Trace Beaulieu () is an American comedian, puppeteer, writer, and actor. He is known for his roles on Mystery Science Theater 3000 ( MST3K)[ "The (Nearly) Complete List of Credits", Ward E, The Satellite News] as well as his work with MST3K's successor Cinematic Titanic with the original creators and cast of MST3K.
Beaulieu briefly attended the University of Minnesota.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
For the first eight seasons of
MST3K (1 at KTMA and 7 on Comedy Channel/
Comedy Central), Beaulieu wrote for the show, operated and voiced the Crow T. Robot puppet, and played the role of Dr. Clayton Forrester, the head
mad scientist at Gizmonic Institute. After the season five departure of series creator
Joel Hodgson, the name of Dr. Forrester's company was changed to Deep 13 because Hodgson held the copyright for the word "Gizmonic" and requested that the show refrain from using the word after his departure.
At the end of a
seventh season, Beaulieu left the series.
[ "West Brains: Trace", The Satellite News.] Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl) replaced him as the head mad scientist and
Bill Corbett took over the voicing and operation of Crow.
Work after MST3K
Beaulieu appeared as a semi-regular in
Freaks and Geeks as the school's biology teacher, Mr. Lacovara. He also appeared in
The West Wing episode "Bad Moon Rising". Beaulieu was a writer for
America's Funniest Home Videos from 1998 to 2007.
[ "Brain Scan: Where Are They Now?" , The Satellite News.] In 2002, he was the head writer, producer, and host of the pilot episode of the
Animal Planet show
People Traps.
He has since starred in the 2010 computer game
as first officer Ross Perryman.
[ DARKSTAR in Satellite News] In 2013, he reprised his role as Crow for a brief cameo appearance in two episodes of the fourth season of
Arrested Development, along with Joel.
[ MST3K Pops Up in Arrested Development] In 2015, Beaulieu appeared as ART in the Yahoo! original comedy series,
Other Space.
Outside of acting, Beaulieu also wrote the script for the one-shot comic book Here Come the Big People, published by Event Comics. In 2010, Beaulieu completed work on a children's poetry book, Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children,[ Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children] a dark, twisted, humorous collection illustrated by Len Peralta.
In 2014
Beaulieu appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor podcast on June 16, 2016.
Beaulieu was the co-host of Movie Sign with the Mads on the Last Podcast Network with Frank Conniff and Carolina Hidalgo from 2016 until 2020.
Cinematic Titanic
On October 30, 2007,
Joel Hodgson announced he was starting a new series—distributed on DVD—with the same "riffing on bad movies" premise as
MST3K. Called
Cinematic Titanic, it featured several former
MST3K cast and crew members: Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein,
Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl.
[ Cinematic Titanic - Homepage of MST3K alumni Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff, Josh Weinstein, Trace Beaulieu and Mary Jo Pehl ]
Cinematic Titanic completed its final tour on December 30, 2013.
"The Mads Are Back" tour
Since 2015, Beaulieu has joined his former MST3K co-star
Frank Conniff ("TV's Frank") and gone on tour as "The Mads Are Back",
riffing older
B-movies in front of live audiences. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beaulieu and Conniff moved the show to a ticketed livestream format, offering monthly live-riffs of movies, including some they had previously screened on tour such as
Glen or Glenda,
The Tingler, and
Walk The Dark Street.
External links
