Paul F. Tompkins
Paul Francis Tompkins was born on September 12, 1968, in Mount Airy, and grew up as a citizen of the United States. His career has taken him across several areas of the entertainment industry, where he has worked as a comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, voice actor, and podcaster.
Tompkins attended Bishop McDevitt High School before going on to study at Temple University and the Juilliard School. That educational path fed into a career that spans stand-up comedy, film acting, television acting, voice acting, screenwriting, and producing — a combination of roles that has kept him engaged on both sides of the camera and across different formats. Working in English throughout, he has contributed to projects in front of and behind the scenes.
Among his notable works is Star Trek: The Pod Directive, a project that draws on his identity as both a performer and a podcaster. That credit sits alongside his broader body of work in film and television, as well as his output in stand-up comedy and audio. The range of his credits reflects how many different formats he has been willing to work in over the course of his career.
Tompkins holds roles as a film actor, television actor, voice actor, comedian, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, television producer, and podcaster — a list that points to someone who has moved across the industry rather than settling into a single lane. Star Trek: The Pod Directive stands as one concrete marker of that varied output, connecting his work in audio with his presence as a performer.
Quotes by Paul F. Tompkins
Politics is a thing that is kind of the same over and over and over again. But we have to find new ways of poking fun at it and letting the air out of people and satirizing things that are worthy of satire.
We each have our own style but yeah, when you boil it down like there are certain things that human beings just are predisposed to laugh at and we're just kind of all putting our own spin on it.
I think that we all enjoy silliness to varying degrees but I think everyone can enjoy a relatable thing if it is expressed in a funny way.
I've said things that, now, I wish I hadn't said because times have changed and like the me of 15-20 years ago made a joke that I wouldn't make today because I - just because I look at the world differently now, you know. And because the world is different now. And, you know, it's all part of a maturation process, I think, for everybody.
You can make me laugh at a thing that I think is horrific. You can make me laugh at a thing that affects me personally. But if you've done your homework and you've gone about it the right way, it will still be funny.
When the task is mocking pop culture, it's easy to make sarcastic comments and consider the job done. After a while, I began to feel like this route was completely pointless. Talking about silly, inconsequential stuff doesn't mean you can't put some effort into it.
I long ago vowed, as Batman did before me, never to make fun of stuff that people couldn't help. Because it's (1) easy and (2) not fair. There are plenty of things that people have complete control over that are worthy of ridicule.
Nobody held a gun to my head and forced me to write recaps about the tenth season of 'American Idol.' Although I feel like someone must have and I just forgot about it.
I just approach everything by just doing the best job I can do and try to be a pleasant person.
The thing you have to be on guard against, more than anything, is self-sabotage. You have to make sure you're not your own worst enemy.