Denis Leary

Denis Leary is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer whose four-decade career has produced multiple defining American comedy and TV-drama roles — particularly his seven-season run as firefighter Tommy Gavin on FX's Rescue Me (2004–2011, which he also co-created and co-wrote). He was born Denis Colin Leary on August 18, 1957, in Worcester, Massachusetts. His Irish-immigrant father John Leary was a auto mechanic from Killarney, County Kerry, and his Irish-immigrant mother Nora Sullivan was a homemaker from Killarney.

His education at Emerson College in Boston (B.A. in English, 1981) launched his Boston-based 1980s comedy career — including his five-year teaching position at Emerson College's comedy-writing program. His breakthrough came across his 1990 Edinburgh Festival Fringe stand-up performance and his 1992 MTV stand-up special No Cure for Cancer. The 1992 single "Asshole" — recorded in conjunction with the No Cure for Cancer special — produced his early-1990s American comedy public profile.

His 1990s film career produced multiple American supporting-role appearances — including The Ref (1994), Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), Suicide Kings (1997), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and his voice role as Diego in the 2002 animated film Ice Age and its four sequels (2006, 2009, 2012, 2016). His 2004 co-creation of FX's Rescue Me with Peter Tolan — the post-September 11 New York Fire Department drama in which he played alcoholic firefighter Tommy Gavin — produced one of the defining 2000s American cable-TV dramas.

His subsequent TV career has included his 2015–2017 lead role as aging rock star Johnny Rock on FX's Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (which he also created), and his 2010 founding of the Leary Firefighters Foundation (which has funded American firefighter equipment and training programs across multiple American cities). He married writer Ann Lembeck in 1989 and the couple has two children.

His name Denis derives from the French form of Dionysius (the ancient Greek god of wine and theater). Denis was a popular American boys' name through the mid-20th century.