Dan Mintz

Dan Mintz didn't begin his career planning for his breakout role to come playing a 13-year-old girl, but doing so certainly didn't hurt him either. Mintz, best known as 13-year-old Tina, eldest daughter of diner owner Bob Belcher, on the cartoon Bob's Burgers" (Fox 2011-), began his comedic career much earlier. Mintz was born in Anchorage, AK, but started his comedic career in Boston. Beginning his career as a stand up, he landed on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (NBC 1993-2009) as well as his own half-hour stand-up special, "Comedy Central presents Dan Mintz" (Comedy Central 2008). As a standup comic, Mintz was most well known for his deadpan delivery -- barely acknowledging either the audience or the camera -- and utterly emotionless affect, which was not unlike the late comedian Mitch Hedberg. During this period, Mintz also worked as a writer on TV comedy shows including "Human Giant" (MTV 2007-08), "The Andy Milonakis Show" (MTV 2005-07) and Louis C.K.'s sitcom parody "Lucky Louie" (HBO 2006-08). Mintz's stand-up persona led series creator Loren Bouchard to audition him for his animated show "Bob's Burgers," following Bob (H. Jon Benjamin), his wife Linda (Dan Roberts), and their three children, Tina (Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman), and Louise (Kristen Schaal) as they run a family burger bar in an unnamed coastal resort town. Before Tina was Tina, she was Daniel, Gene and Louise's older brother; Bouchard and the rest of the writing staff decided that an adolescent girl was a more interesting character than a boy the same age; both Bouchard and Mintz said that Mintz decided to leave the character's voice exactly as it had been before the gender change. The ratings for "Bob's Burgers" didn't start off strong, but word of mouth and critical acclaim made it Fox's most successful animated series since "The Simpsons" (Fox 1989-) that didn't involve writer/producer Seth MacFarlane; the series was renewed for a fifth season in the summer of 2013, before the fourth season had even begun airing.