He is a nerd with a large frontal cowlick who obsessed with banal popular culture, especially Wheel of Fortune and its host, Pat Sajak. He also loves to play the triangle which for him consists with playing a recorded musical piece, striking the triangle once, and then wildly dancing to the recording.
After achieving popularity on SNL, Grimley became a cartoon character in the animated show The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley. In each episode, Grimley would have an adventure of some sort, interspersed with science lessons from The Amazing Gustav Brothers, and a 'scary story' presented as a show-within-a-show by Grimley's favourite television host: Count Floyd.