John McEnroe plays John McEnroe, and has done in films for more than twenty years. As the narrator of Never Have I Ever the joke about his temper grew into something like a performance, and it is the one piece of his work we would send you to.
Fi1m perspective
A teenage girl loses her temper, and the voice describing it belongs to a man famous for losing his on a tennis court. That is the whole idea behind John McEnroe's narration in Never Have I Ever, Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher's high-school comedy, and on paper it sounds like a joke for one episode. The first episode gives its reason, which we will leave it to give. The series then keeps him for all four seasons, and it is right to.
He retired from tennis in 1994 and began turning up in films as himself in the early 2000s. Adam Sandler had him in Mr. Deeds (2002), Anger Management (2003) and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008). He is in Ocean's Eight (2018) and in Only Murders in the Building (2021). The part is the same each time, John McEnroe, and the job is to be recognised and then to leave before anyone has to think about him. It is a living, and it is not acting.
The narration is different because nobody asks him to pretend. He is a famous man saying what he thinks about a girl who is rude, greedy for attention and quick to anger, and because he was all three in public for years the commentary carries no superiority. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan does the hard work on screen, playing Devi's fury as grief looking for somewhere to go, and McEnroe's voice sits on top of it without smothering it. Over four seasons it settles into something almost tender. When the series hands the microphone to a guest narrator for an episode in the second season, we missed him more than we expected to, and the substitution showed how much of the show's tone he had been quietly holding up.
The Dink (2026) is the other side of the ledger. It is a pickleball comedy in which Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen make agreeable company and the jokes run short, and McEnroe is credited as himself. Our review did not find a reason to mention him, which is the risk of the walk-on: if the film around you is thin, so are you. His screen career is almost entirely cameos and voice work, and the cameos leave no mark.
Somebody should give him more to say. He has proved, once, that a temper everyone remembers can be turned into a point of view, and that a point of view is worth more than a face in a crowd scene. Until then, the narration is the thing.
Biography
John McEnroe is an American former professional tennis player and television commentator who has also appeared in films and television series, usually playing himself.
Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, he was ranked world No. 1 in men's singles by the ATP for 170 weeks and in doubles for 269 weeks. After retiring from competition he has worked as a commentator and taken cameo roles in productions including Ocean's Eight (2018), You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), Anger Management (2003), Mr. Deeds (2002), Jack and Jill (2011), Wimbledon (2004) and the series Only Murders in the Building and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
He appears as himself in the 2026 film The Dink.
