Ron Funches
Ronald Kyle Funches (born March 12, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born in California, Funches spent his early life in Chicago before relocating to Salem, Oregon, as a teenager. He began his comedy career in Portland, Oregon, at age 23. After moving to Los Angeles in 2012, he began appearing as a guest on several comedy series, including @midnight, Mulaney, and Kroll Show.
Ron Funches
- Actor
- comedian
- writer
- podcaster
2006–present
2
- Stand-up
- television
- film
From 2014 to 2016, Funches starred as a regular on the NBC series Undateable, and in 2015, began performing as a voice actor on such series as BoJack Horseman, The Adventures of Puss in Boots, and Adventure Time. He subsequently performed the voice role of Cooper in the animated film Trolls (2016). He also had guest-starring roles on a number of television series, including Transparent (2016), Black-ish (2017), and reprised the role of Cooper in the Trolls spin-off series Trolls: The Beat Goes On! (2018).
Beginning in 2019, he began voicing the roles of King Shark in the DC Comics TV series Harley Quinn and Fox in the TBS/Adult Swim TV series Final Space. In 2020, Funches again reprised the role of Cooper in the sequel film Trolls World Tour. Starting in 2020, Funches voiced Ron on the Netflix series Hoops. In 2021, Funches began voicing Kevin in the FX series Poorly Drawn Lines.
Early life[edit]
Ronald Kyle Funches was born in Carson, California,[2] but spent his early life with his mother and sister in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.[3][1] Funches' mother was a social worker.[1] When he was 13 years old, he moved to Salem, Oregon, to live with his father, who was employed there as a pipefitter.[1]
He graduated from Douglas McKay High School in Salem, where he took English courses,[3][1] and was inspired by writers such as Molière, J. D. Salinger, William Faulkner, and Erich Maria Remarque.[1] After high school, Funches relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he worked a variety of jobs, including at a bank call center and as a clerk at a Grocery Outlet store.[1][3]
Influences[edit]
Funches has cited Lucille Ball, Dave Chappelle, and Mitch Hedberg as major influences on his comedy.[15] Commenting on Ball, he said: "I Love Lucy was kind of my introduction to the world of comedy in general. And when you look at the history of Lucille Ball, and the work that she did for women in Hollywood, having her own production company, and also showing an interracial marriage on TV in the ’50s, to me, she’s just one of my biggest influences overall as a human being. That's what it means to be a professional and what it means to stand up for yourself even though interracial marriage has nothing to do with a career."[16]
Personal life[edit]
Funches had his first son, Malcolm, when he was 20 years old.[17] He mentions Malcolm's autism in his comedy and welcomes fans sharing their stories with him.[3][11][18][19] He married Christina Dawn in August 2020. They had a son, Funches's second child, in 2022.[20][21][22] In October 2022 they separated.[23][24]
Funches is an avid video gamer[25][26] and wrestling fan, taking classes at a wrestling school for a few months.[27] Eventually Funches made his in-ring debut at GCW in September 2021 in a match against Tony Deppen that featured Paul Scheer as his cornerman and interference from Danhausen.[28] In August 2022 he started his wrestling podcast One Fall with Ron Funches.[29]
He told Adam Carolla that he had once weighed 360 pounds. Funches said that over a few years he lost around 140 pounds.[30]