Pete Gardner

Native New Yorker Pete Gardner, originally Pete Zahradnick, was born and raised in the metropolitan area-adjacent Scarsdale and went to school upstate at Skidmore College. Gardner's interest in performance led him to Chicago, IL in 1986, where he took up studying improvisational comedy at ImprovOlympic.

By the early '90s, Gardner began accruing professional acting gigs, making appearances in comedy films like Damon Wayans' "Mo' Money" (1992) and on television shows like "Arli$$" (HBO 1996-2002), "Tracey Takes On" (HBO 1996-99), and "Home Improvement" (ABC 1991-99). This volume of television work only increased in the 2000s, as Gardner found minor parts on "Providence" (NBC 1999-2002), "The Bernie Mac Show" (Fox 2001-06), "7th Heaven" (The WB/The CW 1996-2007), and "Cold Case" (CBS 2003-2010).

At the same time, Gardner's film résumé filled up with entries like the Jim Carrey comedy "Fun with Dick and Jane" (2005) and Michael Bay's "Transformers" (2007). Soon after, Gardner joined the Conan O'Brien-produced live-action parody series "Eagleheart" (Adult Swim 2011-14), a turn that led further success amounting big and small screen work. He appeared in the found-footage teen comedy "Project X" (2012), the Bay-produced "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2014), and on the Tim Robbins- and Jack Black-starring political satire series "The Brink" (HBO 2015).

Gardner's first costarring billing came with Rachel Bloom's musical comedy program "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (The CW 2015-), on which he played the star's well-meaning boss at a California law firm.