Patrick Breen
Joseph Patrick Breen (born October 26, 1960) is an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and director best known for character roles in science fiction comedies including Men in Black (1997) as the alien-disguised Mr. Redgick and Galaxy Quest (1999) as the excitable tech enthusiast Quellek.[1] A graduate of New York University, Breen co-founded the Naked Angels theater company in the early 1980s, contributing to its development as an influential Off-Broadway ensemble focused on new works by emerging playwrights.[2] His writing credits include the independent film Just a Kiss (2002), adapted from his play, and stage productions such as Sitting Shiva with the Cast of Alien vs. Predator, while his directorial efforts encompass theater pieces blending humor and genre elements.[3] Breen earned a Drama Desk Award in 2011 for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in the MCC Theater production of The Illusion.[4]Early life
Upbringing and family origins
Joseph Patrick Breen was born on October 26, 1960, in Brooklyn, New York.[5][6] His family relocated to Staten Island during his early childhood, where he spent his formative years.[3] In fourth grade, Breen created a collage artwork titled Collage of Eyes—a surreal composition assembled from magazine clippings and construction paper—which was exhibited in a Staten Island art show in 1969, marking an early expression of creative interest.[3] Public records provide scant details on his parental occupations or ethnic family origins beyond the common Irish-American associations implied by the surname, with no verified accounts of specific influences shaping his pre-adolescent development.[5]Education and early training
Breen attended Tottenville High School in Staten Island, New York, where he participated in school plays that marked his initial exposure to performing arts.[7][8] After high school, he enrolled at Hunter College but, during his first year, resolved to pursue acting professionally, prompting a shift in his academic path.[9] He subsequently studied in the drama department at New York University (NYU), entering as a first-year student while receiving credit for prior coursework.[9] Breen graduated from NYU, gaining foundational training in dramatic arts through structured coursework and performance opportunities that developed his skills in character interpretation and stage presence.[10][9] This period emphasized practical honing of acting techniques, bridging his amateur high school experiences toward more rigorous preparation without yet entering paid professional engagements.Professional career
Entry into theater and stage
Breen's entry into professional theater occurred in 1983 with his Broadway debut in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, where he served initially as standby for Stanley Jerome before assuming the role as a replacement.[11][12] The production opened on March 27, 1983, at the Alvin Theatre (later transferred to the 46th Street Theatre) and ran for 1,299 performances until May 11, 1986, providing Breen an early platform in a long-running ensemble comedy depicting a Depression-era Jewish family in Brooklyn.[13][14] This opportunity, succeeding Jason Alexander in the role of the protagonist's older brother, highlighted Breen's emerging comedic timing amid the demands of sustaining a major commercial hit.[12] Building on this foundation, Breen took on replacement roles in the Tony Award-winning musical Big River, adapted from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which opened April 25, 1985, at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.[15] He portrayed characters including Ben Rogers, Hank, and a Young Fool across its run through 1987, contributing to the ensemble in a production that emphasized character-driven storytelling and musical performance.[16] These assignments in high-profile Broadway shows during the mid-1980s underscored his adaptability in both straight plays and musicals, fostering skill refinement through repeated immersion in New York's competitive stage environment, where replacements required rapid integration into established casts.[17] Early career perseverance is evident in Breen's navigation of the New York theater scene, where securing and maintaining roles in enduring productions like these provided critical exposure and networking amid limited off-Broadway documentation from the period.[18] Such experiences laid the groundwork for his trajectory in live performance, prioritizing ensemble reliability over lead billing in an era dominated by commercial longevity.[4]Transition to film and television
