Biographie

Chris Parnell

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Has impersonated Saturday Night Live (1975) announcer Don Pardo on at least one occasion when Pardo was too ill to announce the opening credits.
An expert at stage-fighting, so he has frequently been beaten up and killed in Saturday Night Live (1975) sketches. He has been beaten up by Dwayne Johnson, Paul Levesque, Mick Foley, Mick Foley, and Jackie Chan. He has been killed by Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro, and Will Ferrell, among others.
His dad, Jack Parnell, who passed away in April of 2023, was in the voice-over industry for 40+ years, and worked as the "image voice" for local Memphis businesses (Kroger, Federal Express) and a local TV station, and voiced countless TV/radio commercials and instructional video presentations throughout the US and internationally.
Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan tried to get him his job back shortly after he had been fired, but to no avail. It would later take Ferrell being off filming Retour à la fac (2003) and Darrell Hammond in rehab to get Lorne Michaels to change his mind.
Auditioned for every play in high school and was voted most talented in his class.

On staying in character: "Sometimes it's very hard, but hopefully you are in the moment as an actor and you are just trying to react as the character in the scene would."
What he learned from doing impressions on Saturday Night Live (1975): "The main thing is to be funny, whether people know (the impersonation) or not. You have to let go of the fact no one knows this person and just try to be funny, ultimately." On watching Saturday Night Live (1975): "When I was very little ... we'd go up to my grandmother's in Milan, Tennessee, and because we were there, we didn't go to church the next day. So me and my dad would stay up late and catch Saturday Night Live (1975) on her small black-and-white set."
When asked what project didn't live up to what he envisioned: "SNL, but only in the respect that I didn't envision getting fired."
When asked at an Saturday Night Live (1975) pitch meeting if he had any ideas for host Jude Law: "A scene where we play half-brothers, because, let's face it, that's all anybody would believe."