Thomas Francis Wilson Jr. started his career in 1984 with appearances in the TV series ‘Knight Rider’ and ‘The Facts of Life.’
Wilson made his feature film debut in the martial arts film ‘Ninja Turf’ (1985), following which he landed his breakthrough role as the antagonist ‘Biff Tannen’ in the hit sci-fi comedy-adventure film ‘Back to the Future’ (1985). He reprised the role in sequels ‘Back to the Future Part II’ (1989), Part III (1990), and the animated TV series (1991-1992), and also played ‘Griff Tannen’ (Biff’s grandson), and ‘Buford ‘Mad Dog’ Tannen’ (Biff’s great-grandfather). These role(s) earned him popularity, while ‘Part III’ fetched ‘Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.’
Wilson played the lead in the black comedy mystery slasher film ‘April Fool’s Day’ (1986), followed by the action film ‘Let’s Get Harry’ (1986). He appeared in the action film ‘Action Jackson’ (1988), the comedy film ‘High Strung’ (1991), and the crime drama ‘Blood In Blood Out’ (1993). In 1994, he featured in the erotic thriller ‘Caroline at Midnight’ and the adventure comedy film ‘Camp Nowhere,’ followed by the family comedy ‘Born to be Wild’ (1995), and the mystery comedy ‘That Darn Cat’ (1997).
As a voice actor, he voiced ‘a gangster’ in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ (1992), a ‘police-detective’ in ‘Gargoyles’ (1995-1996), and ‘Todd ‘Maniac’ Marshall’ in ‘Wing Commander Academy’ (1996), based on ‘Wing Commander franchise.’ He provided voice for the sci-fi series ‘Max Steele’ (2000-2001), the movie ‘Atlantis: Milo’s Return’ (2003), TV series ‘The Spectacular Spiderman’ (2008), ‘Dragons: Riders of Berk’ (2012-2016), ‘Pig Goat Banana Cricket’ (2015-2018), ‘Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia’ (2016-2018) and the film ‘Trollhunters movie’ (2021). He provided various voices as recurrent cast-member for the animation comedy ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ (2001-present), and also its movie in 2004.
Wilson starred in the comedy drama TV series ‘Freaks & Geeks’ (1999-2000), ‘Ghost Whisperer’ (2006-2008), ‘Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous’ (2003), ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ (2018-2019), and made guest appearances in numerous series.
Wilson’s other movie appearances include the 2006 film ‘Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector,’ and ‘Zoom,’ then ‘The Informant’ and ‘House Broken’ (both 2009), ‘Atlas Shrugged Part II’ (2012), ‘The Heat’ (2013) amongst others. He was host of the podcast ‘Big Pop Fun’ (2011-2014) and vlogs on YouTube. He also provides voice as ‘Cecil Star’ in the animated comedy TV series ‘The Patrick Star Show’ (2021-present).