Breen's entry into film and television occurred in the late 1980s, supplementing his stage career with television guest spots, such as on the detective series Spenser: For Hire. His screen debut in features followed with the role of Andy, a supporting character, in the 1990 comedy Nobody's Perfect. Subsequent minor film parts, including Father Hallahan in Passed Away (1992), provided initial exposure but limited prominence, reflecting the typical path for theater actors navigating auditions and agent representation in a competitive industry where stage credits often serve as a foundation for screen opportunities.[19][20][18] A key advancement came in 1997 with his portrayal of Mr. Redgick, an interrogated civilian witness to an extraterrestrial event, in Men in Black, a blockbuster science fiction action comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld that achieved $250.7 million in domestic box office earnings and approximately $589 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. This role, though brief, aligned with Breen's strengths in quirky character work, contributing to the film's ensemble dynamic amid its high-stakes visual effects and star-driven appeal.[21][22][23] Building on this momentum, Breen played Quellek, a desperate Thermian alien forming an alliance with human actors, in Galaxy Quest (1999), a satirical homage to science fiction tropes that grossed $71.6 million domestically against a $45 million production cost, yielding solid returns through word-of-mouth and cult appeal. These genre films, both emphasizing comedic exaggeration and ensemble interplay, facilitated Breen's adaptation from live theater's immediacy to the edited, camera-focused demands of screen performance, enhancing his industry profile without overshadowing lead actors.[24][19]Writing, directing, and playwriting endeavors
Breen's playwriting career emerged alongside his acting within New York City's experimental theater scene, particularly through his long association with the Naked Angels company, where he contributed original one-act works. An evening of his short plays titled Saturday Mourning Cartoons was produced at Naked Angels, showcasing his early foray into satirical and character-driven vignettes.[25] Similarly, his one-act Call of the Wild appeared in ensemble programs pairing contemporary shorts, highlighting concise explorations of human impulse and isolation.[26] These efforts allowed Breen to exercise authorial control in intimate settings, often blending absurdism with social observation, as evidenced by production logs from Off-Off-Broadway collectives. In 1992, Breen's St. Stanislaus Outside the House premiered as part of a curated program at an East Village venue, depicting interpersonal tensions on church steps in a theatrically stylized manner that underscored his interest in site-specific dynamics and ensemble interplay.[27] More recently, his one-act comedy The Only Other Option (published circa 2010s) centers on a cryogenically preserved protagonist awakening disembodied, demonstrating Breen's continued experimentation with speculative premises in compact formats suitable for educational or fringe stagings.[28] These playwriting ventures complemented his acting by enabling hybrid involvement in Naked Angels and similar groups, where script development informed performance choices and fostered collaborative refinements evident in repeated workshop iterations. Transitioning to screenwriting, Breen adapted his play Marking into the 2002 feature Just a Kiss, a screenplay tracing interconnected romantic mishaps among New Yorkers, which secured distribution through indie channels following its festival circuit run.[25] He also penned and directed East of A in 2000, a low-budget drama examining artistic ambition and personal entropy in urban bohemia, produced via independent financing and shot in New York locations to maintain narrative authenticity.[29] These projects illustrate Breen's extension of theatrical sensibilities to film, prioritizing nonlinear structures and wry dialogue over commercial formulas, with production timelines aligning to gaps in his acting schedule for self-financed creative autonomy.Body of work
Film roles
Breen's film appearances primarily consist of supporting and character roles across genres including comedy, science fiction, and drama, with a concentration in the 1990s and 2000s.[1] He has notably contributed to science fiction comedies such as Men in Black (1997), where he played the insurance agent Mr. Redgick, and Galaxy Quest (1999), portraying the alien actor Quellek.[19] His credits from the 1990s include:- For Love or Money (1993) as Gary Taubin[30]
- Get Shorty (1995) as Resident Doctor[20]
- Men in Black (1997) as Mr. Redgick[31]
- Galaxy Quest (1999) as Quellek[24]
- Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) as Pierre[1]
- Just a Kiss (2002) as Peter (also writer)[30]
- Radio (2003) as Tucker[20]
- Christmas with the Kranks (2004) as Aubie[30]
- The Island (2005) as Gandu Three Echo[1]
- Space Chimps (2008) as Dr. Poole (voice)[20]
- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) as Truska[32]
- The Bleeding House (2011) as Gordon[33]
- A Most Violent Year (2014) as Instructor[20]
- Milkwater (2020) as Dr. Phelps[33]