Brian Michael "Q" Quinn (born March 14, 1976) is an American improvisational comedian and actor. He is a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe consisting of Sal Vulcano, James Murray, and formerly Joe Gatto. Along with Vulcano and Murray, he stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which first premiered in 2011, on TruTV.
Brian Michael Quinn was born on March 14, 1976, in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, but moved to Staten Island at two years old. He is of Irish and Italian ancestry. His mother was born in Italy, and migrated to the U.S. at the age of two. His father is of Irish descent.
Quinn attended Monsignor Farrell High School. Along with Murray, Vulcano, and Gatto, he was a member of his high school's Improvisation Club. He studied at Brooklyn College before joining the New York City Fire Department, where he served for eight years.
Despite not being an initial member of his friends' comedy troupe The Tenderloins, after one of the original members, Mike Boccio, left the group in 2006, Quinn became the troupe's then-fourth member.
The Tenderloins began producing comedy sketches together, posting them on YouTube, Myspace, and Metacafe, accumulating millions of views online. In 2007, the troupe won the $100,000 grand prize in the NBC It's Your Show competition for the sketch "Time Thugs".
Impractical Jokers and other television shows
Impractical Jokers premiered on December 15, 2011, on TruTV. The first season was watched by over 32 million viewers. The show quickly became the most popular series on TruTV, and boosted Quinn into the public eye. During the first two seasons of Impractical Jokers Quinn also continued working as a firefighter, however in 2013 he took a leave of absence and focused all his time on the show. He later recalled in an interview with Forbes Magazine "We shot the pilot in 2010 and shot the season through 2011, so for the first two years of the show, I was still working in the firehouse, which was very difficult to do—shooting a TV show more than 40 hours a week, The fire department commitment was 48 hours a week at least, and that's before you get into overtime or covering for guys who aren't working. So, the first two years of the show were difficult. It was the firehouse and the TV show, so I had to take a leave of absence when we got picked up for Season 3."
Quinn has been doing Impractical Jokers performances (live comedy tours) since 2012.
Quinn had a cameo in the first episode of the second season of 12 Monkeys, which first aired in the US on April 18, 2016.
In 2017, Quinn played Austin in the film Victor Crowley.
In October 2019, Quinn, along with the other members of the Tenderloins, starred in The Misery Index, which is hosted by Jameela Jamil and is based on Andy Breckman's card game "Shit Happens".
Quinn was in the 6th episode of Tacoma FD, 'Full Moon Fever', released on May 2, 2019.
Impractical Jokers: The Movie was released on February 21, 2020.
Quinn had a cameo in the fourth episode of the second season of Star Trek: Picard, which first aired in the US on March 25, 2022. That same year Quinn also made a cameo in the film Clerks III. On the February 10, 2023, episode of AEW Rampage, Quinn and James Murray appeared in a segment where they were beaten down by Chris Jericho and the Jericho Appreciation Society.
Quinn made a cameo in the film Screamboat which was released on April 2, 2025.
He was the executive producer of the TV movie Foul Play with Anthony Davis, which was released in 2025.
Quinn is also a co-host of the podcast Tell 'Em Steve-Dave!, which he hosts with Bryan Johnson and Walt Flanagan. The podcast started in February 2010 with Quinn in the role of the off-mic audio engineer, then shortly after as occasional commentator and ultimately co-host.
The show has won a plethora of awards. In 2010, the show won two Podcast Awards, one for People's Choice and the other as Best Comedy. That same year, the show was named a Best of 2010 audio podcast by iTunes. It won the 2012 Stitcher Award for Best Entertainment & Pop Culture, and the 2nd Annual Kevin Allison Excellence in Podcasting Award.