Growing up Becker meant participation in athletics was non-negotiable. His parents enrolled him in everything as a kid, but he chose to focus on swimming in middle school because it had the funniest uniform and also because his long frame and big feet lent him a certain ease in the water. He was no Michael Phelps, but he was decent enough to get a scholarship offer from Chapel Hill. His grades, however, got him accepted into Rutgers and without really giving it much thought at all, he chose Rutgers. What the fuck was he going to do in North Carolina anyway? Pass.

New Brunswick was a good choice for him. He and 10 of his friends pledged Phi Sigma Kappa, saving the university's nu tetaron chapter from the chopping block. It wasn't exactly Animal House, but it got them out of the dorms. His real brotherhood came with the founding of campus improv group 'unKle Sandwich' where he did what is stil some of the weirdest and most wonderful work he's done to date. He'd participated in theater in high school, but performing became a full-blown obsession in college. He also took advantage of opportunities to study abroad, spending semesters studying philosophy and Spanish at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, classical drama at British Academy of Dramatic Arts at Oxford in London, and stilt-walking and circus arts at Frichess Theatre Urbain in Paris.

Though he was well received in several of the school's dramatic productions and he enjoyed learning about classic techniques well enough, it was really always going to be about comedy for J.P. Fortunately, it was 2004. SNL was good again and the path to comedy stardom had been clearly laid out by the likes of Tina Fey, of Steph(v)ens Colbert and Carrell, of Ivy Hartz, and so on-and-so-forth. He moved to Chicago. It just seemed obvious Thus started his double-identity for the next few years. By night, he honed his stand-up game and performed improv wherever he could. During the day, he maintained the disguise of a hung-over legal secretary who regularly barfed in the trash can under his desk. Perfect cover. He waited for Hollywood to come knocking.

It took a little longer than he expected. Setbacks left and right. A bombed SNL audition. A lot of vomit. So much vomit. And then, like pushing a rock up a hill and finally finding the peak, things started to roll for him. In the span of about six months, he landed a network sitcom and a coveted role in a top secret, much buzzed about sci-fi flick from J.J. Abrams. The show became a casualty of the WGA strike, but both it and what turned out to be a fairly successful monster movie garnered him enough attention to keep him in L.A. He packed up his apartment, stuffed his gullet full of deep-dish and Chicago dogs, and headed west.

He's been fortunate enough to find steady employment ever since, most notably as the human star of the most successful talking bear 3D animation hybrid film of all time, Yogi Bear 3D.