After cutting his teeth in Madison playing with Clyde Stubblefield and ComedySportz, he worked for Second City, The Annoyance Theater, and ImprovOlympic in Chicago. He performed at the Dublin Theater Festival, scored the cult-classic Fatty Drives The Bus (Troma), and toured Iceland with Sugar Cubes drummer Siggi Baldursson. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin/Madison with a BA in English, he completed the University of Southern California's graduate program specializing in composition for motion pictures and television. From there he scored the first season of Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade in New York.