Improv comedy After college, he joined an improv group with
Mike McShane. Both Proops and McShane impressed producers
Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, who put them on their show,
Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He frequently instigated jokes concerning various
idiosyncrasies and differences between
British English and
American English, and would frequently banter with
Clive Anderson on these matters (among others). He lived in London for four years when he was doing the show and lists McShane,
Richard Vranch and
Colin Mochrie among his best friends. After the show ended, he was recalled for the
American version and has been a frequent "fourth contestant". Through 2020, he has appeared in 74 American
Whose Line episodes, more than any other non-regular cast member. Proops also appeared in every episode of the short-lived ''
Drew Carey's Green Screen Show'', where the performers would play improv games (some of which were taken from the show's main influence
Whose Line Is It Anyway?) in front of a massive green screen. Later, animators would draw on the background and other props. In April 2011, ''
Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza premiered on GSN featuring Proops along with other frequent guests from Whose Line is it Anyway?'' In July 2012, Proops appeared in ABC's improvisation show,
Trust Us with Your Life. In November 2011, Proops did a week on
Royal Caribbean's
Freedom of the Seas with the Lewis Black Comedy Cruise Tour. He performed the entire week of stand-up with other artists, which included a live, one-hour podcast in front of his entire audience.
Film and television Proops has performed his stand-up act across
Britain, mainland
Europe,
Australia and
New Zealand. His other credits include hosting
Space Cadets, a mid-1990s science-fiction comedy game show on
Channel 4 in the UK, which also featured
Craig Charles (
Dave Lister from
Red Dwarf) and
Bill Bailey, and appearances on
BBC2's
Mock the Week. He appeared as a panelist on the 2000 revival of
To Tell the Truth. Proops has also hosted game shows, including
VS. in 1999,
Rendez-View in 2001, and
Head Games, a
Science Channel game show which ran for one season in 2009. Proops also competed on the November 8th, 1984 episode of
Jeopardy!, losing to eventual five day champion John Genova. He would later record video clues for two
Jeopardy! episodes in 2000 and 2001. In addition to his stand-up and improv acts, Proops has done voice work in various films and TV shows, including
Tim Burton's
The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the miniseries
Stripperella with
Pamela Anderson. Proops provided the voice of Bob in the US version of the TV series
Bob the Builder for the five seasons of
Project Build It. He has also featured in 2003 film
Brother Bear as the voice of one of the Love Bears and provided the voice as Cryptograf in 2006 film
Asterix and the Vikings. Proops has been involved with
Turner Classic Movies since 2013, appearing on several of the network's podcasts and in person at public events. In 2016, he appeared as a television presenter for TCM, introducing comedy films by the
Marx Brothers and
Wheeler & Woolsey. Proops has been involved with the
Star Wars franchise as well. He played the role of
Fode in
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He would later work with the
Expanded Universe, reprising his role as Fode in the video game
Star Wars Episode I: Racer and the video game adaptation of
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and he guest-starred on two episodes of the animated series
Star Wars: The Clone Wars ("The Mandalore Plot" and "Voyage of Temptation") as Tal Merrick. In 2018, Proops voiced Jak Sivrak in
Star Wars Resistance. Proops appeared as a guest on
The George Lucas Talk Show during their
May the AR Be LI$$ You Arli$$ marathon fundraiser.
Radio and podcast Since 2010, Proops has hosted a podcast called
The Smartest Man In The World, often together with his wife Jennifer Canaga, in which he talks about current events, celebrity culture, and his personal life, usually in front of a live audience. Before
Smartest Man, Proops hosted a podcast called
The Greg Proops Experiment. In 2010, Proops hosted Odd News on yahoo!.com for several years. It was a weekly program where he told weird and funny stories from around the world. The series seems to have continued in text format and on Twitter for several years after Proops was no longer a part of it. From 1995 to 1996, Proops presented ''
Bits from Last Week's Radio on BBC Radio 1. He did voice work for the BBC Radio 2 series Flight of the Conchords'', first broadcast in September 2005. Proops also played the title role in
BBC Radio 4's sci-fi comedy series
Seymour the Fractal Cat. Proops provided the voices for the Harlequin Demon, the Devil, and the Sax Player in ''
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'' soundtrack and movie.
Video games Proops provides voice-over work as Howard "Buckshot" Holmes, a game show announcer along with
John DiMaggio for the
Nintendo Wii game
MadWorld. DiMaggio and Proops play as comical announcers on a brutal game show set in the future. Proops provided the voice of Matthew Black, a reporter in the
Psygnosis game,
ZombieVille (1997). Proops also provided the voice of Fargus, a pyromantic court jester for the PlayStation
Pandemonium game series. He later worked as a voice actor in
Skylanders: Imaginators, where he voiced a Brain that was freed by Kaos in order to help perfect his Doomlanders project.
Comedy albums •
Live (1994) •
Back in the UK (1997) •
Joke Book (2006) •
Houston, We Have a Problem (2007) •
Elsewhere (2009) •
Greg Proops Digs In! (2010) •
In the Ball Park (2015) •
The Resistance (2018) •
In The City (2022) •
French Drug Deal (2023)
Comedy specials •
Greg Proops: Live At Musso & Frank (2013)
The Smartest Book in the World On May 5, 2015, Proops released nonfiction book
The Smartest Book in the World through publisher Touchstone. The book is based in part on Proops's weekly podcast
The Smartest Man in the World, detailing the author's movie and poetry recommendations, baseball facts, powerful women, and misconstrued history. The paperback version of the book was released from Touchstone on February 21, 2017. ==Filmography==