Career
Picardo made his feature film debut as Eddie Quist, the serial killer werewolf in the Joe Dante film The Howling (1981). He also had a recurring role in the sitcom Alice. He played a number of roles in Dante's 1985 family science fiction film Explorers, and later appeared in Dante's The 'Burbs, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Matinee, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Small Soldiers, and Innerspace, as the Cowboy. Picardo often plays roles under layers of prosthetic latex, having also played the swamp dwelling Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's film Legend. He also had a small role as a funeral director in John Landis's Amazon Women on the Moon. He voices Pfish in two Pfish & Chip shorts as seen on Cartoon Network's What-A-Cartoon! Show. Picardo also portrays the voice of the robotic Johnny Cab in Total Recall. He appeared in one episode of ER in 1995 as Abraham Zimble (Season 2 - Episode 6 "Days like this").
In the early 1990s, Picardo had a recurring role as Joe "The Meat Man" Morton, a butcher and neighbor to Tim Allen's character on the popular sitcom Home Improvement. From 1995 to 2001, he played the role of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) and Emergency Command Hologram (ECH) in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager. He also played additional versions of the role of the EMH in the 1996 Star Trek motion picture Star Trek: First Contact and the 1997 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir I Presume?". In 2001, he guest starred in 7 Days episode "Revelation", purporting to be a time traveler from 7 years in the future. In 2004, he began playing the recurring role of International Oversight Advisory (IOA) member Richard Woolsey in both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, where he became a regular in the fifth season. His first appearance in those series was in "Heroes (Part 2)".
In 2007, he played Principal White in Ben 10: Race Against Time. In 2007, he starred in the independent feature film by director Russ Emanuel, "P.J.", alongside John Heard and Vincent Pastore. He also more recently starred in Russ Emanuel's "Chasing the Green" (2008), alongside William Devane, Jeremy London, and Ryan Hurst. In 2007 and 2008, Star Trek: The Music was a multi-city tour with John de Lancie. Picardo and de Lancie narrated around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek.
Picardo has also appeared on Kojak in a 1977 episode, E-Ring as a media rep in The Pentagon, as an enraged father in Cold Case, and as a police officer in CSI: NY. He also appeared as a recurring guest star in two episodes of Season 7 of Smallville. Away from acting, Picardo is a member of the Board of Directors' Advisory Council of The Planetary Society, where he has served since the late 1990s. In 2002, Picardo authored the book The Hologram's Handbook, published by Pocket Books. Other career highlights include performing in Leonard Bernstein's Mass in D during its European debut tour, performing with the Yale University Society of Orpheus & Bacchus a cappella singing group as an undergraduate, and appearing in dozens of other television and film roles, including the film Our Last Days As Children. On February 5, 2008, it was announced that Picardo would be joining the regular cast of Stargate Atlantis full-time for the show's fifth and final season. He will be taking over the role of mission commander of the Atlantis Expedition. Recently, Picardo performed the voice of Loki in the Xbox 360 video game Too Human. In 2009, he also appeared in Pushing Daisies, Chuck and Castle. Also in 2009 he played the lead role in the independent psychological thriller film Sensored. In 2010, Picardo had a cameo in the final episode of Persons Unknown, as a member of "the program"'s governing board. Picardo also voices Robert McNamara in Call of Duty: Black Ops in campaign and in the 'Zombie mode' after completing campaign on the one map, "FIVE". In 2012, Picardo appeared in a season 4 episode of The Mentalist as Jason Cooper, a lieutenant of cult leader Bret Styles.
Picardo also appeared on a season 6 episode of Supernatural entitled "Clap Your Hands if You Believe" as a leprechaun.
Picardo is also appearing in two songs, on a album called BiTrektual, by the singer Voltaire.
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