Biographic - Sunday February 19, 2012 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

Made by a group of college friends on a shoestring budget, the offbeat movie "Napoleon Dynamite" became a pop culture phenomenon and cult classic went it was released in 2004. Eight years later, it has spawned an animated tv series on the network that launched his career. Jon Heder was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 26, 1977, and raised in Salem, Oregon. He was studying animation at Utah's Brigham Young University, along with his identical twin, Dan, when he met aspiring filmmaker Jared Hess, who cast Jon in his 2003 award-winning short film "Peluca" for the role of the gawky high schooler Seth, Jon permed his hair and donned large spectacles. The film's success enabled Hess and his co-creator wife, Jerusha, to raise the $200,000 funding for a full-length movie. Heder's "Peluca" character morphed into the title character of "Napoleon Dynamite." The gentle, quirky comedy was a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival and, following a bidding Frenzy, was picked up for major distribution. It went on to ern over $50 million at the box office, and garnered more than a dozen Teen Choice nominations. It earned Jon two MTV movie awards, including one for the movie's inspirational dance sequence a scene that Heder completely improvised! Jon went on to star in a number of movies, including "The Benchwarmers" "School For Scoundrels" and "Blades of Glory." He also voiced characters in such animated releases as "Monster House" and "Surf's Up" Jon's distinctive voice, and the quirky catch-prases that helped cement the original movie's success, have now made the leap to the small screen with the recent Fox Network debut of the "Napoleon Dynamite" animated TV series

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