Jim Meskimen

This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources. Please help by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. Find sources: "Jim Meskimen" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Jim Meskimen
Meskimen at the 2014 Annie Awards
Born	Jim Ross Meskimen (1959-09-10) September 10, 1959 (age 65) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupations	Actor comedian impressionist
Years active	1984–present
Spouse	Tamra Shockley ​ (m. 1987)​
Children	1
Parents	Freeman Meskimen (father) Marion Ross (mother)
Website	www.jimmeskimen.com

Jim Ross Meskimen (born September 10, 1959) is an actor, impressionist and voice actor who has been a fixture in film, TV, animation, games and audiobooks for decades.  He has appeared in films for director Ron Howard, as well as films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Garry Marshall.

He attended Taft High in Woodland Hills, CA, where he met his wife, Tamra Shockley.^[1] He was the cartoonist for the school newspaper, and also acted in plays.^[2]

After high school he attended the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and began his college education.^[3] Before that first year was over, he returned home for a time and received training in animation at Hanna-Barbera studios in Hollywood, under the apprenticeship of Harry Love.^[4]

Shortly after, he began working for producer Doug Wildey, who had created the original Jonny Quest series.^[5][6] Jim was assistant storyboard artist to veteran comic book artist Don Rico on the animated series, Jana of the Jungle.

After a season at Hanna-Barbera, in 1978 Jim returned to UCSC to study general subjects, painting, drawing and lithography.^[3] He also did parts in plays, but did not take classes in the Drama department, preferring to concentrate on his visual art education.^[3]

He studied art history in five courses with Jasper Rose, a fixture at UCSC, who later became the inspiration for an art historian character, Professor Knestor Jackdaws.^[7]

He studied painting with Eduardo Carrillo, a Mexican muralist and teacher, and sculpture with Hardy Hanson.^[8]

In 1980 he travelled to Galicia, Spain to begin a period of intensive training in classical painting with Argüello and a handful of other students.  He returned in 1981 and resumed studies at UCSC, studying sculpture, printmaking and painting, as well as private training with Miguel, who continued teaching at the university.^[3][9]

When not painting, Jim participated in major theatrical productions in Santa Cruz, both at the university and in local theater.^[10]

After graduating UCSC In 1982 he returned with Argüello to Galicia, and resumed private studies.^[11]

In 1983, after living for a time in Madrid on his own, he had an encounter with actor Harvey Keitel and he decided to pursue acting, and moved to New York City.^[12]

In New York, he worked as a visual artist, doing illustrations, cartoons and commercial art for various companies. He landed a job designing characters for Rankin/Bass's original series Thundercats, then in its first season.  He worked with producer Jules Bass on expanding the story, and contributed to the Thundercats "bible."^[13]

While working for Rankin/Bass, Jim visited one of the recording sessions with actors Bob McFadden, Earl Hammond, Peter Newman, Earl Hyman and others, and began working in radio and TV voiceovers.^[4]

He did hundreds of radio and TV commercials, and became a series regular on the animated show The Comic Strip, produced by his old employer Rankin/Bass.^[13]

He became the voice of several brands in the 1980's and 1990's. He was the voice of the channel that became Comedy Central, (then named HA!) and did campaigns for Swatch Watch as Doctor Swatch, a character he created with marketing head Steven Rechtshaffner.^[3][14]

He became on-camera spokesman on TV and radio commercials for Skaggs Alfa Beta grocery stores in 1986.^[15]

He worked as a man-on-the-street interviewer for banks, cars, retail chains and other clients, in spontaneous, off-the-cuff comedic campaigns that won dozens of industry awards. Among these were Schnucks Markets, Food Lion, and Kash & Karry.^[16]

During those New York years (1983-1993) Jim studied and performed improv with several companies, chiefly INTERPLAY and did hundreds of live shows at the National Improvisational Theatre on Eighth Avenue, Chelsea.^[17]

On the invitation of producers, he and fellow Interplay member Christopher Smith guest starred several times on Britain’s Whose Line Is It, Anyway?^[18]

His first film role was in Ron Howard's The Paper, starring Michael Keaton.^[19]

In 1993, he moved home to LA with his family to start a career in TV and film, beginning with Fresh Prince of Bel Air and a role in director Ron Howard’s Oscar-nominated Apollo 13.^[20] Howard cast Jim in no less than five feature films, including The Grinch and Frost/Nixon.^[21][22]

He appeared in an early episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as professor Jeremy Mansfield, who was loosely modeled after Robin Willams character in the film Dead Poets Society.^[20][21]

In early 2003, he met Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the brothers who founded Jibjab Media. He voiced early hits, including Arnold for President, This Land, and Second Term.^[23][24]  He continued to work with the Spiridellis brothers on their Emmy and BAFTA award-winning children's series Ask The Storybots, and other projects.^[25]

He has appeared on major television programs; Friends, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, This is Us, SWAT, Hunters, NCIS, Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory, to name but a few.^[26][27]

His character voices have been heard on a number of video games and animated shows including Star Trek: Resurgence, Marvel Avengers Assemble, Batman: Arkham Asylum,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shaggy and Scooby Doo: Get a Clue, Pinky & The Brain, Phineas & Ferb, Legend of Korra, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and two reboots of Thundercats.^[28][29]

His viral hit, Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices brought him global attention on YouTube and lead to many opportunities, including performing on America’s Got Talent in 2013, where his improvised celebrity impressions at Radio City Music Hall earned him a standing ovation.^[30]

He has performed his live one-man show, JIMPRESSIONS in Hollywood, Australia and the U.K.^[31][32]

In 2017, he wrote a screenplay for a short film, which became Son to Son, and won festival awards. He starred in the short, with actor Nick Lane, with Taron Lexton directing.^[33][34]

