He is the lead singer of the cult hit comedy group he created called
The Dan Band, which
Entertainment Weekly dubbed "the hottest ticket in Hollywood." The live show was filmed in Los Angeles as a one-hour concert special
Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band: I Am Woman on the
Bravo channel, directed by
McG and executive produced by
Steven Spielberg. Finnerty gained fame for his hilariously foul-mouthed rendition of "
Total Eclipse of the Heart" as the wedding singer at
Will Ferrell's wedding in the movie
Old School, directed by
Todd Phillips. Phillips continued to feature Dan, as the sleazy bat-mitzvah singer in
Starsky & Hutch and again as the irreverent wedding singer in
The Hangover. After seeing
The Dan Band,
Steven Spielberg cast him in
The Terminal and signed on to executive produce his comedy special. Finnerty originated the role of Lonny in the world premiere of "
Rock of Ages" in Los Angeles along with
Kyle Gass from
Tenacious D and made a cameo appearance in the film version of "
Rock of Ages" as the tour manager for
Stacee Jaxx played by
Tom Cruise. He appeared over 15 times as a comedy correspondent on "
The Jay Leno Show" and
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "
The Dan Band" has released three albums:
The Dan Band Live, the full-length CD of his live show released by
Side One Dummy Records.
Ho. A Dan Band Xmas, featuring all original holiday songs, with videos for "I Wanna Rock U Hard This Christmas" featuring
Florence Henderson from
The Brady Bunch making the moves on Santa at a retirement home, as well as the anthemic "Please Don't Bomb Nobody This Holiday," featuring celebrity cameos including
Sheryl Crow,
Christina Applegate,
Nicole Scherzinger,
Kyle Gass from
Tenacious D,
Neil Patrick Harris,
Meg Ryan,
Donald Faison,
Macy Gray,
Christopher Guest,
Cheri Oteri,
Rachael Harris,
Kathy Najimy,
Nia Vardalos,
Ian Gomez,
Nathan Fillion,
Ricki Lake,
Michael Johns,
Janeane Garofalo,
Lauren Tom,
Gia Carides and
Matthew Perry.
The Wedding Album, released 2015 through
Comedy Dynamics includes collaborations with
Nicole Scherzinger,
Rob Thomas,
Bridget Everett,
Nuno Bettencourt and
TRAIN.
The Dan Band appeared numerous times on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
Jimmy Kimmel Live!,
The Late Late Show,
Last Call with Carson Daly' and as the
house band on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
Pajama Party, and Spike TV's
Spike Guys' Choice Awards. Finnerty also wrote and performed the finale song for the final season of
Last Comic Standing. In March 2017,
AT&T announced that Finnerty would appear in advertisements for
DIRECTV during
March Madness, co-starring with
Greg Gumbel. The spots feature Finnerty performing the
Aerosmith song "
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", with lyrics tailored to each scene (generally people at work while tournament games are on). He recently appeared in the
Netflix film ''
Dumplin''' starring
Jennifer Aniston as pageant host Eugene Reed, performing the song "Look At Her" which he co-wrote with
American Idol musical director
Michael Orland. ==Personal life==