Crisstopher Rick Chros is the underemployed but generally good-natured boy toy (and eventual husband) of Liz Lemon, played by James Marsden and introduced in season 6. At the end of season 6 episode 1, it is made known that Liz has a boyfriend, but Criss is not formally introduced. Initially meeting with Jack Donaghy's disapproval, Liz stays in the relationship and finds Criss to be a very compatible partner. A desire to adopt a child leads to Criss and Liz's marriage in the season 7 episode Mazel Tov, Dummies!.
Education[]
Criss attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut where he received a degree in Ethnomusicology. He refers to his alma mater as "the Harvard of central Connecticut" to which Liz replies, "Yale is the Harvard of central Connecticut."
Interests and Hobbies[]
Criss plays guitar, sings, and writes songs for Liz often for what he perceives to be romantic occasions. In the season 6 episode Hey Baby, What's Wrong?, Criss wakes Liz on Valentine's Day with a song which he does not completely finish: "Someone thinks you're special, in every single way, I wrote this song to wish you a happy Valentine's Day, And the chorus goes here, yea this is where the chorus goes, didn't have time to write it, but the chorus goes here..."
In the season seven episode Governor Dunston, Criss (in an attempt to make "trying" for a baby more fun) sings Liz a John Mayer-esque song called "Your Body is My Garden of Eden" which Liz interrupts with "I hate you!"
Trivia[]
Ironically, in the fourth season episode "Floyd," Liz Lemon, after receiving news that her ex-boyfriend Floyd DeBarber is getting married, tearfully reveals that she has always thought that she and Floyd's relationship would turn out like a movie in which they end up together and "Christopher Cross sings a song like: All my days I've been waiting, for you to come back home, in the moonlight of New York City." Liz is referring to the 1980s easy listening artist Christopher Cross who enjoyed the joke so much in real life that he eventually composed and recorded a song based on Liz's lyrics titled "Lemon's Theme."
For much of his time in the series, Criss tries to get his small business as a hot dog vendor off the ground, selling them from a van, which he has named Vanderbeek.
Criss Chros' name is also pronounced the same as the 1990s rap/hip hop duo Kriss Kross who are most famous for their hit song "Jump."
Both Liz Lemon and Criss Chros have alliterative names.
In season 4, episode 14 "Future Husband", Liz is talking to Jenna about dating and is horrified talking about the possibility of a guy wearing a thumb ring. In season 6, episode 2 "Idiots Are People Two!", Liz pictures Jack commenting on Criss, to which one of the observations is "Is that a tan line on his thumb? Did Criss used to wear a thumb ring?"