Dave Foley (born January 4, 1963)[1] is a Canadian actor, stand-up comedian, director, producer, and writer. He is known as a co-founder of the comedy group The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of television, stage and film productions, most notably the 1988–1995 TV sketch comedy show of the same name, as well as the 1996 film Brain Candy.
The Kids in the Hall at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (Foley at left)
After dropping out of high school, Foley pursued standup comedy for about a year in the TorontoSecond City Training Centre, where he began taking improv classes and met Kevin McDonald, who gave him a job as an usher at a local art house theatre. He played Lewis Allen in the miniseriesAnne of Avonlea. Foley, McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson formed The Kids in the Hall in 1984. The troupe's eponymous TV series debuted in 1988 and ended in 1995. Foley played characters including Hecubus, one of the Sizzler sisters, the A. T. & Love boss, Bruno Puntz Jones, Mr. Heavyfoot, Jocelyn and Lex. Initially involved with Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, he left the troupe in the middle of the writing, dissatisfied with the internal strife and the quality of the script, and joined the NewsRadio cast instead. As he had not signed any contract with the studio, Foley agreed to sign a deal which would allow the rest of the troupe to get paid for the script, though he was convinced that it would never be shot. When it was greenlighted, Foley appeared in the film because he was contractually obligated to do so. He is the only member of the group who is uncredited as a writer.[2] Foley rejoined the troupe in 2000 and has been an integral part of their various reformations. He appeared in the Kids in the Hall 2010 reunion project Death Comes to Town.[3]Paul Simms, creator of NewsRadio, happened to be a huge fan of Foley's work and wrote the role of Dave Nelson specifically for him. Much of his character on the show was based on his own personality quirks, including his coffee addiction and his love of the sitcom Green Acres. In 1999, Dave portrayed Troy, the house mate of Eve, in Blast from the Past.
From 2011 to 2012, Foley played Jerry Dunham, the boss of Andrew Carlson (David Hornsby) in the short-lived CBS sitcom How to Be a Gentleman. In 2012 and 2013, Foley played Dr. Fulton, Brick's (Atticus Shaffer) school therapist in The Middle, where in "Life Skills", he refers to Brick's classmates as "the kids in the hall", after an awkward pause and glance by both characters and mentioning that their behavior is similar to those of comedy sketches from The Kids in the Hall. In February 2013, Foley played Detective Bob Moore for the three last seasons in the TV Land sitcom, Hot in Cleveland (with an unrelated guest appearance as a charity doctor in the first season), starred in the third season of Robson Arms on CTV and also starred in the CTV sitcom Spun Out in 2014.[5] Foley also starred in ABC's Dr. Ken. In 2023, Foley portrayed central character Danish Graves in the fifth season of Fargo.[6]
In 2009, Foley was hired by 49 North Inc./Fuel Industries, a multi-national branded content and entertainment company, to star in a web series titled, The Sensible Traveler with Bobby Fargo with six episodes that are written by TV writer Stephen Hibbert and directed by a number of people, including Leslie Iwerks and Chris Roach. The series is one of 49 North Inc./Fuel Industries' most successful web series at well over 20,000 hits since the beginning of 2010. No word has yet been released as to a second season being filmed.[7]
Music video appearances
In 1993, Foley appeared along with Mark McKinney and Kevin McDonald in the music video for the song "Heterosexual Man" by Vancouver band Odds. In the video, the three comedians played stereotypical macho jocks in the audience of a small bar where Odds are playing until Foley inexplicably turns into a woman.
He appeared, as one of the Daves, in fellow cast member Bruce McCulloch's music video "The Daves I Know".
He starred in the music video for the 2005 song "Yellow Datsun" by Neva Dinova.[8]
In 2008, he appeared in the alternate music video for the song "Americanarama" by Ottawa band Hollerado, where he parodied American Apparel CEO Dov Charney.[9] He also appeared in the music video for the band's song "Desire 126". In 2010, Foley appeared in a music video for the Los Angeles band Black Robot's cover of the JJ Cale song "Cocaine",[10] which was filmed at the burlesque club Jumbo's Clown Room.[11] In 2012, Foley starred in Off!'s music video for their song Borrow and Bomb, playing a "professional educator" named Dale Antwerp who hosts a public access talk show entitled Teen Talk.[12] He appeared in another Off! video in 2014 for their song "Red White and Black", playing the role of a fascist organizer.[13]
Personal life
Foley married Canadian writer Tabatha Southey on December 31, 1991.[14] They divorced in 1997.[14] The couple has two children.[14] In 2001, an interim child support agreement obligated Foley to pay Southey $10,700 a month, a figure based on his income when NewsRadio was in production. By 2011, Foley claimed that his earnings had declined to the point that the $10,700 sum constituted "literally 400 percent of [his] income" but he was unable to get the obligation reduced in court. Owing over half a million dollars in back payments, he believed that if he returned to Canada he would be arrested under orders from Ontario's Family Responsibility Office.[15][16] By 2013, Foley and Southey had settled a child support lawsuit, and he was able to resume work in the country of his birth.[17] After he took the lead role in Spun Out, he told Vancouver's The Georgia Straight that "I made enough money to pay the price of admission to Canada."[18]
Foley married his second wife, actress Crissy Guerrero, on August 1, 2002.[14] The marriage ended in a divorce in 2008.[14] They have a daughter, Alina Chiara Foley, who has worked as a child actor.[19] Guerrero and Foley subsequently reconciled and were remarried on December 31, 2016.[20]
Throughout his life, Foley has suffered from depression.[21] He "used to drink quite a bit", but stopped drinking on December 22, 2014, after he fell backwards while intoxicated, resulting in a severe head injury.[21] Foley suffered a subdural hematoma and spent four days in the intensive care unit.[21] In February 2019, he remarked that he had not "had a drink in four years" and had experienced almost no depression following his injury.[21]
Foley resided in downtown Los Angeles, before moving to New York City in 2022.[22][23] He is a fan of coffee, claiming to drink up to "50 cups a day when I am on set".[24] This was used as a basis for an episode of NewsRadio.[25]
