36 Facts About Dan Castellaneta

Dan Castellaneta is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series The Simpsons.

Daniel Louis Castellaneta was born on October 29,1957, at Roseland Community Hospital on Chicago's south side and was raised in River Forest and Oak Park, Illinois.

Dan Castellaneta is of Italian descent, born to Elsie and Louis Castellaneta, an amateur actor who worked for a printing company.

Dan Castellaneta became adept at impressions at a young age and his mother enrolled him in an acting class when he was 16 years old.

Dan Castellaneta would listen to his father's comedy records and do impressions of the artists.

Dan Castellaneta was a "devotee" of the works of many performers, including Alan Arkin and Barbara Harris and directors Mike Nichols and Elaine May Dan Castellaneta attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and upon graduation, started attending Northern Illinois University in the fall of 1975.

Dan Castellaneta studied art education, with the goal of becoming an art teacher.

Dan Castellaneta became a student teacher and would entertain his students with his impressions.

Dan Castellaneta was a regular participant in The Ron Petke and His Dead Uncle Show, a radio show at NIU.

Dan Castellaneta began his acting career after his graduation from Northern Illinois University in 1979.

Dan Castellaneta decided that if his career went nowhere he would still have a chance to try something else.

Dan Castellaneta began taking improvisation classes, where he met his future wife Deb Lacusta.

Dan Castellaneta started to work at The Second City, an improvisational theatre in Chicago, in 1983 and continued to work there until 1987.

Dan Castellaneta auditioned for a role in The Tracey Ullman Show and his first meeting underwhelmed Tracey Ullman and the other producers.

Dan Castellaneta is most famous for his roles on the longest-running American animated television show The Simpsons, most notably as Homer Simpson.

Dan Castellaneta tried to find something easier, so he "dropped the voice down", and developed it into a more versatile and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show.

Dan Castellaneta chose a recording of what he believed was his best belch and told the producers to make that the standard.

The character was written as an angry janitor, and Dan Castellaneta was assigned to perform the voice.

Dan Castellaneta did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, suggested he use an accent.

Dan Castellaneta first tried using Hispanic voicing, which Simon felt was too cliched.

Dan Castellaneta then tried a "big dumb Swede", which was rejected.

The episode script did not call for Quimby to be a parody of them, and Dan Castellaneta improvised the accent.

In 1993, Dan Castellaneta was given a special Annie Award, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation", for his work as Homer on The Simpsons.

The dispute was resolved and Dan Castellaneta began receiving $125,000 per episode until 2004, when the cast demanded to be paid $360,000 an episode.

The issue was resolved a month later, with Dan Castellaneta starting to earn $250,000 per episode.

Dan Castellaneta liked the story but turned it down because he felt that it was too similar to "Duffless", an episode that the writers were already working on.

Dan Castellaneta has been a regular cast member in several other television series.

Dan Castellaneta guest starred as The Robot Devil in five episodes of Futurama, as well as the Futurama film The Beast with a Billion Backs.

Dan Castellaneta has made guest appearances in a number of television series episodes.

In 2005, Dan Castellaneta guest-starred as Joe Spencer in the Stargate SG-1 season eight episode "Citizen Joe".

Dan Castellaneta appeared in episodes of ALF, Campus Ladies, Castle, Entourage, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friends, Greek, How I Met Your Mother, Mad About You, Married.

Dan Castellaneta appeared as the Genie in the Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar and on the 1994 Aladdin television series.

Dan Castellaneta portrayed Aaron Spelling in the 2004 NBC film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels, which followed the true story of how Spelling created the show.

Alongside his television and film work, Dan Castellaneta has appeared in a number of theatrical productions.

Dan Castellaneta hosted the final of New York comedy show Thrills and Spills on December 31,2015.

In 1987, Dan Castellaneta married writer and actress Deb Lacusta, whom he had met at an improv class in Chicago.