Lettered in baseball (third baseman) and football (quarterback) in college
Taught high-school English and coached high-school football in Chicago before becoming an actor
Wrote and directed the shorts Jedi Gym and Osama bin Laden: Behind the Madness
Met It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and star Rob McElhenney in a coffee shop and convinced him to screen some short films he'd written and directed
This led to a role in the pilot for a Fox comedy called Boldly Going Nowhere
His 2012 cross-dressing sitcom, Work It, was pulled by ABC after two episodes
Parents are both celebrated educators and education activists in Illinois
A line of t-shirts and tank tops celebrate his Dale character from the cable drama Big Love