Canadian native Dave Thomas began his career at ad agency McCann Erickson, where within a year he became the head writer for the Coca-Cola account. Three years later he left advertising to join Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Gilda Radner and Eugene Levy at the Second City Company in Toronto.
Thomas subsequently co-founded NBC's critically acclaimed comedy series "SCTV," along with co-stars Harold Ramis, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Levy and Candy. During the show's five-year run, Thomas won an Emmy® Award, four Emmy® nominations, an ACTRA Award for Best Variety Performer and an Earl Grey Award.
With Moranis, Thomas co-created the hugely popular McKenzie Brothers for "SCTV" and co-starred in the cult hit comedy film "Strange Brew" in 1983. The film won the Golden Reel Award that year for the highest box office grossing movie in Canada. The duo earned gold and platinum albums and a Grammy® nomination. The McKenzie Brothers have become an enduring franchise for nearly two-dozen years. As a result, Thomas and Moranis have licensed the characters to various companies including NBC, Pizza Hut and Miller Brewing.
Thomas has written, directed, produced and co-starred in television shows for all the major networks -- most notably "The Dave Thomas Comedy Show" for CBS and ABC's "Grace Under Fire." He was co-creator and co-executive producer of "America's Funniest People" for ABC and wrote and directed the Fox TV movie "Ghost Mom" starring Jean Stapleton and Geraint Wynn Davies. His company produced the movie "Ambushed" for HBO directed by Ernest Dickerson and starring Courtney Vance, Virginia Masden, Robert Patrick and William Forsythe. Recently Dave appeared on five episodes of "Arrested Development" playing Charlize Theron's uncle and on the Showtime series "Weeds".
In addition to voicing Tuk in Disney's 2003 hit "Brother Bear," Thomas has lent his vocal talents to numerous animated film and television projects including "The Simpsons," "Duckman," "Catdog," "Dilbert," "Animaniacs," "Justice League of America" and "Tarzan". Thomas has also appeared in numerous feature films, including "Stripes" with Bill Murray and Ramis, "Spies Like Us" (which he co-wrote with Aykroyd) with Chevy Chase and Aykroyd, "The Experts" (which Thomas directed) starring John Travolta and Kelly Preston, "Boris and Natasha" and "Rat Race." Recently Thomas played featured roles in the theatrical releases "Who's Your Daddy" and "Call Me Irresponsible."
In 1996 Thomas wrote "SCTV Behind the Scenes," a book that is currently in its second printing and is available in paperback.
Currently Thomas is a partner in Animax Entertainment, a full-service animation studio that produces animated comedy for such companies as ESPN, AOL, Ford, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers and Verizon. Animax won an Emmy Award this year for it's ESPN animated series, "Off Mikes" and is producing a weekly series for AOL. Thomas lives in Agoura Hills, California with his wife Kim and four children John, Emily, Harry and Charlie.