Brian "B Dawg" Dunkleman (born September 25 1971 in Ellicottville, New York) is a comedian and actor. He is best known for failing to re-join co-host Ryan Seacrest after the first season of American Idol on the Fox Network.

Les and Jane Dunkleman were the proud parents of nine children; and then Brian was born. Due to a desire to have his parents one day address him by the correct name, Brian started doing stand up comedy in 1992. That year he won the "Buffalo's Funniest New Comedian Contest". Granted, the contest was voted on by the audience and he brought 50 people with him, but that's not important. The point is, he never looked back. Since then he's performed at HBO's US comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, on the "Tonight Show", NBC's "Late Friday", and TBS"s "Very Funny at the Laugh Factory". He has had acting roles on several hit television shows such as "Friends", "3RD Rock From the Sun", "That 70's Show", and "NYPD Blue", for which his performance was mentioned in TV Guide's "Cheers" section. Brian was the voice of 'Stanford' on the MTV animated series "3South", as well as characters on "The Family Guy" and "Proud Family". Most notably Brian hosted the first season of "American Idol", and since then has hosted pilots for VH1 and FOX, and has acted in pilots for ABC and 20th Century Fox. He recently finished acting in his first feature film "Comedy Hell" with Eric Roberts. Brian has also guest starred on the late night hit "Talk Show with Spike Fereston", "The Ghost Whisperer", & "Las Vegas". Brian can also be seen doing stand up regularly in Los Angeles at the Laugh Factory and Improv, as well as comedy clubs all over the country. He makes regular appearances as the host of "Family Feud Live" in Las Vegas and Atlantic City for Fremantle Media. You can also currently tune into Brian on Fox's "American Idol Rewind".