Biography
Best-known for his anti-comedy creation Neil Hamburger, Gregg Turkington first rose to prominence on San Francisco's avant-garde post-punk movement before becoming a cult stand-up, a regular collaborator with Tim Heidecker and an unlikely leading man in the self-penned drama "Entertainment" (2015). Born in Darwen, Australia in 1967 to American parents, Turkington grew up in Tempe, AZ and San Francisco, CA, making a name for himself on the latter's underground scene as the co-publisher of cult zine Breakfast Without Meat and member of various obscure bands including Caroliner, Bean Church and Hello Kitty on Ice. Turkington remained an instrumental figure on the scene throughout the '90s, founding Amarillo Records, performing and recording with the likes of The Easy Goings, The Zip Code Rapists and The Three Doctors and serving as touring manager for Link Wray and Mr. Bungle. But it was on the comedy circuit where Turkington would get to showcase his talents in front of a much wider audience. As Neil Hamburger, a confrontational anti-comedian renowned for his combover/thick glasses combo, constant throat clearing and fondness for deriding audiences, Turkington instantly drew comparisons to Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton. After releasing a collection of prank phone calls in 1992, Hamburger then recorded the first of many live stand-up albums, America's Funnyman, four years later. He returned to his native Australia in the late '90s where he lived up until 2003, before heading back to the States where he graced the likes of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (ABC, 2003-), "Tom Green's House Tonight" (Syndication, 2006-) and "Red Eye" (Fox News, 2007-2017). 13 years after making his film debut in low-budget indie comedy "Terminal USA" (2003), Turkington made a belated second big-screen appearance in "Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny" (2006). He went on to provide the voice of Gossiper editor Toby Determined on "Gravity Falls" (Disney Channel, 2012-16) and various characters on "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" (Cartoon Network, 2008-2010), create the successful movie review parody web series "On Cinema" (2012-) and play Bobby in Tim Heidecker vehicle "The Comedy" (2012). Turkington (as his alter-ego Hamburger) was then cast as Osric in the live-action/animation Shakespeare adaptation, "Hamlet A.D.D." (2014), played bombing suspect Lawrence Territo in the final episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000-2015) and landed a small part as Baskin Robbins manager Dale in Marvel movie "Ant-Man" (2015). Turkington then took his first major lead role in "Entertainment" (2015), a misanthropic drama inspired by Hamburger about an uncomfortably confrontational stand-up comedian he also co-wrote with Heidecker and director Rick Alverson. In 2016 his web creation, "Decker" (2014-15), a spoof spy series in which he also played the CIA's movie-obsessed master of codes, made the move to the small screen on Adult Swim, while a year later he appeared as an advertiser in the biopic of National Lampoon co-founder Doug Kenney, "A Stupid and Futile Gesture" (2017).
