Rob Riggle spent 23 years as a Marine officer while building a comedy career
Most comedians do not hold the rank of lieutenant colonel. Rob Riggle joined the Marines in 1990 planning to fly, left flight school to chase laughs, and then kept serving in the reserves for more than two decades, deploying to Afghanistan and Kosovo while working his way onto Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky on 21 April 1970 and raised in Overland Park, Kansas, Riggle was voted most humorous at high school. At the University of Kansas he earned a pilot's licence and a theatre and film degree in 1992, and later a master's in public administration. He signed up with the Marines intending to become a naval aviator but abandoned flight training for comedy. As a reservist he worked as a public affairs officer, helped with recovery at Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, and served in Liberia, Albania, Kosovo and twice in Afghanistan. He retired on 1 January 2013 as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years.
Comedy grew alongside. With Rob Huebel he performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in the troupe Respecto Montalban and the long-running two-man show Kung Fu Grip. Both auditioned for Saturday Night Live in 2004, but only Riggle was hired, lasting one season. In September 2006 he replaced Rob Corddry as a Daily Show correspondent, playing up his role as the show's military analyst, reporting from Iraq in 2007 and from the Beijing Olympics in 2008, before leaving that December.
John Oliver encouraged him to try stand-up, and he toured colleges and clubs. Films brought bigger audiences: supporting parts in Step Brothers, The Hangover and The Internship, plus voice roles in Hotel Transylvania and The Lorax. On television he played Captain Jack on The Office and, from 2013, recurred as Gil Thorpe, Phil Dunphy's real-estate rival on Modern Family.
Advertising and sport kept him busy. He took over the comedy segments on Fox NFL Sunday in 2012, hosted the ESPY Awards that year, played Colonel Sanders for KFC from 2016, and co-hosted the mini-golf show Holey Moley.
Source: Rob Riggle
