Kevin McDonald

The whippet-thin, wild-haired member of the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, McDonald also played Chris Cooper, the scientist hero of their 1996 film, "The Kids in the Hall BRAIN CANDY"

Kevin McDonald was an aspiring actor and resource-center of film and TV comedy information working as a theater usher when he met another aspirant, Dave Foley, at a Second City workshop. The duo became friends and eventually hooked up with Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson to form The Kids in the Hall, named for what Jack Benny used to call the young writers who tried to sell him gags.

The Kids in the Hall were "discovered" by Toronto native Lorne Michaels, who subsequent produced their TV show which ran on Canadian TV and in the USA on HBO, CBS and Comedy Central. Zany and ribald, often just offering obscure pop culture references in monologues that mused about life, the show also found its hallmark in the male cast dressing as female characters, not so much as drag spectacles as other comics have done, but as fully developed distaff personas.

The hyper-kinetic McDonald, with looks that almost made him seem like a character out of animation, was particularly featured in the group's more surreal sketches. McDonald was the first Kid to try and forge an independent career in features, but his debut, "National Lampoon's Senior Trip" (1995) was hardly an auspicious one. (McDonald himself dismissed it as "a pretty bad movie").

He followed up with roles in the Canadian independents "Dinner at Fred's" (1997) and "Boy Meets Girl" (1998) and has had memorable cameos in the comedy features "Galaxy Quest" (1999) and "The Ladies Man" (2000). As both an actor and writer, he was part of the sketch comedy troupe for the short-lived daily variety series "The Martin Short Show" (syndicated, 1999) and has been a steady guest presence on series television.