Tim Bennett grew up in Detroit, Topeka, Hobbs and Phoenix. He sold his first joke to The National Enquirer at age 12. He attended Central High School and played bass in The Flatworms with singer/songwriter Andrew Creighton. He attended the University of Arizona, where he performed in a college sketch comedy troupe whose membership has included Graham Elwood, Paul Goebel, Michael Hartigan, Peter Murrieta, Jim Bruce, John Patrick Nelson, Bob Rubin, Timothy Gassen, Marlowe Weisman, Ted Sroka, Nicole Randall Johnson, Alex Baze and Micah Wright. In the early 90s, he worked at The Second City in Chicago as a box-officer, archivist, home theatre installer, stage manager, assistant director, creative consultant, and a writer and director of short films and TV pilots for the improvisational theatre. His first Hollywood gigs were as background atmosphere on Melrose Place (1992) and "Party of Five " (1994)_.