Background
Finnerty was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in the small town of Bath, New New York
Finnerty was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in the small town of Bath, New New York
He attended Emerson College in Boston.
Gloria Steinem officiated the ceremony. The couple has one daughter, Samia Najimy Finnerty, born December 1996. He created and is the lead singer of the cult hit group The Dan Band.
His show, Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band: I Am Woman, was filmed as a one-hour concert special on Cable television"s Bravo channel, directed by McGrath and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.
Finnerty is best known for his foul-mouthed rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as the wedding singer at Will Ferrell"s wedding in the movie Old School, directed by Todd Phillips, who continued to feature Dan, using him as the sleazy bat-mitzvah singer in Starsky & Hutch and again as the irreverent wedding singer in The Hangover. After seeing The Dan Band, Steven Spielberg cast him in The Terminal.
Finnerty has also been seen in the films "The Wedding Planner" and Rock of Ages and originated the role of Lonny in the world premiere of "Rock of Ages" in Los Los Angeles He has released The Dan Band Live, the full-length Civil Defense of his live show, which Entertainment Weekly dubbed "the hottest ticket in Hollywood." He also released a holiday album called Ho: A Dan Band Christmas.
The album consists completely of original Dan Band songs.
Songs on the album include "Ho, Ho, Ho" (a smooth Rhythm & Blues Christmas song about a prostitute) "Merry Christmakwanzakah," "Please Don"t Bomb Nobody This Holiday," and "I Wanna Rock U Hard This Christmas" whose video featured Florence Henderson from The Brady Bunch making the moves on Santa at a retirement home. The video for "Please Don"t Bomb Nobody This Holiday" featured many celebrity cameos, including Sheryl Crow, Christina Applegate, Nicole Scherzinger from The Pussycat Dolls, Kyle Gass from Tenacious Doctorate, Neil Patrick Harris, Meg Ryan, Macy Gray, Christopher Guest, among others They"ve been the house band on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Pajama Party, and Spike television"s Spike Guys" Choice Awards 2009, and wrote and performed the finale song for the final season of Last Comic Standing as well as numerous appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show, Last Call with Carson Daly, and Civil Defense United States of America. He has guest-starred on numerous television shows and he voiced Wallow in Random! Cartoons and the singing Prince in The Princess and the Pea.
Dan was also a recurring correspondent on the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
He was a member of the hit off-Broadway show Stomp in New York City.