His performance as the troubled, opioid addict father in Son to Son garnered; the UK Film Review said: "Meskimen delivers a tragically believable character in a short space of time to great effect."^[33]

He provided the voice of Colonel Harland Sanders for the KFC brand on radio, web and television ads for many years, starting in 2016.^[35]

As an audiobook narrator, he has worked on hundreds of titles for all major publishers and received awards for his narration.^[36][37]

Directing multi-cast audiobooks for Galaxy Audio was his full time job from 2005 to 2009, when he worked as senior director to complete hundreds of hours of audio of the fiction work of American author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard.^[36]

The multi-cast production of Battlefield Earth, a Saga of the Year 3000, which Jim directed and performed in won an Audie Award in 2017.^[38]

He appeared on America's Got Talent as a celebrity impressionist in 2013 and as a finalist performed at Radio City Music Hall, NYC, receiving a standing ovation.^[39][40]

Since 2020, he has played roles on television in Gaslit with Sean Penn and Julia Roberts, Hunters, and as the recurring character of Cary Hubbard in AppleTV+'s The Big Door Prize, opposite Chris O'Dowd.^[35]

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tamra, who is a co-founder of The Acting Center, an acting school and performance venue in Sherman Oaks, California.^[41] They have one daughter, actress, singer and award-winning audio book narrator Taylor Meskimen.^[41][42] His mother is Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actress Marion Ross of Happy Days.

• 3rd Rock from the Sun – Alan (Season 2 Episode 4)
• Anger Management – Daniel
• Community – Christopher Walken/Tommy Lee Jones impersonator (Season 3 Episode 11)
• Friends – Bill (Season 10 Episode 2)
• Even Stevens - Dr. Dean
• Good Omens - George H. W. Bush (voice)
• Hot in Cleveland – Professor Zucker
• Kickin' It - Principal Bucket (Season 2, Episode 9)
• Mad – Gandalf, Droopy, Benedict Arnold, additional voices
• Malcolm in the Middle – Waiter
• NCIS - Dr. Farrel Emerson
• Parks and Recreation – Martin Housely^[53]
• Phineas and Ferb – Additional voices
• Random! Cartoons – Thom Cat, Neighbor John, Stumpy ("Thom Cat" short)
• Robot Chicken – Frank, Jon Corzine, Heimlich's Father, Sorting Hat
• Rock, Paper, Scissors - Abraham Lincoln
• Rules of Engagement – Mr. Wrigley
• Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! – Agent 1, Robi
• The Big Bang Theory – Doctor, Man (voice), Las Vegas Wedding Chapel Minister
• The Boondocks – Bill O'Reilly, Chris Hansen, Additional voices
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – Prof. Jeremy Mansfield (Season 4 Episode 3), Werner (Season 6 Episodes 2 and 3 and 11)
• The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest – Additional voices
• Time Squad – George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush
• Two and a Half Men – Gangster #2 (voice)
• Whose Line Is it Anyway? – Himself^[54]
• Family Matters – Mission Controller (Season 9 Episodes 21 and 22)

• Armored Core V - Jack Batty, Men of Honor Unit B, Zodiac No. 8^[55]
• Baldur's Gate – Edwin Odesseiron, Jebadoh, Khalid, Thaldorn
• Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn – Edwin Odesseiron
• Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal – Edwin Odesseiron, Khalid
• Batman: Arkham City – Officer Tom Miller
• Batman: Arkham Knight – Additional voices^[56]
• Batman: Arkham Origins – SWAT Officers, Cops
• Call of Duty: Black Ops – John F. Kennedy
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Secretary of Defense David Petraeus
• Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight – Various
• Destroy All Humans! 2 - Additional voices^[57]
• Diablo III – Additional voices^[58]
• Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Additional voices^[59]
• Disney Infinity 3.0 – Ultron
• Disney Think Fast – Genie
• Disney Speedstorm - Genie
• Epic Mickey – Voice
• Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two – Mad Doctor
• EverQuest II – Guild Patron Volarian, Baron Zafimus, Sergeant-at-Arms Ironcast, Commission Deputy Halford, Naturalist Tummyfill, Borthen, Amren Talbot, Morte Winghammer, Green Hood Trap Master, Banker Izark, Ubani, Overseer Travog
• Fantastic 4 – Doctor Doom, Additional voices
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 – Additional voices
• Gothic 3 - Additional voices
• Hitman: Blood Money – Additional voices
• Kinect Disneyland Adventures – Genie
• Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix – Genie (Kingdom Hearts Re:coded cinematics)
• Lego Jurassic World – Additional voices
• Lego The Lord of the Rings – Various
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – Additional voices^[60]
• Madagascar: The Video Game – Albino Crocodile, Guard, Jogger, Sailor
• Marvel Dimension of Heroes - Ultron^[43]
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite - Ultron, Ultron Sigma, Ultron Omega
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order - Ultron, Ultimo
• MAG - SVER Executive
• Minecraft Story Mode - Milo
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl - Nigel Thornberry (voiceover added in the June 2022 update)
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 - Nigel Thornberry
• Robots - Ratchet, Additional voices
• Shark Tale: The Video Game – Lino, Additional Tenant Fish
• Shrek the Third - Captain Hook, Attendant 2, Geek
• Skylanders: Trap Team – Additional voices^[61]
• Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom - Genie
• Syndicate - Additional voices
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan - Wingnut, Stone Warriors
• The Lego Movie Videogame – Additional voices
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II – Elven King Thranduil
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II - The Rise of the Witch-king - King Thranduil
• Ultimate Spider-Man – Additional voices

• Jib Jab – George W. Bush

• Bugs Bunny and Friends Sing The Beatles – Elmer Fudd

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jim Meskimen.

• Official website
• Jim Meskimen at IMDb