Name	Mario Cantone
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	9 December 1959
Place of Birth	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Famous for

A star drama student, Mario Cantone continued his stage work in college while beginning flirting with the idea of stand-up comedy. In 1983, he turned to acting professionally and began performing stand-up in New York. The newcomer eventually landed his first big break through VH-l's “Stand-Up Spotlight” showcase (1988-1991), hosted by Rosie O’Donnell, who later hired Cantone as her opening act during the late 1980s.

In 1988, Catone got his start on television as the host of the syndicated children's variety and game show “Steampipe Alley,” sort of a “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ) for kids that featured skit comedies and a cartoon showcase. He worked for the show until 1993.

After departing from “Steampipe Alley,” Catone was spotted as a guest in a May 1994 episode of ABC's Emmy-winning cop drama series "NYPD Blue" and made his feature debut with a tiny role as a passerby in Robert Redford’s Oscar-nominated true story-based film, “Quiz Show” (1994; starring John Turturro, Rob Morrow and Ralph Fiennes), which was adapted from Richard N. Goodwin's book "Remembering America." He followed it up with small roles in Frank Rainone's independent mafia film "Who Do I Gotta Kill?" (1994; alongside Sandra Bullock) and in Gore Verbinski’s slapstick/dark comedy starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, “Mousehunt” (1997).

Meanwhile, in 1995, he made his Broadway debut in Terrence McNally’s award-winning play that revolves around gay men, “Love! Valour! Compassion!,” replacing Nathan Lane in the role of Buzz, a costume designer and die-hard musical theater fanatic who becomes the most stereotypically gay man in the group.

After headlining the 30-minute stand-up comedy “Comedy Central Presents” in July 1999, Cantone snagged breakthrough role as Anthony Marantino, Charlotte's (played by Kristin Davis) gay friend, on the popular HBO romantic comedy series, "Sex and the City." He played the recurring character from 2000 until the series' finale in 2004.

During his four-year stint on the show, he received applause for his work as a gay alcoholic in the stage play "The Crumple Zone" in 2000 and was spotted as a guest in a May 2001 episode of NBC comedy-drama starring Tom Cavanagh, “Ed.” He also could be seen in films like writer/director Antonio Campos' "Pandora" (2002), Mike Bencivenga's drama/comedy "Happy Hour" (2003; with Anthony LaPaglia and Eric Stoltz), and Harry O'Reilly's dark comedy "Crooked Lines" (2003; with Burt Young and Jim Breuer).

Meanwhile, Cantone performed his first one-man show, “An Evening with Mario Cantone,” in 2002, and had a memorable bit on his friend's show on Comedy Central, the eponymous variety show “Chappelle’s Show,” in a 2003 segment entitled “Ask a Gay Dude.” By this time, Cantone, who hosted "Reel Comedy: Just Married" (2003), has become a frequent guest on such talk shows as “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” (NBC, 1996-2002) and game shows like “Pyramid,” (Syndicated, 2002-2004) and “Hollywood Squares” (Syndicated, 1998-2004).

Returning to stage, Catone appeared on Broadway in Richard Greenberg's “The Violet Hour” (November 2002), as Gidger, the assistant of a young publisher named John Pace Seavering (played by Robert Sean Leonard). He then was cast as an unemployed former tire salesman and would-be Nixon assassin Samuel Byck, in the Tony award-winning Broadway revival of the musical “Assassins” (2004), directed by Joe Mantello.

Also in 2004, Cantone reunited with director Joe Mantello for his second one-man show, “Laugh Whore.” The show, which he performed at Broadway's Cort Theatre, featured his explosive takes on his Italian-American childhood; spot-on imitations of Jim Morrison, Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, and others. It was later recorded for broadcast on Showtime that same year. Meanwhile, he appeared in TV commercial for TBS Network.

Following the end of "Sex and the City," Cantone contributed to the all-star comedian line-up in Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza’s “The Aristocrats” (2005), an uproarious documentary film about the infamous dirty joke of the same name, and had a supporting role as a casting director in Paul Borghese's little-seen comedy “Searching for Bobby D” (2005). Afterwards, he provided his voice for the character Sidney in writer/director Bob Saget's “Farce of the Penguins” (2006), a direct-to-DVD parody film of the 2005 film "March of the Penguins," and co-starred with T.R. Knight in writer/director John DeBellis' comedy movie "The Last Request" (2006). He also appeared in two episodes of NBC romantic dramedy starring Anne Heche, "Men in Trees," and did TV commercial voice-over for Sunsilk.

Recently, in 2007, Cantone was cast with Adam Saunders in Aditya Chandora's comedy movie, "Staten Island," and lent his distinct fast-talking voice to talent scout Mikey Abromowitz in the computer-animated mockumentary, “Surf’s Up,” a parody of such surfing documentaries as “The Endless Summer” and “Riding Giants.”

“They [Surf's Up producers] sat me down at the Four Seasons in LA and they said, ‘This is the character we want you do. He’s a talent scout. He’s a sandpiper, which is very nervous bird and he’s stressed out and he works for this kind of Don King-like promoter which James Woods plays.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great to me.’ Then I got to work with James Woods. I got to be in the room with him and improvise with him, which was really fun.” Mario Cantone.

Cantone has completed his upcoming film with Rip Torn, Peter Falk, Billy Burke and George Segal, a romantic comedy by Charlie Picerni titled "Three Days to Vegas," and will soon wrap Disney's forthcoming computer-animated film, "Bolt," alongside John Travolta, Thomas Haden Church, Woody Harrelson and Bernie Mac. He is now on set filming "Sex and the City: The Movie," in which he will reprise his role as Anthony Marantino. The film is currently set to be released May 30, 2008.