access television in Charlottesville, Virginia. It garnered a following among the local college community so by the time he was 18, Moore was offered a deal by Pax-TV a Christian network. The show lasted sixteen episodes with sketches like "I Wonder Who Died Today?", it also featured the "Walking-Talking Box." but it was cancelled due to what was deemed offensive material and mostly to a mistake on the programming of the show that besides its night schedule was also being broadcast too early for its rating.
It was his belief that the show would only air at night, but halfway through the first season he found out that it was being re-run at 9 AM Saturday mornings.
Later, Moore went on to work at the cable TV start up ImaginAsianTV as a producer and writer for Jimbo Matison's Uncle Morty's Dub Shack, a comedy show that involved comedians performing sketches, and re-voicing and parodying old Asian movies.

2000s

By 2002, on his last year of college, Moore got the personal internship to Saturday Night Live. He was going to be there only for one semester, but they ended up asking him to stay the entire year. This got him into the coveted NBC Page Program, which gets about 50,000 applications and only takes 50 people a year. He credits Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels as part of his comic education. He did tours there for about a year after that.
In 2004, Moore's comedy troupe, Whitest Kids U' Know, started a regular engagement at the Lower East Side bar, Pianos.
In 2008, Moore was a guest voice on an episode of the HBO show The Life and Times of Tim.
In 2009, Moore was featured in a sketch for WWE, on the set of 12 Rounds being John Cena's "hand double".
The WKUK success on the internet and live shows led to an invitation to the 2006 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. The troupe did not disappoint, winning the award for Best Sketch Group and attracting the attention of many Hollywood executives.
After the success of The Whitest Kids U'Know, Fox Searchlight approached Moore and Zach Cregger with a script and offered them a movie project. After consideration they accepted, rewrote the original script and adapted it to their comedy style, and after completing filming of the second season of The Whitest Kids U'Know, they directed and starred in Miss March. This was Moore's first feature film. It was released on March 13, 2009.

2010s

After The Whitest Kids U' Know won at the HBO U.S. Comedy Festival; Sundance, MTV, and Comedy Central were all talking to them about doing a pilot, but Fuse was already getting it started. It is now in syndication around the world.
During their college years, Moore and Sam Brown had the idea for a movie about the American Civil War. Finally, while shooting the fifth season for the Whitest Kids U' Know, he and the troupe wrote and filmed his second feature film titled "The Civil War on Drugs" where they all played multiple roles. The movie was directed by Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger. It was limitedly released in theaters and ultimately run along the WKUK fifth season. It is a historical drama that the WKUK made to document the journey to legalize marijuana during the Civil War.
Moore played Josh Armstrong on Fox's comedy television series Breaking In.
In recent years, Moore was periodically featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in recurring segments showcasing pre-taped man-on-the-street style comedy bits which feature pranks on and encounters with an unsuspecting public.
Moore has also collaborated in various occasions with Funny or Die and The Comedy Central.
Since the foundation of the WKUK comedy troupe, Moore and the other members constantly participate in on stage presentations either individually or as a group in different projects. He tours every year with the WKUK troupe performing in live shows with old and new sketches.
From time to time Moore performs in live shows called the Whatev'r Show along other comedians in NYC and Hollywood.
On the first Tuesday of every month from November 6, 2012, when it opened with a special show on the night of the presidential election, through February 2013, Trevor Moore did a talk show and comedy show on stage with fellow comedian Josh Fadem in LA. The show was called The Show Where Trevor Moore Does a Talk Show Thing and Josh Fadem Does Some Other Stuff Too All In One... Plus More.
Moore released his debut album from Comedy Central in March 2013 called Drunk Texts to Myself. He directed and starred in complementary musical videos for this album also produced by Comedy Central. The album has 12 tracks, such as "Drunk Texts To Myself ", "What About Mouthwash?", and arguably the most popular song on the album, "Founding Fathers Rap".
'Drunk Texts to Myself' is Moore's way to represent contradiction in different instances of society using a variety of musical forms, going from rap and metal to country and pop. He's performing the album along with some friends on a tour around the USA.
Moore released his second album from Comedy Central on March 10, 2015 called High in Church. This album contained live and new songs. Unique songs include "Kitty History" a critique of conspiracy theories, "The Gays Got Married", a sardonic country song, and "The Ballad of Billy John" which explores the nature of malicious YouTube comments.
Moore released his third album from Comedy Central on 4:20 called The Story of Our Times. Unlike the previous album there are no live renditions of previously released songs. Subject matter is varied but includes the inanity of youtube celebrities, reality television and online trolls.
Moore made a miniseries on Comedy Central with another founding member of The Whitest Kids U' Know, Sam Brown, that consisted of three episodes and started airing in August 2019.
Trevor Moore is also the creator of a show on the Disney Channel called Just Roll With It that premiered in June 2019.
Trevor Moore and the other members of the troupe are currently developing a WKUK feature film.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trevor Moore has hosted the Trevor Moore Quarantine Show, which often involves a sketch with he and his dog, followed by a recorded live stream session with old WKUK cast members discussing random topics. The channel has also been receiving new recorded WKUK live stream shorts involving the full cast of WKUK.

Filmography

Film

Television

On stage

Soundtrack