David Spade

David Spade began his career performing stand-up comedy after dropping out of college. He was cast in the 1987 film Police Academy 4 after being spotted by a talent agent while performing at The Improv in Los Angeles. In 1990, with help from comedian Dennis Miller, Spade joined Saturday Night Live as a writer before becoming a cast member. His characters included the flight attendant for Total Bastard Airlines, a receptionist for Dick Clark, the Hollywood Minute reporter, Christy Henderson from the Gap Girls sketches and Karl from Karl's Video. He also performed impressions of celebrities including Brad Pitt and Michael J. Fox.

Spade remained on Saturday Night Live through the 1995-96 season and left the show in 1996. He returned to host episodes in 1998 and 2005. During his time on the series, he became known as one of its "Bad Boys" alongside Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider. Spade starred with Farley in the comedy films Tommy Boy (1995) and Black Sheep (1996).

From 1997 to 2003, Spade played Dennis Finch on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!, starring alongside Laura San Giacomo and George Segal. His other film credits during this period included Senseless (1998), opposite Marlon Wayans, and The Rugrats Movie (1998), in which he voiced Ranger Frank. In 2000, he voiced Kuzco in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and produced the television series Sammy.

Spade starred in Joe Dirt (2001), which he co-wrote with Fred Wolf, and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), also co-written with Wolf. He later appeared in several films produced by Adam Sandler, including Grandma's Boy (2006), The Benchwarmers (2006), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), Grown Ups (2010), Jack & Jill (2011), Grown Ups 2 (2013), Joe Dirt 2 (2015), The Ridiculous 6 (2015), The Do-Over (2016) and The Wrong Missy (2020). He also voiced Griffin the Invisible Man in the Hotel Transylvania film series from 2012 to 2022 and reprised his role as Kuzco in the direct-to-video sequel Kronk's New Groove (2005).

In 2003, Spade hosted the Teen Choice Awards and Spike TV's Video Game Awards. He voiced characters in several episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head and joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules in 2004 for the sitcom's third and final season. From September 2005 to October 2007, he hosted The Showbiz Show with David Spade on Comedy Central. In 2006, he voiced Sparx, Spyro's dragonfly companion, in the video game The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.

From 2007 to 2013, Spade starred as Russell Dunbar on the CBS sitcom Rules of Engagement. In 2010, he worked on a pilot for an animated series based on Joe Dirt, although the project was not picked up. He guest-starred on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs in 2014 and starred in the 2018 film Warning Shot, alongside Bruce Dern and James Earl Jones, in his first major dramatic film role.

In 2019, Spade began hosting the Comedy Central late-night show Lights Out with David Spade. Production was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the network announced that the show would not return to the channel. In August 2020, he guest-hosted two episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! In 2022, he began co-hosting the Fly on the Wall podcast with former Saturday Night Live cast member Dana Carvey. Their video podcast spinoff, Superfly, launched in 2024.

In April 2023, it was announced that Spade would host Snake Oil, a game show broadcast by Fox.