Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, and songwriter. He is best known for co-creating the animated television series South Park (since 1997) and the stage musical The Book of Mormon (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone.
Parker was interested in film and music as a child and at high school, and attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where he met Stone. The two collaborated on various short films and co-starred in Parker's feature-length musical Cannibal! The Musical (1993). Parker and Stone moved to Los Angeles, and Parker made his second feature-length film, Orgazmo (1997). Before the premiere of the film, South Park premiered on Comedy Central in August 1997. The duo possess full creative control of the show, and have produced music and video games based on it. A film based on the series, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), was well received by both critics and fans. Parker went on to write, produce, direct, and star in the satirical action film Team America: World Police (2004), and, after several years of development, The Book of Mormon premiered on Broadway to positive reviews.
Parker has received five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on South Park, four Tony Awards and a Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon, and an Academy Award nomination for the song "Blame Canada" from the South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut movie, co-written with Marc Shaiman.
Early life
Randolph Severn Parker III was born in Conifer, Colorado, the son of insurance saleswoman Sharon and geologist Randolph "Randy" Parker II. His nickname "Trey" refers to him being the third generation of his family to be named Randolph Parker.
In the sixth grade, Parker wrote a sketch titled The Dentist and appeared in his school's talent show. He played the dentist and had a friend play the patient. The plot involved what can go wrong at the dentist; due to the amounts of fake blood involved, Parker's parents were called and were upset, with Parker later recalling that "the kindergartners were all crying and freaking out".
Parker has described himself as "the typical big-dream kid" who envisioned a career in film and music. As Evergreen was nationally known for its choir program, Parker was a very popular high school student, connected to his position as the head of the choir. He was typically the lead in school plays and was also prom king.
Following his graduation from Evergreen High School in 1988, Parker spent a semester at Berklee College of Music before transferring to the University of Colorado Boulder. Parker majored in both film and Japanese. During his time there, he took a film class in which students were required to collaborate on projects.
Parker and Stone wrote and acted in many short films together, among those First Date, Man on Mars and Job Application. Parker later remarked that he and Stone would shoot a film nearly every week, but he has since lost most of them.
Career
Career beginnings
Cannibal! The Musical (1992–1994)
In 1992, Parker, Stone, McHugh, and Ian Hardin founded a production company named the Avenging Conscience, named after the D. W. Griffith film by the same name, which all four actively disliked. Parker again employed the cutout paper technique on Avenging Conscience's first production, Jesus vs. Frosty (1992), an animated short pitting the religious figure against Frosty the Snowman.
The quartet created a three-minute trailer for a fictional film titled Alferd Packer: The Musical. The idea was based on an obsession Parker had with Alferd Packer, a real nineteenth-century prospector accused of cannibalism. The trailer became somewhat of a sensation among students at the school, leading Virgil Grillo, the chairman and founder of the university's film department, to convince the quartet to expand it to a feature-length film. Parker—under the pseudonym Juan Schwartz—was the film's star, director and co-producer. They intended to sell video rights to the film for $1 million and spend the remaining $900,000 to create another film.