Breckin Meyer

Breckin Meyer
Meyer in 2011
Born	Breckin Erin Meyer (1974-05-07) May 7, 1974 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1983–present
Spouse(s)	Deborah Kaplan (m. 2001; div. 2014)
Children	2

Breckin Erin Meyer (born May 7, 1974) is an American actor best known for his roles in films such as Clueless (1995), The Craft (1996), Road Trip (2000), Rat Race (2001) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). He played Jon Arbuckle in the live-action Garfield movies. He also voiced Joseph Gribble in King of the Hill (2000–2010) and starred as Jared Franklin in Franklin & Bash (2011–2014).

Early life

Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Dorothy Ann (née Vial), a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. He has lived in California, Texas, West Virginia, and New Jersey. He has an older brother, Frank, and a younger brother, Adam. Meyer attended elementary school with Drew Barrymore (and was apparently her first kiss) and also attended Beverly Hills High School. Through his elementary school, he came into contact with Barrymore's agent, who signed Meyer. As a little boy, he was mostly seen in television advertisements, and also appeared as a child participant in the game show Child's Play. He also slept in a closed coffin for several years in high school.

Career

Meyer played several roles as a druggie, starting with his debut in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), in which he was dispatched in a video game. His breakthrough screen role was in the teen hit Clueless (1995) as the skateboarding stoner. Meyer offered similar characterizations in The Craft and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (both 1996). He played the best friend of an Olympic hopeful in the biopic Prefontaine (1997) and a high-school student yearning to leave his hometown in Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998).

In 54 (also 1998), a look at life in the famous '70s nightspot Studio 54, the actor was cast as a busboy married to the coat check girl (Salma Hayek) and pursued by a bartender (Ryan Phillippe). Meyer is close friends with Phillippe, with whom he and Seth Green share a production company.

Meyer would subsequently appear in films including Go (1999) and The Insider (1999) before graduating to a full-fledged leading role in the DreamWorks hit Road Trip (2000), in which he again played a character traveling cross country, a college student hoping desperately to retrieve a videotape of himself having sex with another girl, which was accidentally mailed to his long-distance girlfriend.

Meyer in February 2007

He re-teamed with Amy Smart in yet another racing cross country film, this time as part of the multi-plot ensemble of Rat Race (2001), a sort-of homage to the all-star screwball chase films of the 1960s, such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Meyer put in a supporting turn as Meg Ryan's character's brother in the whimsical fantasy-comedy Kate & Leopold (2001). Meyer also took on the role of Jon Arbuckle, the hapless owner of the famed comic strip cat in the film adaptation of Garfield (2004).

Meyer also starred in Blue State (2007) with Anna Paquin in which he plays a passionately liberal guy on the campaign trail for John Kerry in the 2004 elections. He drunkenly pledges to move to Canada if Bush wins the election, and on his journey meets a mysterious young woman, played by Paquin. He co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). Meyer starred opposite Emily Kinney and Giselle Eisenberg in the independent dark comedy The Enormity of Life (2021) about a suicidal man struggling with life and love.

Meyer regularly does writing and voice work on Robot Chicken, and was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on the Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials. He also voiced the adolescent Joseph Gribble on the animated series King of the Hill and starred on the Adult Swim series Titan Maximum.

Meyer is also a musician, playing drums in the punk band The Street Walkin' Cheetahs and with Tom Morello's The Nightwatchman, as well as Ben Harper, Cypress Hill, Slash and Perry Farrell at L.A.'s Hotel Café.

Meyer is the drummer for Tom Morello's alter ego The Nightwatchman's back-up band The Freedom Fighter Orchestra. He toured with Morello on The Nightwatchman's 2008 Justice Tour. He appears in Street Sweeper Social Club's video for "100 Little Curses" and "Promenade".

Personal life

Meyer married screenwriter and film director Deborah Kaplan on October 14, 2001, and has two daughters with her. They divorced in 2014.

