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Wayne Knight Officer Don on 3rd Rock From The Sun 
Wayne Knight joined the cast during "3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN's" third season as Officer Don, Sally Solomon's object of desire.Although born in New York City, Knight spent the majority of his childhood in the small town of Cartersville, Georgia. By age five he was doing impressions for his parents' friends (his repertoire included JFK, David Brinkley and Frank Fontaine's "Crazy Guggenheim" from the Jackie Gleason show). He didn't get hooked on theatre until high school when he received a scholarship to the state's Governor's Honors program in Drama. Knight then became an undergraduate theatre major at the University of Georgia. His first role at UGA was in the play "Jimmy Shine" opposite a clever graduate student who impressed him named Terry Turner. Now, after a 25-year lapse, they are working together again, as Turner is the executive producer of "3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN." Knight worked in regional theatre during his college summers and became an intern at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. After a couple of seasons, he joined the professional company and took his new Equity card to New York in hopes of a career on the stage. Within a year, he was cast on Broadway in the comedy "Gemini" in which he appeared for three years and over 1000 performances. In 1993 Knight went to London to become a regular on the sketch comedy series "Assaulted Nuts," which ran for two seasons on Britain's Channel Four and later on Cinemax. All was not gravy, however. Upon returning to New York, struggling as a young actor, Knight held various "survival jobs," such as waiting tables and selling fruitcakes for fundraising to high schools in Harlem. His most enduring and interesting sideline became private investigating. For five years Knight worked as a P.I. doing background investigations, skip traces, insurance work and surveillance. Fortunes turned for Knight in 1990 when he ran into actor Jack Weston, with whom he had done the films "Dirty Dancing" and "Ishtar." Weston had to leave a production of "Measure for Measure" at Lincoln Center and suggested Knight as his replacement. This exposure led to more work at Lincoln Center, the play "One of the Guy's" at the Public Theatre directed by Arthur Penn, and Knight's subsequent return to Broadway in Larry Gelbart's "Mastergate." Emma Thompson, a friend from their days together in "Assaulted Nuts," then offered him a role in Kenneth Branagh's movie "Dead Again," and a film career began which carried Knight to Los Angeles. Knight then worked for director Oliver Stone in "Born on the Fourth of July" and "JFK," for Paul Verhoven as Sharon Stone's very interested interrogator in "Basic Instinct" and was tabbed by Steven Spielberg to be dinosaur bait in "Jurassic Park." During this time he also began an association with the then fledgling comedy series "Seinfeld" as Newman. On television, Knight has been a regular on the sketch comedy series "The Edge" and also "The Second Half." Other film roles include his appearance as Stan Podolak, the starstruck publicist opposite Michael Jordon and Bugs Bunny in "Space Jam." He also appeared with Nicole Kidman in Gus Van Sant's film "To Die For," and in "For Richer or Poorer" opposite Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley. Knight also has a burgeoning animation career and can be heard as the voices of Microwave in "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars," Demitrius in Disney's "Hercules," Tantor in the Disney feature "Tarzan" and the evil toy collector in "Toy Story 2." He is also the voice for Dreamworks cartoon series "Toonsylvania."   PRIME PICKS KING OF THE HILL Tonight at 8:30 PM Pour Some Sugar on Kahn Kahn's father-in-law, Gen. Gum, visits the Souphanousinphone family and makes him feel like a failure; Hank and the gang take Kahn under their wing  |
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