Gregg Turkington

Biography:

Gregg Turkington (born November 25, 1967) is an American comedian, actor, musician, writer, and performer, best recognized for his satirical stand-up persona Neil Hamburger, which he developed in the 1990s. He co-stars with Tim Heidecker in the long-running comedic web series On Cinema (2011–present), where both portray fictionalized versions of themselves. Beyond comedy, Turkington has been active in experimental music, performing as one half of the band Zip Code Rapists and collaborating with artists such as Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3.

In the 1990s, Turkington founded the independent label Amarillo Records, which released his own material and works by other avant-garde and punk musicians from San Francisco. He later starred in Entertainment (2015), a feature-length drama directed by Rick Alverson, where he portrayed a darker version of his Neil Hamburger character. This film marked a turning point, as Turkington began giving public interviews as himself rather than through a stage persona. He has also contributed voice work to Disney XD’s Gravity Falls and appeared in Marvel’s Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).

Turkington’s career began in the mid-1980s when he published the underground zine Breakfast Without Meat, which humorously celebrated “square” artists such as Tiny Tim and Richard Harris, earning cult recognition in punk circles. Around this time, he performed in several unconventional San Francisco bands, including Caroliner, Hello Kitty on Ice, and Bean Church, and worked with Subterranean Records on projects like Public Flipper Limited Live 1980–1985.

Through Amarillo Records, Turkington helped shape San Francisco’s post-punk experimental scene. His projects included The Easy Goings, Totem Pole of Losers, and Zip Code Rapists, as well as collaborations like The Three Doctors, Faxed Head, and Colonel Truth. He also toured as a manager for Link Wray and Mr. Bungle and contributed vocals to Secret Chiefs 3 tracks.

After closing Amarillo Records in the late 1990s, Turkington moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he lived until 2003. During this period, he co-authored Warm Voices Rearranged: Anagram Record Reviews with Brandan Kearney and later contributed to Maxim and Johan Kugelberg’s 2013 book Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records 1958–1992.

Turkington briefly revived Zip Code Rapists for reunion performances in the mid-2000s. His voice acting credits expanded to include The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Adventure Time, and Sanjay and Craig. He also co-wrote the parody screenplay Bicycle Built for Two with Heidecker, published in McSweeney’s in 2010.

He reunited with Heidecker for Rick Alverson’s 2012 Sundance film The Comedy and continued their partnership through On Cinema at the Cinema, an Adult Swim web series parodying film criticism. Turkington’s character in the series is a self-proclaimed movie expert who routinely misinterprets films and trivia. The show has run for fifteen seasons and spawned the spin-off Decker, in which Turkington plays Special Agent Kington.

Turkington’s Ant-Man appearance became an ongoing meta-joke in the On Cinema universe. He later appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a bombing suspect and in Cursed Films (2022), where he appeared as his On Cinema persona in an episode about The Wizard of Oz.

Born in Darwin, Australia, to American parents, Turkington was raised in Tempe, Arizona, and San Francisco, California. He now resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Simone Turkington, and is a committed vegan.