Timothy Stack

Timothy Stack's career as a supporting comedic actor in popular sitcoms and box-office hits eventually gave way to writing and producing prime-time shows "My Name Is Earl" and "Raising Hope." After completing a degree at Boston College, Stack headed to Los Angeles, where he joined joined the improv troupe the Groundlings in 1979. After initial television appearances on the "Mary Tyler Moore" spinoff "Lou Grant," he began to win small parts on other 1980s primetime sitcom staples, and in such big-screen comedies as the Rodney Dangerfield college farce, "Back to School." In the early '90s Stack played patriarch Martin Lewis on the fledgling Fox network's comedy "Parker Lewis Can't Lose."

His three-year stint on the show led to further sitcom work, and soon he went back to comedy writing, eventually scripting, producing, and acting on the "Baywatch"-style beach-show parody "Son of the Beach." But the series lasted only one season, and Stack went back to the drawing board while still doing occasional voice-over work and appearing on TV and in films, notably the 2000 Tom Hanks adventure movie "Cast Away." By 2005, Stack had hooked up with Greg Garcia for the successful trailer-park-set redemption comedy, "My Name Is Earl." Stack helped write and produce the show, while also portraying a pill-popping local celebrity and drunk named, not coincidentally, Tim Stack. After four successful seasons of "Earl," Stack and Garcia launched the family comedy "Raising Hope" in 2010.