Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He moved around a lot in his younger
years, enjoying such pastimes as eating and television!
It was in the summer of 1993 when Heath was violently exposed to a
television show called Saturday Night Live. Comedy Central decided to air
every episode back to back in random order for two weeks straight leading
up to the season premiere. Heath spent the entire marathon glued to his
TV, breaking only for the sleep that he could not fight. He then decided at
that very moment that all he wanted to do is be on SNL.
Heath spent his junior high and high school years making up characters and
sketches and videos and pulling all kinds of stunts with one goal of making
his friends laugh. After being voted class clown in his graduating class (he
actually graduated), Heath spent his years after high school doing what
most class clowns do: Nothing.
It wasn't until the winter of 2000 that Heath started taking some real steps
to achieving his goal. He joined up with Calgary based Loose Moose
Theatre Company, the old stomping grounds of such greats as Bruce
McCulloch and Mark McKinney. There he was taught the basics of improv
by such future greats as Levi MacDougall and Derek Flores. More
importantly, he got his first taste of roaring laughter from a packed house.
There was no turning back.
Heath stayed with Loose Moose for a couple years until most of the
groundbreaking had talent had moved on to Toronto. Heath realized that it
was time for him to move on too, but felt a calling to a different place.
Heath had to go to Hollywood!
Will Ferrell was at the time, and still is Heath's all time hero. This meant
that the best thing for Heath to do would be to try to follow the path of
Ferrell himself. This led Heath to Los Angeles: The home of the
Groundlings, the home of countless greats such as Phil Hartman, John
Lovitz, Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri, Chris Kattan, and of course Will Ferrell.
In addition to that was, and still possibly the greatest sketch and improv
company in the world.
Heath saved up for a year to buy himself a year in the city of Angels where
he studied film at Los Angeles City College, but more importantly, he
completed the first two of four levels of the Groundlings school, the only
way into the company. The two year waiting list for level three, and the fact
that he couldn't work in the US brought Heath back to Calgary, Canada.
In the year after living in Los Angeles, Heath tried his hand at something he
had never had the courage to try before: Stand up comedy. He found that it
was a good fit and within months was a Calgary finalist in the Yuk Yuks
Battle For Alberta search for the best new comic in the province.
After spending a year in Calgary, and knowing that it would be another year
before it was time to return to LA, Heath decided to pack it up and move to
Toronto. He spent his first year there attending the Humber College Post
Graduate Comedy Writing & Performance program where he was nominated
for the Phil Hartman Award.
Upon graduating Humber, Heath was finally called back to LA for his third
installment of Groundlings school: The Groundlings Writing Lab. After
facing one of the most difficult challenges in his career, Heath narrowly
escaped being eliminated from the Groundlings forever by passing on to
level 4.
Heath has since then moved back to Toronto, where he currently resides
and performs standup comedy several times a week in addition to writing
for film and television, and producing video shorts while he awaits being
called back to Los Angeles for the fourth and final level of the Groundlings
school, the next step on the path to achieving his dream of one day saying
these words on NBC at around 11:35 PM on a weekend:
"Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!"
