Patton Oswalt

Birth Date: 27/01/1969

Stand-up comedian and multi-platform performer Patton Oswalt has spent over three decades building one of the most eclectic careers in American entertainment. The Portsmouth, Virginia native earned a Grammy for his Netflix special Talking for Clapping and an Emmy for its accompanying hour. Best known for voicing Remy in Ratatouille, M.O.D.O.K. in Marvel's animated series of the same name, and Happy in the Syfy dark comedy Happy!, he remains equally active on stage, screen, and in the recording booth.

Patton Oswalt’s Journey From Stand-Up Stages to Animation Stardom

Comedy clubs in Northern Virginia produced many working comedians, but few carved a path as distinct as Patton Oswalt’s. Born on January 27, 1969, in Portsmouth, Virginia, he began performing stand-up in 1988 while still a student at the College of William and Mary. Those early years built the timing and character instincts that would eventually translate directly into an animation career spanning decades.

Breaking Into Voiceover – From Batman Beyond to Ratatouille

Long before mainstream audiences knew his name, Oswalt was lending his voice to animated projects throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s – including the character Eldon Michaels in Batman Beyond and Professor Dementor in Kim Possible. Those roles sharpened him for the assignment that changed everything: voicing Remy, the lead character in Pixar’s 2007 Academy Award-winning film Ratatouille. Carrying an entire animated feature as a rat with culinary ambitions required a different kind of performance than his stand-up work – quieter, more interior – and Oswalt delivered one of the most beloved vocal performances in Pixar’s history.

Happy!, M.O.D.O.K., and the Voice Actor as Creative Force

What separates Oswalt from working voice actors is a creative investment that goes beyond the booth. On the Syfy series Happy! he voiced the lead animated character, a sardonic imaginary friend navigating a brutally dark world. For Marvel’s stop-motion Hulu series M.O.D.O.K. in 2021, he not only voiced the megalomaniacal title character but created and wrote the show – making him one of the rare voice performers who has shaped the creative architecture of the property he inhabited. Other notable animated credits include Nom Nom in We Bare Bears, Max in The Secret Life of Pets 2, and Jesse in Minecraft: Story Mode.

Stand-Up, the Goldbergs, and a Career Without Boundaries

Narrating ABC’s The Goldbergs from 2013 through 2023 kept Oswalt embedded in American households for a full decade. His stand-up work earned a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for Talking for Clapping in 2016, and an Emmy for the accompanying special. More recently, he has voiced Matthew the Raven in Netflix’s adaptation of The Sandman, adding Neil Gaiman’s mythology to an already wide-ranging catalog.

Most Notable Roles: