Neil Casey

The writing came first. Neil Casey wrote for Saturday Night Live from 2012 to 2013 and for Inside Amy Schumer in 2014, and picked up Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series on both, which is a better record than most performers of his generation can claim. He came out of improv, and one of the credits here is the documentary Thank You, Del: The Story of the Del Close Marathon, about the marathon named for the teacher most of that scene traces itself back to.

As a performer he has an unusually specific niche: men with a grievance and no standing. The middle manager who has prepared remarks nobody asked for, the colleague explaining a system that does not work, the guy who has decided this is his moment. He was a series regular on the comedies Other Space and Making History, and got his largest role as Rowan North, the antagonist of the 2016 Ghostbusters, a part written as exactly that type scaled up to a citywide threat.

Everything since has been a supporting register he is very good at. He is Colin in Silicon Valley, Cyrus in Avenue 5, Goran in Santa Clarita Diet, Dennis in Greener Grass, Alvin Rudnick in Black Monday, Douglas Caddy in White House Plumbers and Brian McConnachie in A Futile and Stupid Gesture. Voice work has become a steady sideline, in Big Mouth, Clone High and Star Trek: Lower Decks, where the credit is simply Casey. Twice, in The League and Adult Beginners, he is credited as Neil, which feels about right.