His brother, Frank Meyer, is a staffer and producer of Fresh Ink Online at G4tv.com.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Camp Cucamonga	Cody
1991	Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare	Spencer Lewis
1995	Clueless	Travis Birkenstock
	Payback	Jim's Son
1996	The Craft	Mitt
	Escape from L.A.	Surfer
1997	Prefontaine	Pat Tyson
	Touch	Greg Czarnicki
1998	Dancer, Texas Pop. 81	Keller Coleman
	Can't Hardly Wait	Walter	Uncredited
	54	Greg Randazzo
1999	Go	Tiny
	The Insider	Sharon's Son
	Tail Lights Fade	Cole
2000	Road Trip	Josh Parker
2001	Josie and the Pussycats	Marco
	Rat Race	Nick Schaffer
	Kate & Leopold	Charlie McKay
2002	Pinocchio	Pinocchio	Voice, English dub
2004	Garfield: The Movie	Jon Arbuckle
	Blast	Jamal
2005	Herbie: Fully Loaded	Ray Peyton
	Rebound	Tim Fink
2006	Caffeine	Dylan
	Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties	Jon Arbuckle
	Ted's MBA	Ted Meyers	Also known as Corporate Affairs
2007	Blue State	John Logue
2008	Stag Night	Tony
2009	Ghosts of Girlfriends Past	Paul Mead
2010	The Maiden Heist	Starving Artist
2013	3 Geezers!	Breckin
2013	I Know That Voice	Himself	Documentary
2019	Changeland	Dan
2020	Unpregnant	Mark
2021	Happily	Richard
2021	The Enormity of Life	Casey	Release date: April 6, 2021

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Child's Play	Himself	Child contestant
1986	Potato Head Kids	Spud	Voice, 23 episodes
1988	The Wonder Years	Gary Cosey	Episode: "The Heart of Darkness"
1989	Chicken Soup	Glen	Episode: "The Dinner"
1990	L.A. Law	Brian Campbell	Episode: "Whatever Happened to Hannah?"
1992–93	The Jackie Thomas Show	Chas Walker	18 episodes
1993	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Eddie	Episode: "Crosses on the Lawn"
1995	Betrayed: The Story of Three Women	Eric Nelson	TV movie
1995–96	The Home Court	Mike Solomon	20 episodes
1996	Clueless	Harrison	Episode: "Do We with Bad Haircuts Not Feel?"
	Party of Five	Alec Brody	Episode: "Gimme Shelter"
2000–10	King of the Hill	Joseph Gribble	Voice, 62 episodes
2001–02	Inside Schwartz	Adam Schwartz	13 episodes
2002	Kim Possible	Josh Mankey	Voice, episode: "Crush"
2003	Coupling	Jeff Clancy	Episode: "Original Pilot"
2003–04	Married to the Kellys	Tom Wagner	22 episodes
2005–present	Robot Chicken	Various voices	Also writer and producer
2007	Robot Chicken: Star Wars	Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar	Voice, television special
2008	House	Brandon	Episode: "Adverse Events"
	Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II	Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar	Voice, television special
	Heroes	Frack	2 episodes
2009	Party Down	Michael	Episode: "Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen"
	Titan Maximum	Commander Palmer	Voice, 9 episodes
2010	Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III	Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar	Voice, television special
2011	Mad	Various Voices	Episode: "The Social Netjerk/Smallville: Turn Off the Clark"
2011–14	Franklin & Bash	Jared Franklin	40 episodes
2012–14	Men at Work	N/A	Creator, writer and executive producer
2012	Robot Chicken DC Comics Special	Superman, Mirror Master	Voice, television special
2014	Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 2: Villains in Paradise	Superman, Bizarro
2015	Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Magical Friendship	Superman, Plastic Man
2015–17	SuperMansion	Courtney / Ringler, Various Voices	11 episodes
2016	Second Chance	Wally Luskin	Episode: "That Time in the Car"
	Family Guy	S&M Guy	Voice, episode: "A Lot Going on Upstairs"
2018	Designated Survivor	Trey Kirkman	6 episodes
2019	The Fix	Charlie West	10 episodes
2020	American Dad!	Himself	Episode: "A Starboy Is Born"
	Crossing Swords	Glenn	Voice, 4 episodes
2021	Good Girls	Vance	6 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2016	Titanfall 2	Dr. Jefferson Boyle

External links

• Breckin Meyer at the Internet Movie Database
• Breckin Meyer at the TCM Movie Database