Seth Green

Is Seth Green the new hardest-working man in show business? Consider his workload :

• NBC buddy sitcom Four Kings premieres Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET/PT), with Green as one of four longtime pals who share a sprawling Manhattan apartment.

• He provides the vocal chops for Chris Griffin and other characters on Fox’s comedy Family Guy.

• And Green’s passion project, Robot Chicken, a parody using toys and stop-motion animation, returns to Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim with 20 new episodes April 2. The first season is due on DVD March 28.

"I don’t know when the guy sleeps," Adult Swim’s Keith Crofford says. The answer: "I’m tired all the time, but I’m getting the work done," Green says in a phone interview while shuttling between the Kings and Robot sets.

Explaining his cult following, the 5-foot-4 redhead sounds like someone who has spent 23 of his 31 years in showbiz: "I’ve worked on a bunch of projects that connect with really loyal niche markets." Translation: rabid fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Austin Powers and comic-geek-chic projects such as puppet parody Greg the Bunny and Freshmen, a comic about "kids who get near-useless superpowers," he says. "It’s been weird of late because I’ve gotten to do a bunch of things that got a lot of attention."

Green chalks up his career to "a series of good fortunes. I was in the right places at the right time."

His career began at age 8 in The Hotel New Hampshire. He moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles at 16 and snared several movie roles, including a young version of Woody Allen in Radio Days.

But he hit it big in Austin Powers as Dr. Evil’s son, Scott, followed with 2003’s Italian Job. His proudest role is that of a club kid in Party Monster, which earned less than $1 million.

"If there’s one through-line to every part I play, I look for (characters) that are not your typical person," Green says. "They have some kind of flaw or fault or grievance," and "they’re characters you might not like." Take Four Kings’ Barry: "This guy’s a grouchy, angry, embittered self-saboteur, but he’s not hateful. "

In another case of good timing, the Kings gig "fell into my lap," Green says. A guest spot on Will & Grace yielded an offer from producer Max Mutchnick.

"We couldn’t find anyone to play the part because the guy’s a crank, and (yet) you want him to be likable," Mutchnick says. Green "comes prepared, he never complains, and he elevates the material."

Robot Chicken, which uses specially made action figures, began as a short film for a 2001 appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, then became a series of short films before Adult Swim beckoned. Green "has an encyclopedic knowledge of toys and has been collecting them for so long he’s never at a loss for what to do with G.I. Joe or Thundercats," Crofford says.