Raph_PH · CC BY 2.0

Turned unrestrained comic intensity into a movie career, most memorably as the fraudulent substitute teacher who smuggles rock and roll into a private school in School of Rock, a role that earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. He co-founded the mock-rock duo Tenacious D and has voiced Po across the Kung Fu Panda franchise and Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. His most serious dramatic turn came playing convicted murderer Bernie Tiede in Richard Linklater's Bernie, which drew some of the best reviews of his career.