Netflix - Umbrella Academy Season 2 : Focus on Ken Hall

By Mulder, 31 july 2020

Seen by over 45 million households, accomplished Canadian comedic veteran Ken Hall returns to the highly-anticipated season 2 of Netflix's hit, live-action series "The Umbrella Academy" premiering Friday, July 31st. Ken reprises his role as commissioner 'Herb' and also returns for a flashback in which he provides the motion-capture work embodying the body of the family's caregiver/chimpanzee 'Pogo,' the creation of Sir Reginald Hargreaves, a billionaire industrialist who transformed Pogo from a regular chimpanzee to an upright walking, highly-intelligent and refined chimpanzee. Pogo is an integral party to the family and strives to serve the children and his master, essentially being their caregiver. We would love to set up an interview with Ken on behalf the season 2 premiere of "The Umbrella Academy" and the importance of physical diversity in Hollywood.

Based on the popular, Eisner award-winning comics and graphic novels created and written by My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way and executive produced by showrunner Steve Blackman (Fargo, Altered Carbon), the young adult, action, coming-of-age series follows a disbanded group of superheroes who reunite after their adoptive father, who trained them to save the world, dies. But the estranged family once again begins to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities, not to mention the imminent threat of a global apocalypse. At the end of season one, we saw the Hargreaves family had catastrophically failed to prevent an apocalypse. As the earth exploded around them, the seven siblings blinked out of existence in the visual signature of Number Five's (Aidan Gallagher) ability to teleport himself and others through time and space. The second season sees the siblings scattered throughout the 1960's in Dallas, Texas following the apocalypse. Five lands in the middle of yet another apocalypse and must find a way to reunite his family in order to stop it and return to the present day, all while being haunted by a trio of Swedish assassins.

Hall is best known for his leading role on TBS' "People of Earth" as 'Jeff the Grey,' a curious, bug-eyed extra-terrestrial with side-splitting one-liners who is the captain and leader of his flying saucer. The show ran for three successful seasons on TBS which also led Ken to be a guest on CONAN during San Diego Comic-Con. Ken has appeared in numerous film and television rules including the award-winning feature film Patch Town - The Movie, Mistletoe Over Manhattan (Hallmark Channel), Lost Girl, and recently appeared as Dr. Becker in Netflix's original film POLAR alongside Vanessa Hudgens, Johnny Knoxville and Richard Dreyfuss.

A long and successful career in improv comedy brought Ken the Canadian Comedy Award for 'Best Breakout Artist' as well as multiple CCA nominations. Keeping to his improv roots, Ken regularly tours and performs at festivals in his critically acclaimed duo 2-MAN NO-SHOW, with comedic partner, Isaac Kessler. The improv/sketch sensation was nominated twice for 'Best Improv Troupe' and 'Best Comedic Show' as well as Toronto's Best Improv Troupe. Having nurtured an insatiable appetite for comedy, Ken is able to lend his wisdom and expertise to aspiring actors by teaching public speaking classes and theatrical clowning classes at the Second City in Toronto in addition to solo improv classes, on-camera comedic acting classes and mindfulness classes through the Bad Dog Theatre in Toronto during this pandemic.

Proudly standing at 4-foot-9, Hall aims to be an advocate for Physical Diversity. He has noticed the slowly evolving trend of casting director's efforts in hiring actors fitting the physicality they are looking for in characters. He believes that for people who are physically different like him, it's important that they are also recognized for their talent and they have stories to tell and want to be seen. Ken is also no stranger to prosthetics thanks to his work as "Jeff the Grey' on TBS' "People of Earth" but he was able to provide a different kind of motion-capture work for the genetically and intellectually advanced chimpanzee Pogo, voiced by Adam Godley. Along with an amazing special effects team, Ken spent 6 months on the Toronto set providing the physicality, the movement and the body of the unique primate.

Having found his calling in comedy and acting in his late 20's, Ken has developed a love for writing sketch comedies and short stories as well as directing. Ken is also a motivational speaker and enjoys speaking on his personal story about his evolution as a person and many of the challenges and struggles he's encountered growing up. He's lived and experienced things that have allowed him to see the world in different ways and in sharing those, he hopes to inspire and help others.

(Source : presse release)