Dave Gruber Allen
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Dave "Gruber" Allen (born 1958, Naperville, Illinois) is an American actor and comedian. He earned his nickname in high school when a classmate's greeting of "What's up, groover?" gradually became "Gruber." He is a graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and first gained attention as part of the comedy team The Higgins Boys and Gruber alongside Steve Higgins and David Anthony Higgins.
He is perhaps best known for playing guidance counselor Jeff Rosso in the Judd Apatow-produced drama series Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000), appearing in all 18 episodes. He also portrayed the Naked Trucker in the Comedy Central series The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show (2007), played Mr. Kwest in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, and had a recurring role as the town troubadour in Gilmore Girls.
In Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Allen appeared as the Electrocuted Ghost, the specter that haunts the Seward Street Subway Station. According to the lore of the film, the ghost is that of the first prisoner executed by electric chair at an Upper East Side prison whose site the station was later built over. Rowan North energized the ghost with a Hyper-Ionization Device, causing it to manifest and attack Patty Tolan and Erin Gilbert. The character is also known by the alternate names Sparky and Wes Pinker. Allen was covered in heavy prosthetics and blue lighting rigs for the shoot; the filming of the subway sequence was described by Melissa McCarthy and Kristin Wiig as one of the more unsettling moments of production, and Allen reportedly gave them a few good shoves during the scene. Zero VFX handled the visual effects on the character.