"The Life & Times of Tim" star was made for a cartoon

When fans and advocates of Steve Dildarian speak admiringly of his distinctive voice, they are usually referring to the wry, resigned writing style that helped him get his new HBO animated series, "The Life & Times of Tim." But his speaking voice probably helped, too.

In person, it's hard not to imagine Dildarian, 38, a former advertising copywriter who is the creator, writer and off-camera star of "Tim," as the subject of a cartoon. He has the mildly disheveled look of a "Peanuts" character, and when he speaks, in a tone that evokes a blend of Ray Romano and Jim Henson, he often sounds as if he is stalling for time.

Here, for example, is how he described the terrible day he spent working as a telemarketer, not long after graduating from college:

"I was selling, ahhh, meat — frozen meat that people would put in their basement freezer. If people do that, I guess they do. Ahhh. Calling and saying: 'Hey, I'm Steve from Country Fresh Farm. Ahhh. You want to buy some frozen meat?' "

Now that he is well beyond such dead-end jobs, he has channeled that same halting delivery and "why me?" attitude into "Tim," which airs Sundays on HBO. He provides the voice of the luckless but unflappable title character and subjects him to far greater indignities. When Tim attends a wedding, he somehow ends up lewdly groping the octogenarian grandmother of the bride. And when Tim's girlfriend takes her parents home to meet him, they find him on the couch with an irate prostitute.

"I'm always looking to write something that just has so much conflict, it's unbearable," Dildarian explained.

Unlike his cartoon alter ego, Dildarian has enjoyed a life and a career relatively free of torment. His advertising portfolio includes many television commercials.

He has also helped create several Super Bowl ad campaigns, including one with the Budweiser lizards scheming to get rid of the ubiquitous Budweiser frogs. The lizards "hated them so much, kind of like we did as writers," Dildarian said.