he is best known for his role as "danny heffernan" on "the king of queens", playing the cousin of principal character doug heffernan (performed by his real-life brother kevin james) for nine seasons. he appeared on the television show "men of a certain age", which was written and directed by ray romano and met with critical acclaim. prior to his run on the series, he starred in his own half-hour special on comedy central and hosted "the x show" on fx.