Finnerty was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in the small town of Bath, New York. He attended Emerson College in Boston. He was a member of the hit off-Broadway show Stomp in New York City. In August 1998, he married Actress Kathy Najimy. Gloria Steinem officiated the ceremony. The couple has one daughter, Samia Najimy Finnerty, born December 1996.
The Dan Band appeared numerous times as the house band on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Pajama Party, and Spike TV's Spike Guys' Choice Awards 2009, and wrote and performed the finale song for the final season of Last Comic Standing as well as many appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show and Last Call with Carson Daly'. He has guest-starred on numerous television shows and he voiced Wallow in Random! Cartoons and the singing Prince in The Princess and the Pea.
His newest album "The Wedding Album" was released in 2015 and includes collaborations with Nicole Scherzinger, Rob Thomas, Bridget Everett, Nuno Bettencourt and TRAIN.
In March 2017, AT&T announced that Finnerty would appear in advertisements for DIRECTV during March Madness, co-starring with Greg Gumbel. The spots feature Finnerty performing the Aerosmith song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", with lyrics tailored to each scene (generally people at work while tournament games are on).
