Tim Heidecker

With his partner Eric Wareheim, multihyphenate Tim Heidecker oversaw some of the most offbeat and challenging television comedy programming of the new millennium, including "Tom Goes to the Mayor" (Adult Swim, 2006), "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" (Adult Swim, 2007-2010) and "Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories" (Adult Swim, 2014- ). The Pennsylvania natives teamed in 1994 while students at Temple University, and quickly established themselves in alternative comedy circles with their unique perspective on entertainment and popular culture. As the main writers, directors and stars in their series, Heidecker and Wareheim celebrated the most uncomfortable and occasionally unpleasant elements of amateur productions, public access television, late-night commercials and vanity projects; their comedy style hewed somewhere between the free-form absurdity of "Mr. Show" (HBO, 1995-98) and the disquieting awkwardness of confrontational surrealists like David Lynch or Werner Herzog. The duo's cutting edge comedy attracted numerous big name guest stars like Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller, and led to guest appearances for Heidecker in Hollywood projects like "Bridesmaids" (2011). And if mainstream audiences didn't wholly embrace his own efforts with Wareheim, the best of their work remained some of the most adventurous, cutting-edge comedy programming on television.