Will Sasso

William Sasso (born May 24, 1975) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, voice actor, and former podcaster on his podcast Ten Minute Podcast. He is notable for his five seasons as a cast member on Mad TV from 1997 to 2002, for starring as Curly in the 2012 film reboot of The Three Stooges, and Happy Gilmore (1996), as well as for his T.V. show roles as Carl Monari in Less than Perfect (2003-2006), Doug Martin in How I Met Your Mother (2008-2012), and as Bill Ryan in United We Fall (2020).

Early life
Sasso was born in Ladner, British Columbia, to Italian immigrants. He graduated from Delta Secondary School in Delta, British Columbia in 1993. He credits his determination to become an actor and his respect for comedy to an "unhealthy addiction to television".

Career
At the age of 15 he landed his first agent and quickly began booking roles in television and film. Before moving from Vancouver to Los Angeles, California, Sasso starred for five seasons as quirky teen Derek Wakaluk on the award-winning Canadian dramatic series Madison.

MADtv
By the end of its second season (1996–1997), MADtv experienced its first big cast turnover. Three of the show's repertory performers (Bryan Callen, Orlando Jones and Artie Lange) left the cast. As a result, in 1997, casting executives at FOX had to cast replacements for the show. Sasso (along with Alex Borstein and Aries Spears) was selected to join the MADtv third season cast as a regular cast member. Upon his exit, MADtv became known as "The House that Sasso Built and Bryan Callen squatted in."

Sasso is known for quirky characters such as the accident-prone handyman Paul Timberman, Eracist member Hugh, singer Michael McCloud, Talkin' American host Rui Peranio and Mexican luchador Señor Bag of Crap. In several MADtv sketches, he played singer Kenny Rogers, who was depicted as a sloppy, drunken redneck. He also played Randy Newman in several sketches.

Will began developing several network television projects with Disney/Touchstone for ABC in 2001 and in 2002, Sasso left MADtv to pursue the next stage of his career.

Professional wrestling
Sasso is a professional wrestling fan, and has made appearances with multiple American pro wrestling promotions.

Sasso engaged in a worked shoot angle with former world champion wrestler Bret Hart, which began on February 6, 1999 during Hart's second guest appearance on MADtv. In a sketch lampooning the election of Jesse Ventura to gubernatorial office, Hart "broke character" and attacked the cast members for making light of wrestling, apparently injuring Sasso. He then appeared in a later episode at the curtain call during the ending credits and again attacked Sasso in an "unscripted" assault. Sasso then appeared at ringside during the February 8, 1999 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, where Hart again attacked him. Sasso retaliated by interfering in Hart's match against Roddy Piper, making him lose the match and the WCW United States Championship. This led to a grudge match on the February 15, 1999 episode of Nitro, where Sasso appeared with castmate Debra Wilson, who turned on Sasso, making it a one-sided match. During Sasso's time in WCW, commentator Bobby Heenan would refer to Sasso as "Will Fatso".[citation needed]

Sasso's impersonation of Steve Austin impressed the WWF (as it was then still known, before its name changed to WWE) so much that they asked him to be part of the February 7, 2002 episode of WWF SmackDown!, appearing alongside Chris Jericho and Austin himself, as a means to promote Austin's upcoming "MADtv" appearance.

On the live April 9, 2012 broadcast of WWE Raw, he appeared along with the other actors in The Three Stooges movie, alternating between Curly and Hulk Hogan impersonations. He was chokeslammed by Kane.

Sasso also appeared on a WWE Main Event promo for Dolph Ziggler.

Later projects
Since leaving MADtv, Sasso's television appearances include four seasons as Carl Monari on Less than Perfect, as well as a role in Robson Arms. Sasso also played the role of Fortunio Balducci in Southland Tales. Sasso starred in $h*! My Dad Says, based on the Twitter feed Shit My Dad Says created by Justin Halpern. The show premiered in the fall of 2010 and its cancellation was announced on May 15, 2011.

Sasso hosted the 2006 Canadian Comedy Awards in London, Ontario as well as the festival's "Sketch & Improv Showcases". Additionally, he was a host at the 2005-2006 NHL award ceremony. Sasso appeared on the CSI episode "The Chick Chop Flick Shop". He also appeared in the Childrens Hospital episode "Frankfurters".

From February 20, 2012 to April 12, 2018 Sasso hosted the Ten Minute Podcast with Bryan Callen and Chris D'Elia (who were later replaced by Tommy Blacha and Chad Kultgen). He has also appeared on The Fighter & The Kid podcast several times.

Sasso began posting on Vine, creating a running gag of lemons randomly escaping from his mouth without warning. In addition, he posts videos in characters impersonating the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Cosby, Hulk Hogan and Robert De Niro. As of September 2014, he has two million followers. In 2018, Sasso plays Mountie Archambault in the comedy film Super Troopers 2. In November 2019, he voiced Mr. Ellingboe in Netflix's Klaus.