American actor and filmmaker Jon Heder was born on October 26, 1977 in Fort Collins, Colorado. He graduated from Walker Middle School and South Salem High School and is a former member of the swim team at South Salem High. In 1995, he was a staff member of their Drama Association, DRAMA. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 2002, where he earned a non-traditional Emmy in 2005 for his short CGI film. He befriended director Jared Hess while attending the school. Heder starred in Hess’ short film Peluca, which later expanded into the popular Napoleon Dynamite.
Jon Heder appeared in Funky Town in 2000, before getting his big career break portraying the title character in 2004’s Napoleon Dynamite. The film earned more revenue than almost any other Sundance movie. The next year, Heder was awarded the MTV Movie Awards for Best Musical Performance and Breakthrough Male Performance for his role. He also hosted Saturday Night Live, as well as lending his voice to a character in the stop motion animated series Robot Chicken. He also had a supporting role in Just Like Heaven, before being cast in 2006’s The Benchwarmers. The film was produced by Adam Sandler and also starred Rob Schneider and David Spade. Heder also voiced the character Skull in the animated movie Monster House, and appeared in the comedy School for Scoundrels.
In 2007, he was given the role of Jimmy MacElroy in the hit comedy Blades of Glory. He starred alongside Will Ferell, and the film was critically and commercially well-received. This was followed by voiceover work in another animated film, Surf’s Up. He was cast as the surfing chicken, Chicken Joe. He was also given the role of Jeffrey Mannus in Mama’s Boy. Heder has also appeared on one episode of the television series My Name Is Earl.