Colin Andrew Mochrie was born November 30, 1957 in Kilmarnack, Scotland. His father was an airline maintenance executive, so naturally his family moved a lot. In 1964, he and his family moved to Montreal, and then in 1969, moved to Vancouver.
Colin was very shy as a child and was considered a loner. This changed when he was 16 years old and was dared by friends to join the high school play. Colin played an undertaker and after splitting his pants on stage, he realized that he liked making people laugh.
Colin went to theater school for four years and was able to get work through the Vancouver Theatresports league. Colin met Ryan Stiles when he was introduced to him by a friend. He then auditioned for The Second City in Toronto where Ryan worked at the time and became a member of the improv comedy troupe. It was also because of Second City that Colin met his wife, Debra McGrath, who was a member of Second City at the time. They married in 1989 and have one son named Luke who was born in 1991.
When Colin first tried out for “Whose Line is it Anyway?” in 1991, he was rejected. Ryan convinced him to tryout again and made it on the show because, according to Colin, Ryan “probably forced them to hire him”.
Colin has had many appearances in television and movies. He had a small role in a movie entitled “The Real Blonde” with Kathleen Turner and Matthew Modine. He also appeared in the movie “Adventures in the Forbidden Zone”, a 3D space epic where he captures Molly Ringwald and speaks his famous line “You can ask the chemist”.
On television, he has appeared in the show “Downtown Saturday Night”, a sketch-comedy/talk show in Vancouver. He has also guest-starred on “The Drew Carey Show” as “Eugene” and starred in a show called “Supertown Challenge”, a spoof of small towns, as Dick Powell. His most notable television role is of course as a member of the show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” which now appears on ABC after a long run in the UK. Colin has won two Canadian Comedy Awards in 2000 and 2001 for best male improviser and best male performance in a television series. Colin has also done voiceover work for “Seven Little Monsters” and also done the voice of a sexually ambiguous alligator along with his wife who played a hyena. Most recently, Colin has appeared in commercials as the “Retirement” character who runs into some bad luck.
Salute to Whose Line 