Biography
Born and raised on Long Island, young Ken Marino divided his time between sports and acting until one of his coaches tried to talk him out of being in the school play. From that point on, Marino devoted his time to acting. He studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute and NYU's Tisch School for the Arts. It was at NYU that he became part of a comedy troupe called The New Group. They soon changed their name to The State, and landed a deal with MTV to create an eponymous sketch comedy show. "The State" (MTV, 1993-95) ran for two years and launched long careers for many of those involved, including Marino. He played guest roles on shows like "Boston Common" (NBC, 1996-97) and "Spin City" (NBC, 1996-2002), before landing a series regular role, replacing outgoing Ron Eldard on season two of "Men Behaving Badly" (NBC, 1996-97), starring Rob Schneider. After that show, Marino continued working regularly as a guest star on shows like "Nash Bridges" (CBS, 1996-2001) and "Will & Grace" (NBC, 1998-2006). Marino reunited with a number of alumni from The State to make the feature "Wet Hot American Summer" (2001), with the mostly 30+ year-old actors playing 18 year-olds to comic effect. The same year he was a series regular on "First Years" (NBC, 2001), a drama following five roommates, all in their first year out of law school. The show didn't last a full season, but Marino continued working, with a recurring role on "Dawson's Creek" (The WB, 1998-2003) and a series regular role on "Leap of Faith" (NBC, 2002), another short-lived series. After another slew of guest roles, notably as private investigator Vinnie Van Lowe on "Veronica Mars" (UPN, 2004-06, The CW, 2006-07), Marino again rejoined many of his sketch comedy pals as a series regular on "Childrens Hospital" (The WB.com, 2008; Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, 2010-16), a comedy touchstone for many comedians. Marino starred in "Party Down" (Bravo, 2009-2010), another well-regarded comedy that gave a springboard for a number of comic actors. Netflix decided to reunite The State crew for "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp" (Netflix, 2015), a prequel series, with the now even older actors playing even younger than the first film, and then "Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later" (Netflix, 2017). His feature directorial debut, "Dog Days" (2018), was written by his wife Erica Oyama and featured a number of comedians from his sketch troupe. In 2019, Marino premiered as a series regular on "The Other Two" (Comedy Central, 2019-), a well-reviewed family comedy, and played dual roles as the Lehman brothers on David Caspe's dark 1980s-set comedy "Black Monday" (Showtime 2019- ).
