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Trey Parker

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Trey Parker
File:Trey Parker.jpg
Trey Parker
Born
Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III

Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969 in Conifer, Colorado) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning American animator, screenwriter, film director, voice actor, actor and musician. He is most noted as one of the creators of the animated series South Park along with Matt Stone.

Biography

Randolph Severn Parker III is the younger of two children born to Randy and Sharon Parker (who are the basis for South Park characters Randy and Sharon Marsh). He has an older sister named Shelley (who is the basis for Shelley Marsh). Parker attended West Jefferson Junior High School and Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, where he was voted class clown. He graduated from Evergreen High School in 1988.

Parker went to Berklee College of Music in Boston before transferring to the University of Colorado, where he met Matt Stone. He majored in music, and, with a goal to someday score films, took classes to learn more about the film-making process. He made several animated shorts while attending the university, including American History which won a Student Academy Award, and The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Frosty with Matt Stone.

Parker's first live action film was a feature length piece about Alferd Packer, a Colorado miner who was the first person convicted of cannibalism in America. A trailer was shot over the summer, and was used to help raise enough funds to shoot the film. Alferd Packer, The Musical began filming during spring break in 1993. Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma Entertainment, wanted to name it Fudge Packer, the Musical, but was unsuccessful in his efforts. It was renamed Cannibal! The Musical when Troma picked up the film for distribution in 1996. Family, friends and fellow students all took part in the film. Students who participated received intern credit. Parker, despite the many rumors, did go on to graduate, and some of his professors even appeared in the movie as extras.[1]

Parker's college film caught the eye of Brian Graden, a Fox executive. In 1995, Graden commissioned Stone and Parker to create a video Christmas card based on their animated college short. The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa was the result -- a five minute short that featured an uncensored Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick watching Jesus and Santa battle it out for ownership of Christmas. One of the recipients of the video, actor George Clooney, made several hundred copies, and the animation became a must-see passed around Hollywood and the Internet.

That same year, Parker created a pilot for Fox called Time Warped -- a "musical romp through time" featuring a story about Aaron and Moses. Fox felt the idea would work better as a children's show so a new pilot, Rom & Jul was made for Fox Kids -- a Romeo and Juliet-esque story about a Homo erectus and Australopithecus who fall in love despite the conflict between their species. Fox Kids passed on the show.

Parker wrote, directed and starred in his second feature film, Orgazmo, in 1997, about a wholesome Mormon who becomes a celebrity in the Los Angeles' adult film world. Due to the NC-17 rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America it was not widely released.

Parker and Stone were then hired by Comedy Central to create a show based on the animated characters from The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa. Though it didn't test well with audiences, Comedy Central decided to pick it up for six episodes anyway. South Park made its debut on August 13, 1997, and has since gone on to be the highest-rated original series in the network's history.

File:Yasminebleethtreyparkerbaseketball.jpg
Trey Parker with Yasmine Bleeth in BASEketball.

In 1998, Parker starred with Stone, Dian Bachar and Yasmine Bleeth in BASEketball, directed by David Zucker of Airplane! and Naked Gun fame. The story follows a group of friends who take their homemade game from neighborhood driveways to the professional sports world. Parker rips on himself in the South Park episode, The Passion of the Jew: Stan demands his money back after seeing the Passion of the Christ, saying he should be able to get his money back just like after he saw BASEketball.

In the summer of 1999, Parker and Stone released their critically acclaimed feature length film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which was, naturally, a musical. "Blame Canada", a song written by Parker and Marc Shaiman, was nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards. The award was lost to Phil Collins, who was spoofed in later episodes of South Park.

After a contract renegotiation in 2000, three more seasons were added to South Park and Parker and Stone had a deal to create a live action sitcom. Their idea was to parody standard-issue network sitcoms by depicting the Commander in Chief as a wacky, lovable stock- character caught in outrageous situations involving contemporary hotbed political issues. Its main character was to be whoever won the 2000 Presidential election- scripts were prepared for both George W. Bush and Al Gore. In 2001, That's My Bush! premiered. It was not brought back for a second season due to its high costs (reportedly US$700,000 per episode) and meager ratings. Another contract negotiation in 2003 picked up South Park for a ninth season, with an option to pick up a tenth.

Team America: World Police, the duo's most recent creation, is a satirical action movie (reportedly based on Jerry Bruckheimer's numerous productions, with special attention to those directed by Michael Bay) starring marionettes reminiscent of the Thunderbirds TV series from the 1960s. It depicts a special, all-American police force trying to save the world from terrorists with mixed results, despite their dedication to the American dream. It was released in October 2004.

Parker and his close friend, Matt Stone, have received criticism and acclaim from both sides of the political spectrum, making them hard to pin down politically, except that they display irreverence for almost any authority figure. The term South Park Republican has been coined to refer to a younger generation of libertarian-leaning Republicans, who relate to the show's politically incorrect humor and irreverant, blunt take on social issues. Historically, though, Parker has described himself as "middle-ground", and he is a member of the United States Libertarian Party.

On September 9, 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. This surprised fans, due to the fact that both Trey and Matt had publicly spoken about being "bummed out" and "not wanting to do anything" after doing Team America. The network has committed to 42 episodes (including those of the second half of season 9), or three more seasons, of South Park over the next three years, which means that the show will run until 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. A bowdlerized version of South Park bowed in syndication on September 19.

In addition to currently working on the tenth season of South Park, there is talk that Parker and Stone are creating a stage musical with Avenue Q creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. They also have plans to form a production company, possibly with Paramount. As for the prospect of making more films, Parker is not enthusiastic, for the time being: "Team America almost killed us. We'd like to figure out a way to do our own movies, but not die doing them, and maybe help some other people produce their movies, like graduate to the next level because we are getting up there in age." [1].

Contrary to his comments on November 14, Parker and Stone have signed a three-year production deal with Paramount Pictures. They named their new banner Trunity, a Mediar company, a division of True Mediar, a Unity Corpbopoly. Paramount and Comedy Central are both owned by Viacom, and have continued to be housed under the same umbrella even after the parent company split into two entities at the end of 2005.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are planning a new movie called Giant Monsters Attack Japan! and a highschool comedy called My All-American. [2]

Trey currently resides in Bel Air and is married to Emma Sugiyama as of January 2006.

Although Parker regularly mocks religion on South Park, he does believe in God (though he didn't mention of which religion). On a September 2006 airing of the ABC newsmagazine Nightline, Parker articulated his position:

  • "Basically...out of all the ridiculous religion stories---which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous---the silliest one I've ever heard is..."yeah...there's this big giant universe and it's expanding, it's all gonna collapse on itself and we're all just here 'just cuz'..."just cuz". That, to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever." [2]

This somewhat contrasts with the views of Matt Stone, who has expressed doubt as to the existence of a god or greater meaning.[3] Both however recently mocked atheism in general and atheist Richard Dawkins in particular in the recent South Park episodes Go God Go and Go God Go XII.

Filmography

File:Matt-Trey 2005a.jpg
Recent photo of Matt Stone (left) with Parker.

Student Films

  • The Giant Beavers of Sri Lanka (1989)
  • First Date (1990)
  • American History (1991)
  • Jesus.VS.Frosty (1992)

Collaborations with Matt Stone

Miscellaneous

Voices on South Park

Stan Marsh, South Park character based on Trey.

References

  1. ^ "Trey Parker Biography". Treyparker.info. Retrieved September 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE_zEJL0Km4
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