The Actor Who Stars In Avocados From Mexico's Super Bowl 2022 Commercial

Lots of people get excited for the Super Bowl, perhaps the biggest sporting event of each year. Even non-football fans get a little bit excited about the game, either because of the Halftime Show or because of the ads. Yes, Super Bowl commercials have as much of a draw as football does, if not more so.

Advertisers know this better than anyone, as Super Bowl ads are the biggest event for advertisers each year. There is incredibly high demand for advertising during the sporting event, and Front Office Sports says the cost of many of 2022's 30-second spots was about $7 million — a 20% increase since 2018. That's a pretty penny, and NBC is set to rake in the advertising dough, as the official network for both the Super Bowl and the Olympics — two massive sporting events airing at the same time in 2022.

In the digital age, it's important for advertisers to get their ads online, even before the game starts, especially if they can tease their commercial to get folks to tune in. Everyone hopes to get that viral status on their video. This is definitely true in 2022, with Super Bowl LVI airing on February 13. One of the ads already available online is a teaser from Avocados from Mexico, with an actor who will probably look familiar to you, especially if you've spent any time on the late-night talk show circuit in the last few decades.

The Avocados from Mexico teaser features character actor Andy Richter dressed as Julius Caesar. He's looking at himself in the mirror and psyching himself up for the role when he suddenly experiences a bout of Imposter Syndrome. "I'm not even Italian," he says to himself, questioning whether he could play the role. Then he remembers that not only his agent and the Avocados from Mexico people think he's right for the part, so does his therapist. That's enough for him to regain his confidence, saying "Andy, this is the role of a lifetime for you. So let's do this." He happily eats some guacamole, presumably made from the avocados in question.

If you made it through the whole teaser, you'll even hear him say his own name: "Et tu, Andy Richter?" he says, quoting the famous phrase. And we'll have to tune in on February 13 to see the main commercial. But hearing his name may not mean you recognize who he is.

Richter is most famous for being the sidekick to the late-night talk show host, Conan O'Brien — a part he relished from 1993 to 2021. The role of a sidekick is an odd one, having to play off the host without pulling focus from them. "You're just hanging out with funny people and then famous people drop by," he told The New York Times. "And you're supposed to have the feeling of being there and what that's like." And Richter was one of the few left.

While other late-night hosts now have a bandleader doing sidekick duties (Craig Ferguson had a robot skeleton sidekick), or they've removed the sidekick altogether, Conan O'Brien maintained space for Andy Richter on his show. The partnership started in 1993, per The New York Times, when Richter was hired as a writer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Though he left the show after seven years to pursue acting, doing sitcoms like "Quintuplets" and the 2007 series "Andy Barker, P.I." — which was co-written and produced by O'Brien — Richter returned as sidekick and official announcer in 2009 when O'Brien took over "The Tonight Show." Richter also stuck with him as they moved to TBS for "Conan," after the ugly Late Night Wars removed the duo from NBC. He stayed there until "Conan" ended, airing its final episode on June 24, 2021.

Richter played character roles while working with O'Brien, appearing on shows like, "Strangers with Candy," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Arrested Development," "Santa Clarita Diet," and most recently on Hulu's "Love, Victor." He also lent his voice to animated shows and films like "Metalocalypse, "Bob's Burgers," and the "Madagascar" franchise.

Richter is working on a few development projects, per Newsweek, as well as his 2019 podcast "The Three Questions." He also hopes to work with O'Brien again, saying, "We have a few decades left in us and we're gonna eventually reconnoiter and do something." We'll see what they come up with — after his Julius Caesar avocado ad during the Super Bowl, of course.