Jonathan Joseph Heder is an American actor and producer. His feature film debut came in 2004 best known as the title character of the comedy film Napoleon Dynamite. He has also acted in the films Just Like Heaven, The Benchwarmers, School for Scoundrels, Blades of Glory, Mama's Boy, When in Rome, and Walt Before Mickey as Roy Disney, and provided voice talents in the animated films Monster House, Surf's Up, and Pinocchio, as well as the Napoleon Dynamiteanimated series.
Early life
Heder was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, the son of Helen and James Heder, a practicing physician. He has an identical twin brother, Dan, as well as an older sister and brother, Rachel and Doug, and two younger brothers, Adam and Matt. Heder is the nephew by marriage of former NFLrunning back and WCAU sportscaster Vai Sikahema. Heder is of part Swedish descent. Heder and his parents moved to Salem, Oregon, when he was about two years old. He attended Walker Middle School in Salem and graduated from South Salem High School in 1996, where he was on the swim team and was a member of the Drama Association. Heder is an Eagle Scout. A 2002 alumnus of Brigham Young University, Heder worked on the short CGI-animated film Pet Shop, written by Logan Deans, which earned a non-traditional animation student Emmy in 2005. After his movie career took off, he did not return to complete the work he started on the short, although his name does appear in the credits. While attending BYU, he befriended Jared Hess and starred in Hess's short filmPeluca, which was later expanded into Napoleon Dynamite. Peluca received rave reviews on the BYU campus after showing at a few college and local film festivals and competitions.
Career
Napoleon Dynamite, filmed in Preston, Idaho, earned $44.5 million at the box office. In June 2005, Heder received the MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Performance and Breakthrough Male Performance for the role. On October 8, 2005, he hosted Saturday Night Live with musical guest Ashlee Simpson. After his success with Napoleon Dynamite, Heder and his film co-star Efren Ramirez filmed a series of commercials to promote the Utah's 2005 State Fair. They reprised their roles in a self-parody sketch called "Napoleon Bonamite" on the animated series Robot Chicken. In 2005, Heder had a supporting role as a clerk in a new age bookstore in the romantic comedyJust Like Heaven. In 2006, he appeared in the comedy film The Sasquatch Gang, and had a starring role with Rob Schneider and David Spade in producer Adam Sandler's The Benchwarmers, another comedy, about three men making up for lost chances by creating their own Little League baseball team. Also in 2006, he was the voice of the character Skull in the animated film Monster House, and starred in the comedy School for Scoundrels, opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Jacinda Barrett. With the exception of the Academy Award-nominee Monster House, Heder's post-Dynamite movies were widely panned and he risked becoming a one-hit wonder until he co-starred in 2007 with Will Ferrell in the well-received Blades of Glory. Like many of Heder's films, Blades of Glory is an absurd, slapstick caricature, in this case revolving around rival male figure skaters who must team up in a pairs competition. Heder's second turn at voice acting came in 2007 when he voiced the character of Chicken Joe, a surfing chicken, in the animated film Surf's Up. His first foray into web television was in the 2008 web seriesWoke Up Dead starring and produced by himself. Woke Up Dead is a web-based, live-action sci-fi comedy thriller about Drex, a twenty-something USC student who wakes up underwater in the bathtub one morning and suspects that he might be dead. Heder and his twin brother, Dan, star together as villains in the fourth installment of the popular internet martial arts comedy series Sockbaby. Heder's performance in When in Rome was praised by New York Times critic A. O. Scott: "Jon Heder as a goofy street magician is the funniest of the bunch." In 2012, Heder returned to the role that made him famous by supplying the voice of Napoleon Dynamite in the Fox Network animated series, Napoleon Dynamite, which debuted in January 2012. In 2013, Heder appeared in the music video for "On Top of the World" with numerous other Utah-based actors and musicians, and in 2014 he appeared in the music video for the Chromeo song "Old 45s". In January 2017, Heder reprised his role as Chicken Joe in the to Surf's Up.
Personal life
Heder has been married to Kirsten Bales since 2002. The couple met while they were studying at Brigham Young University. They have four children. Like his brothers and father, Heder is a Scouting enthusiast having achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. In 2010, he served as a Scoutmaster for the organization. Heder is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
