Grew up in North Plainfield, NJ. NOT the son of Joltin' Joe DiMaggio His inspiration for Bender on "Futurama" was Slim Pickens from "Blazing Saddles" and his friend from college, who would do improvisations of an old man who liked sausage. Is a very talented beatboxer, as seen by some of his work on Futurama. Once performed stand-up comedy at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem. Is the only one of two actors to play the same fictional character (Bender Bending Rodriguez) on both "The Simpsons" (1989) and "Futurama" (1999) the other is Nancy Cartwrtight who played Bart in both, although several people (including Conan O'Brien, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Stephen Hawking and Dick Clark) have played themselves on both series. Provided the voices for two very memorable robot characters in two different Emmy-winning animated series'. "Bender" in "Futurama" (1999) and "General Grievous" in "Star Wars: Clone Wars" (2003). Played Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, in the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and then went on to play the voice of main character, Marcus Fenix in the multi-platinum Microsoft Xbox 360 game "Gears of War".
