Patton Oswalt is a stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor. He was born January 27, 1969, in Portsmouth, Virginia, to Carla and Larry J. Oswalt, a career United States Marine Corps officer, and was named after General George S. Patton. Oswalt first began performing standup comedy in the late 1980s or early 1990s, by his own reckoning. After writing for MADtv and starring in his own 1996 comedy special for HBO, he went on to garner notable roles in films and television shows. His most prominent roles were as Spence Olchin on the sitcom The King of Queens, and voicing Remy in the film Ratatouille.

Oswalt's stand-up comedy covers topics ranging from pop culture frivolity such as comic book supervillains and 1980s glam metal to deeper social issues like American excess, materialism, foreign policy and religion. He also discusses his atheism in his stand-up. On February 28, 2009, Oswalt recorded his third comedy album at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington D.C. It premiered on Comedy Central as Patton Oswalt: My Weakness is Strong on August 23, 2009, and was released on DVD August 25, 2009.

Oswalt married writer Michelle Eileen McNamara on September 24, 2005. Their daughter was born in 2009. His latest album, Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour, was released on September 19, 2011. The extended and uncensored DVD of this special was released in April 2012, a few days after its television premiere on Comedy Central.