Nick Bakay

A native of Buffalo, New York, Bakay received his MFA in acting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and spent the early part of his career as a stage actor. By the late '80s, however, he started focusing on comedy writing and quickly landed a paid gig as a contributing editor for the respected magazine National Lampoon. Bakay wrote faux letters to the editor for the magazine, and was the creative force behind National Lampoon's "Evil Clown" comic. The success of "Evil Clown" earned him the attention of Hollywood, and by the early '90s Bakay was lending his comedic chops to the writing staffs of "In Living Color" and "The Dennis Miller Show," for which he also served as announcer and Miller's onscreen comic foil. It was also during this time that he began landing guest spots on sitcoms like "Seinfeld," "Ellen" (ABC 1994-98) and "Murphy Brown" (CBS 1988-1998). In addition to his screen acting, Bakay also began doing credited voice over work, most notably as the sardonic talking cat Salem Saberhagen on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" and Norbert Foster Beaver on Nickelodeon's "The Angry Beavers" (1997-2006). Bakay's career in TV comedy continued to rise throughout the 2000s, with both writing and acting credits on "The King of Queens" and "'Til Death" (FOX 2006-10), as well as an additional turn writing feature comedies like "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (2009) and "Zookeeper" (2011). Already three decades into his career, Bakay wrote, acted in and executive produced the CBS sitcom "Mom," in the fall of 2013. The show, starring Anna Faris and Alison Janney as a dysfunctional mother and daughter, was a surprise critical hit, and was renewed for a second season in March 2014, with Bakay continuing to serve on the show in a full capacity.