Best known for his character work as a cast member of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1996- ), Chris Kattan got his start with the famed Los Angeles acting troupe The Groundlings, the same place where his father Kip King had previously honed his talents. Short and dark-haired with remarkable energy, Kattan proved his talent for both physical and dialogue-driven comedy there, and went on to great success on the long-running sketch series. Born in California to King and Hungarian model Hajni Biro, Kattan was raised by his mother and psychoanalyst stepfather in a Zen community outside of Los Angeles. The family relocated to Brisbane Island, Washington for Kattan's school years, and his misfit status resulted in the teen developing his comic skills to stay afloat in high school. Returning to California for college, he studied acting and joined The Groundlings before being discovered for "SNL", He first appeared on the series as a featured player in March of 1996, and that September he debuted as a regular cast member. Kattan almost instantly emerged as a nervy and charismatic asset to the team, consistently going the extra mile to bring each sketch a laugh. Characters like Suel Forrester, the gibberish-spewing teacher and drill sergeant, and Mr. Peepers, the apple-spewing monkey man were aggressive and attention-grabbing and made him a quick hit with audiences. As meek Goth-wannabe teen Azrael Abyss, Kattan displayed a softer, sillier side, while as Mango, the male exotic dancer other men find inexplicably irresistible, he showed a lot of skin and no shame as well as a masterful handle on the absurd.
Though many of Kattan's recurring roles were memorable and almost iconic, it was his contribution to the Butabi dynamic duo that made it to the big screen first in 1998's "A Night at the Roxbury". Matched with Will Ferrell as a pair of unlikely siblings, Kattan played the smaller of two nightclub-hopping, head-bopping brothers who alienate potential romantic partners with their inane dancing and misplaced overconfidence. While the recurring sketches on "SNL" were marked by an almost complete absence of talking, the film flew as a regular comedy, balancing physical bits with clever dialogue. Often quite funny and certainty more entertaining than many viewers bored of the repetitive sketch would have expected, the film, co-scripted by Kattan, was still a relative bomb.
Having made his feature debut with a cameo in the 1993 "mockumnetary" "... And God Spoke", Kattan followed up "A Night at the Roxbury" with a turn as the nervous caretaker all-too-familiar with the spooky reputation of "The House on Haunted Hill" (1999). The actor added some light to the horror retread, and next appeared in Nora Ephron's "Lucky Numbers" (2000). In 2001, as "SNL" began to be dominated by newer stars like Jimmy Fallon, Kattan stayed active on the series, but was becoming a more frequent contributor to film. He played the deceased organ-donating gymnast who houses the mind and spirit of Brendan Fraser's cartoonist Stu thanks to a deal with Death (Whoopi Goldberg) in the bizarre animated/live-action comedy "Monkeybone", and later that year saw his character "Corky Romano: 'Special' Agent" come to life in a feature comedy about a Mafioso son who must go undercover to monitor the activities of the FBI.