--- name: "Eric Petersen" canonical: "https://film.one/person/eric-petersen" fi1m_id: "eric-petersen" imdb_id: "nm3866761" tmdb_id: 1359909 roles: ["Actor"] reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 75 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-10-07T19:29:42.474426+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Eric Petersen ## Identity Eric Petersen - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/eric-petersen - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** eric-petersen - **IMDb ID:** nm3866761 - **TMDB ID:** 1359909 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3866761/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1359909 Actor. Born in Carol Stream, Illinois, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Active:** 2018–present - **Also known as:** Eric T. Petersen - **Average Fi1m score:** 75, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 79 (1), 2020s 74 (2) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 75 to 74 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 1 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Comedy 3, Drama 3, Western 1 - **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films - **Elsewhere:** https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3866761/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1359909 ## Streaming the US now - **AMC+:** [*Kevin Can F**K Himself*](https://film.one/tv/kevin-can-f-k-himself.md) (70) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Eric Petersen > A stage clown who plays the sitcom husband straight. In *Kevin Can F**k Himself* he commits completely to a man the series despises, and the commitment is the performance. What he does without a studio audience is still an open question. Kevin McRoberts sits on his sofa under the flat bright light of a three-camera sitcom, and brays. Eric Petersen plays him big and plays him straight: the chest out, the hands wide, the certainty of a man who has never once been told he was wrong and would not have heard it. He has said that his two models were Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden and Peter Griffin, and you can see both. Then the series cuts to his wife alone in the kitchen, shot with one camera and no laughter, and the same man is still in the next room, still shouting. Petersen never winks at us. That is the whole trick, and it depends on him. He came to it from the stage, and from a particular kind of stage part. After a theatre degree from Bradley University in 2003 he toured as William Barfee in *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee*, understudied Shrek on Broadway and then played him on the first national tour of *Shrek the Musical* (2010 to 2011), took over Dewey Finn in *School of Rock* (2016) and originated Brick in *Escape to Margaritaville* (2018). Big men, loud rooms, an audience to hit. Television gave him Arlo Barth in *Kirstie* (2013 to 2014) and a small part as a boarder in the Coens' *The Ballad of Buster Scruggs* (2018). He has also taught multi-camera acting, which is the sort of detail that explains a performance: Kevin is not a parody of the form by someone who dislikes it. It is the form, done properly, by someone who loves it. That is why it works. In our review we called it total commitment to a part the series holds in contempt, and said it was a harder job than it looks; we stand by that. A lesser actor would have softened Kevin, or signalled his own distance from him, and either would have broken the series. Petersen gives Valerie Armstrong's idea a solid object to push against, and Annie Murphy's Allison and Mary Hollis Inboden's Patty something to walk away from. We laughed at him in the first run and felt grubby about it, which is what the series wanted; by the end of the second run we had stopped laughing at Kevin altogether, and the final episodes give Petersen something to play beyond the braying, which we will not describe. It felt earned. The caveat is the frame. For most of sixteen episodes Kevin is kept in one room and one register, and our complaint that he stays on the sofa too long is a complaint about the writing, not the man on it. We have only ever seen Petersen inside a structure built to make us dislike him, and he has been very good at that. Whether there is a quieter actor underneath, one who can hold a scene with no studio audience and no bray, we do not yet know. We would like someone to find out. ## Biography Eric Petersen is an American actor. Born in Carol Stream, Illinois, he studied acting at Bradley University and began his career on stage in New York, appearing in multiple Broadway productions and originating the title role in the first US national tour of *Shrek The Musical* (2010). He is best known for his starring role as Kevin McRoberts in the AMC series *Kevin Can F**k Himself* (2021–2022). Petersen has also appeared in guest roles on series including *The Big Bang Theory* (2014), *Modern Family* (2011), *NCIS* (2016), *Chicago Fire* (2012) and *CSI: Crime Scene Investigation* (2014), and provided voice work for *Madagascar: A Little Wild* (2020–2022). He has worked extensively in both television and theatre. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *The Curse* (2023), Fi1m 77, as Dennis — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-curse.md) - *Kevin Can F**K Himself* (2021), Fi1m 70, as Kevin McRoberts — [page](https://film.one/tv/kevin-can-f-k-himself.md) - *The Ballad of Buster Scruggs* (2018), Fi1m 79, as Boarder (segment "The Gal Who Got Rattled") — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-buster-scruggs.md) ## Complete filmography (25) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Beauty* (2026), series, as Gunther Forst — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-beauty.md) - *Universal Basic Guys* (2024), series, as (voice) - *Surprised to See Me?* (2024), as Bobby October - *The Curse* (2023), series, as Dennis — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-curse.md) - *High Desert* (2023), series, as Owen - *Erin & Aaron* (2023), series, as Fritz - *Madagascar: A Little Wild - Holiday Goose Chase* (2021), as Ant'ney - *Kevin Can F**K Himself* (2021), series, as Kevin McRoberts — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/tv/kevin-can-f-k-himself.md) - *Madagascar: A Little Wild - A Fang-Tastic Halloween* (2020), as Ant'ney / Earl Hedgie (voice) - *Madagascar: A Little Wild* (2020), series, as Ant'ney (voice) - *Sydney to the Max* (2019), series, as Don - *The Ballad of Buster Scruggs* (2018), as Boarder (segment "The Gal Who Got Rattled") — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-buster-scruggs.md) - *Groomzilla* (2018), as Scoot - *Naughty & Nice* (2014), as Jonah - *The Brittany Murphy Story* (2014), as Simon Monjack - *Kirstie* (2013), series, as Arlo Barth - *Chicago Fire* (2012), series, as Shep - *GCB* (2012), series, as Angus Horvath - *Jessie* (2011), series, as Dr. Cyrus Van Adams - *Modern Family* (2009), series, as Tree Salesman — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/tv/modern-family.md) - *The Big Bang Theory* (2007), series, as Eric — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-big-bang-theory.md) - *NCIS* (2003), series, as 'Pale' Dale Matteson — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/tv/ncis.md) - *CSI: Crime Scene Investigation* (2000), series, as Todd Burris - *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* (1999), series, as Jake - *Law & Order* (1990), series, as Anderson Leavitt — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md) ## Gallery - ![Eric Petersen](https://film.one/media/person/836671/gallery-5e67b3772507.jpg) Eric Petersen — Image via TMDB - ![Eric Petersen](https://film.one/media/person/836671/gallery-4910aecef751.jpg) Eric Petersen — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/eric-petersen