Carrot Top - Actors, Life Achievements and Family

Popularly known as Carrot Top, he was born was Scott Thompson in the Cocoa Beach, Florida, to Larry Thompson. His father was a former rocket scientist who worked on significant mission in NASA, including Gemini and Apollo.

Young Thompson attained his basic formal education from Cocoa High School, completing which; he enrolled at the Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

It was during his freshman year at college that he first experienced what it felt to be on stage. Though he debuted with Josh Abelson on a bad note with stale jokes that fetched no laughter, the failure of the stand-up act did not disappoint him.

Following semester, he was back on stage with self-written material based on college life. Interestingly, his written work tickled the funny bone of each of the audience member, making his stand-up act a massive hit.

He graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in marketing and immediately found work as a bank courier. However, he did not give up on his comedic talent and continuously performed gigs at local stages. No sooner than in 1990, he gave up his nine-to-five job to continue with his comedy career

To make a mark of his own and stand out from contemporaries and other stand-up comedians, he started employing props to enhance his act. To induce humor, he even used his red curly hair as a prop. His other props include heels with training wheels, airline peanut bags with photos of missing luggage and paper cups and string telephones

The rising popularity and reputation earned him a guest spot on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ in 1992. The show not only exposed him to a wider audience but also made his comedic talent gain a broader fan base. Upon the death of legendary comedian Sam Kinison in 1992, he soon filled up in the shoes of the latter.

Over the years, he has appeared in a number of shows, including ‘Larry the Cable Guy's Christmas Spectacular’, ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels’, ‘Space Ghost Coast to Coast’, ‘Criss Angel Mindfreak’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘George Lopez’, and ‘Tugger: The Jeep 4x4 Who Wanted to Fly’.

From 1995 until 1999, he served as the continuity announcer for Cartoon Network. Additionally, he also produced and starred in an early morning show called Carrot Top's AM Mayhem for two years from 1994 to 1996.

He made his debut in the big screen with the movie, ‘Hourglass’ in 1996. Same year, he featured in another movie, titled ‘Pure Danger’. However, he achieved a breakthrough with, ‘Chairman of The Board’ wherein he played the role of a surfer who heads a major corporation.

Same year, he appeared in the film ‘Dennis the Menace Strikes Back’. Though his popularity was on the rise, he wasn’t a household name yet. However, his appearance in the series TV commercial for AT&T’s ‘1-800-Call-ATT’ service changed everything.

Overwhelming demand and love for him by the TV viewers saw him become a permanent feature in various comedy talk shows beginning 2000. He was seen in ‘Politically Incorrect’ and was a part of the remake of the game show, ‘Hollywood Squares’. He even did an audio commentary for ‘The Rules of Attraction’.

In 2006, he featured in the satirical comedy, ‘Reno 911!’ In it, he played not his usual self but an angry version of himself who jumbles his hotel room, steals the police car and later resists arrest. Two years later, he was seen as a guest judge for ‘Last Comic Standing’.

2010 was a busy year for him as he was part of the reality show, ‘Don’t Forget The Lyrics!’ Additionally, he was one of the members of both, ‘Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav’ and ‘Gene Simmons Roast’. He appeared for a single episode of the second season of ‘Mind Freak’ and in a reality show, ‘The Bad Girls Club’.

In 2011, the ‘Man Up’ episode in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had him play the role of himself. Other than regular appearances at talk shows and comedy programs, he was also a regular feature at the Luxor Hotel which attracted sold-out crowd for his shows that included his trademark prop trunk and his topical jokes.

His latest appearance was at an episode of ‘Tosh.0’, wherein he was receiving a full-body massage from Daniel Tosh.

Other than doing comedy, he is an enthusiastic body builder and makes it a point to work out even when he is on tour.

During the time when his popularity was on the rise, he would give more than 200 concerts all sold out.

This red haired comedian of the ‘1-800-CALL-ATT’ advertisement fame has a trademark style of performing comedy acts using flamboyant props.