Overview of SmartLess with Nick Kroll
In this SmartLess episode, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett chat with comedian, actor, writer, and producer Nick Kroll about his comedy origins, career pivots, family background, and current projects. The conversation is loose, funny, and highly personal, moving from daily routines and pop-culture obsessions to the creative process behind Big Mouth, his upcoming animated series Mating Season, and the long path that brought him into comedy.
Key Topics Discussed
Morning routines and the hosts’ usual chaos
- The hosts open with their trademark banter about age, coffee, sports, and how each of them starts the day.
- Jason describes watching baseball games on fast-forward, checking fantasy scores, and doing Wordle-style games in the morning.
- They joke about news being depressing and how they try to structure mornings to avoid a bad mood.
Nick Kroll’s comedy origins
- Kroll talks about bombing at a Georgetown campus comedy competition, then getting pulled into a sketch opportunity that changed his life.
- He studied history, with minors in art and Spanish, but says comedy and improv quickly became the only thing he wanted to do.
- He credits early exposure to UCB and improv in New York as the point where he knew he’d found his path.
His career path and collaborations
- Kroll reflects on working across many formats: sketch, stand-up, animation, TV, and film.
- The hosts praise his range and note that he keeps many projects moving at once instead of focusing on just one lane.
- They discuss his collaborations with:
- John Levenstein
- Mike Birbiglia
- Mitch Hurwitz
- John Mulaney
- Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes on past projects
Big Mouth and the “Maury” voice confusion
- A major part of the episode is a deep dive into Big Mouth.
- Kroll explains how the show came from his own friendship with co-creator Andrew Goldberg, whom he met in first grade.
- He clears up a long-running misconception: many people think Will Arnett voices Maury the Hormone Monster, but Kroll says he voices Maury himself.
- He explains that Maury’s voice came from a previous character he developed on Kroll Show.
Upcoming project: Mating Season
- Kroll previews Mating Season, the follow-up to Big Mouth.
- He describes it as an animated series about animals dating, mating, and falling in love in the woods.
- The show is made with the same core creative team and features a cast including Zach Woods, June Diane Raphael, Sabrina Jalees, and others.
Family background and his father’s unusual career
- Kroll discusses growing up in Rye, New York, in a financially comfortable but non-showbiz family.
- His father built a business focused on risk mitigation, investigations, and tracking hidden fortunes tied to dictators and major political figures.
- He jokes that the internet loves speculating about his father’s work, and the hosts marvel at how unusual and fascinating it is.
Childhood, food rules, and quitting smoking
- Kroll shares that he grew up in a conservative Jewish household with strict food habits.
- He talks about having one junk-food day a year growing up.
- He also describes going to hypnotherapy to quit smoking, including tapes that focused on replacing cigarettes with snacks.
Personal life and parenting
- Kroll says he now has two kids, and his life choices are increasingly shaped by wanting to be present as a parent.
- He tells a sweet story about his young son referring to Jason as “the voice of Nick” from Zootopia.
- He also shares that Harry Styles helped him plan his proposal to his wife, Lily.
Notable Takeaways
- Kroll’s career has been built on range, adaptability, and constant collaboration rather than one narrow specialty.
- He describes his ideal strategy as keeping multiple projects at different stages so he can stay creative while maintaining family flexibility.
- The episode highlights how much of his work comes from personal relationships and long-running creative friendships.
- Despite all the success, Kroll comes across as humble, energized, and still deeply playful about comedy.
Projects Mentioned
- Big Mouth
- Mating Season
- Kroll Show
- Sit Down, Shut Up
- Little Big Boy
- Voice roles in animation, including Sing and Sausage Party
- Zootopia references came up during a family anecdote
Tone of the Conversation
- Fast-paced, improvisational, and very affectionate
- Heavy on inside jokes, teasing, and callbacks
- Equal parts career retrospective and personal hangout