McBride was a
second unit director for
David Gordon Green's feature film debut
George Washington, released in 2000. McBride made his acting debut in 2003, appearing in a supporting role in Green's second film
All the Real Girls. In 2006, McBride played Fred Simmons in the low-budget comedy film
The Foot Fist Way, which he co-wrote with collaborators
Jody Hill and
Ben Best. His character later appeared in ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien on February 26, 2008. McBride wrote and starred in the HBO original comedy series Eastbound & Down'' (also a collaboration with Hill and Best), as Kenny Powers, a washed-up former
major league baseball pitcher with
anger management issues. The series was produced by
Gary Sanchez Productions, and the pilot episode premiered in February 2009, featuring
Will Ferrell and
Craig Robinson. HBO renewed the series for a second season in April 2009, and a fourth in July 2012. The series ended in November 2013. In March 2009, because of his role as Powers, he received an offer to play semi-professional baseball from the
Pensacola Pelicans, a team in the
American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. '' In 2010, he signed an endorsement deal with
K-Swiss shoes. He played the eponymous roadie in the
Tenacious D music video for "Roadie" in 2012. McBride co-created and co-starred in the HBO comedy series
Vice Principals from 2016 to 2017. McBride voiced Duane Earl, a fictional talk radio host in the 2013 video game
Grand Theft Auto V. Earl is the host of
Beyond Insemination, a satirical show where he
converses with callers. In 2017, McBride appeared in the prequel film
Alien: Covenant, alongside
Katherine Waterston,
Michael Fassbender and
Billy Crudup. McBride told
Vanity Fair in an interview that he was both surprised and glad for the opportunity to be involved with the
Alien movie since he had been a longtime fan of the franchise. In January 2018, two trailers were released online for what was supposedly a
Crocodile Dundee sequel, titled
Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home, and purportedly starring McBride as Brian Dundee, the son of the original Crocodile Dundee. The trailers feature cameo appearances by Australian actors
Chris Hemsworth,
Hugh Jackman,
Russell Crowe,
Margot Robbie and
Ruby Rose. From the beginning, various aspects of the campaign made some publications believe that film was an elaborate hoax. It was later reported that these ads were actually part of a lead-up to a
Super Bowl commercial for
Tourism Australia. Since 2018, McBride has been the face of bookmaker
Coral's television commercials in the United Kingdom, playing a character called "Sports Rodstein", described as "the world's biggest sports fan (although not the savviest)". In late 2018, HBO ordered
The Righteous Gemstones, from McBride and his
Rough House Pictures label, straight to series. The series also stars
John Goodman,
Adam Devine and
Edi Patterson. It follows a world-famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed, and charitable work. In 2021, McBride voiced Rick Mitchell in the
Sony Pictures Animation film
The Mitchells vs. the Machines. ==Personal life==