Craig Shoemaker

Biography

Named Comedian of the Year by the American Comedy Awards on ABC, Craig Shoemaker`s half-hour Comedy Central special has been voted by viewers as one of the network's "Top 20" stand-up specials of all time.

Craig`s feature film credits include the box office hit Scream 2, co-starring opposite Patrick Stewart in Safe House and his featured role opposite Daryl Hannah as her love interest in 2007`s Dark Honeymoon. In 2007, Craig won Best Supporting Actor at the Elevate Film Festival. His own film The Lovemaster (with Farrah Fawcett), won "Best Film" honors at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.

Craig began his career in his hometown of Philadelphia, where he honed his comedy and characters winning the "Best of Philly" Award while working as a bartender and attending Temple University. As a voiceover artist, Craig`s dead-on impression of Don Knotts was featured in the film Pleasantville (which he also played the narrator) and has voiced many hit animated series including Teamo Supremo, Monsters, and I M Weasel.

Craig`s small screen credits include his one-hour special on Comedy Central titled, The Lovemaster... Unzipped, co-hosting duties on HBO`s Comic Relief 2006, roles on numerous prime time series and he was actually Joy Behar`s first guest in her Comedy Corner on ABC`s The View.

As a scribe, Craig most recently wrote, produced and starred in Totally Baked, a movie which was conceived from his own son asking if his dad had ever smoked marijuana. The film was distributed world-wide by Universal and can be found in all major retail outlets, including WalMart. Totally Baked was asked to be a featured film in the Austin Film Festival, was nominated for the 2008 High Times "Stony Award." It was recently re-released as a "Doobie Feature" packaged with a stand up DVD Shoemaker produced called, "420 Comedy Hour." Craig`s writing credits also include ABC's Just The Ten of Us, and Real Funny. He also wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed one-man show, Who`s Your Daddy? at the Coronet Theater.

Inspired by his children, Craig has also published two hit children`s books, now in their third printing, entitled "What You Have Now... What Your Daddy Had Then" and "What You Have Now... What Your Mommy Had Then."

Additionally, Craig has had his own nationally syndicated radio show, which after only ten months on the air, won the prestigious Communicator Award "Crystal" prize. Two of Craig`s stand-up comedy routines made it to the Top 10 list on XM Radio, with "Playing Army" ranking #1. His "Lovemaster" routine was voted Most Popular Comedy on XM Radio's Big Schtick Awards.

In 2004, Craig opened a comedy compound and retail outlet inspired by his nonprofit organization LaughterHeals.org. The Laughter Store is a place to find all things funny - pranks & gags, CDs, books, DVDs - anything to make you laugh!

Craig`s stand-up DVD and CD, The Lovemaster... Unzipped was released by Universal worldwide in early 2008. The CD was featured on the front page of iTunes and was in the Billboard Top 20 for six straight weeks.

Inspired by laughter, Craig has created a new forum "Laughter Heals" where he combines his two decades of stand up into an uplifting seminar and humanistic forum to help those battling and suffering from cancer and other life threatening diseases use the gift of laughter for self-healing universal wellness.

In June 2010, Craig received an honorary doctorate in humanities from his alma mater, California University of Pennsylvania, recognizing his humanitarian work performed over the last thirty years.

Currently, Craig is producing and writing a feature documentary called Live to Laugh along with Mark Harris (Crash, Gods & Monsters) and Dr. Michael Beckwith (The Secret, Oprah).

Craig is happily married and has three sons, Justin, Jared and Jackson.