P.J. Marino

P.J. Marino was born and raised in Boston's one-square mile "everybody knows everybody" Italian neighborhood the North End. He played sports, worked in restaurants, and made friends for life. While studying marketing at Merrimack College, he spent one of his cooperative education work terms as a mutual fund accountant, where he met co-worker and stand-up comic Paul Nardizzi. Nardizzi challenged P.J. to try an open mic at Nick's Comedy Stop, changing P.J.'s life forever. It was at Nick's in 1993 where P.J. started his journey, meeting fellow up-and-coming comics like Gary Gulman, Dane Cook, Bill Burr, many others. After performing around New England for a few years, and booking his first national commercial audition with Ken Griffey Jr., P.J. moved to Los Angeles in 1997. He studied with Aaron Speiser and took casting director workshops. Auditions followed, and P.J. soon became a dependable blue collar character actor. He has since appeared in over 100 TV shows, films, commercials and web series. Some of his favorite gigs include a recurring role in Everybody Hates Chris (producers even changed his character name to Detective Marino), burnt-out video game character Luigi Jumpman in the MTV Networks-produced web series Video Game Reunion, and a guest star in the Season 2 finale of HBO's Barry, starring and directed by Bill Hader. He also has proudly performed on stage, including 2004's The Talking Cure (written by Oscar-winner Christopher Hampton, directed by the legendary Gordon Davidson) alongside Sam Robards at the Mark Taper Forum, and in Harbor at the Victory Theatre opposite Matthew Lillard. P.J. has extended his love of TV & film into writing & producing screenplays. His comedy-fantasy script Captain Tsunami's Army was shot in 2019 and will be released in 2021, co-starring P.J., Tessa Munro and Craig Frank, with Jeremy Sisto as the Captain. P.J. is a PAGE Awards Quarterfinalist, Austin Film Festival Second Rounder, and Scriptapalooza TV 2nd Place Winner.